The New Addiction
Ten years ago 330,000 Americans underwent plastic surgery. This year that number has increased to over 6 million, of which 335,000 are under the age of 18 (So you want a famous face). The increase in numbers of plastic surgeries could be attributed and/or directly proportionate to the increase in extreme makeover shows. According to Charles Cooley, “a person’s sense of self is derived from the perceptions of others.” We will use Charles Cooly’s looking-glass-self theory to argue that mass media has created a social mirror for millions of women, the consequence of which is a “cosmetic surgery addiction”.
Cooly’s looking-glass-self is defined as “a self-concept based on our perception of others judgments of us” (Sociology pg 97). In the year 2000 more than 6.3 million women chose to have cosmetic plastic surgery, which could be a direct result from people watching TV programs such as “Extreme Makeover”, “Swan”, and “Nip/Tuck” (“Less is Really More” Paul Lorenc.. Newsweek). These kinds of shows, combined with the seemingly flawless beauty of Hollywood stars, forms the social mirror by which society judges itself. Under these circumstances certain people begin to see themselves as wanting and not good enough. The answer to their feelings of unattractiveness is fulfilled by plastic surgery more often than not, and when their problem is not fixed by one surgery another is done until an addiction begins to form. In the year 2003, 4.3 million patients undergoing plastic surgery were returning patients (plasticsurgery.org).
We feel Cooly’s theory of the looking-glass-self illustrates why society is addicted to plastic surgery, and why this addiction is due to the media. We believe that the media project images of people that are unrealistic and these images are what we feel we should look like.
In today society, beauty in a woman seems to be the measured of her size, or the structure of her nose and lips. Plastic surgery has become a popular procedure for people, mostly for women, to fit in social class, race, or beauty. Most women are insecure about their body or face, wondering if they are perfect enough for the society to call the beautiful; this is when cosmetic surgery comes in. To fix what “needed” to be fixed. To begin with, there is no point in cutting your face or your body to add or remove something most people call ugly. “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery” explored the desire of human to become beyond perfection by the undergoing plastic surgery. The author, Camille Pagalia, took a look how now days how Americans are so obsessed
People argue whether drug addiction is a disease or a choice. Today, I will be discussing this argument in hopes to have a better understanding as to why this topic is so controversial. Throughout my research, I easily found information on this topic and I am still not sure I have found any answers.
In the 20th century the social psychologist Charles H. Cooley developed this idea of a looking glass. Basically, this idea of a looking-glass is that people derive value from what others think instead of what you think about yourself. The three fundamental points of this idea are: how one’s image appears to others, how one imagines the judgment of appearances, and how one develops the “self” through the other’s judgments. Mai-Anh Tran’s decision to undergo cosmetic surgery may have been her own decision, but it was guided by how others viewed her.
The media has had an increasingly destructive effect on young people who are becoming worryingly obsessed with their body image. The media is saturated in sexual imagery in which young people have to face every day. The sheer volume of sexual imagery in the media today has resulted in the vast majority of young people to become hooked on looking as near to perfection everyday by using the latest products and buying the latest fashions. This used to be enough but lately the next step to achieving perfection is cosmetic surgery. Everyone wants to look attractive, especially teenagers who are not only put under massive strain to succeed but to look beautiful and climb the ranks of the social ladder, and it seems that the only way to achieve the much desired beauty is to turn to drastic measures.
Virginia L. Blum is a professor of English at University of Kentucky. In his essay “Love My Neighbors, Hate Myself: The Vicissitudes of Affect in Cosmetic Surgery,” she examines popular television shows which is about plastic surgery.
Plastic surgery is one of the most growing fields in medicine. Reconstructive surgery is one of the branches from plastic surgery and it is defined as surgeries performed to restore facial and body defects caused by a disease, trauma, burns, or birth defects (Nelson, 2010). When it first started, it focused on helping people who are having difficulty blending in society. For instance, during the Renaissance era, in the late 1700s, doctors worked on enhancing the appearance of patients suffering from the nose deformation caused by syphilis using plastic surgery. Enabling them to blend in society and cover the disease. Also, after World War I, because there were a large number of soldiers with disfiguring injuries, the United States of America relied on plastic surgeries to improve the life of wounded soldiers (Nelson, 2010). The other branch of plastic surgery is cosmetic surgery. This type of surgery is performed to preserve or restore normal appearances, or to enhance it beyond the average level (American Board of Cosmetic Surgery, 2014). For the last couple of years, Plastic surgery marketing has focused massively on cosmetic surgery procedures rather than reconstructive ones. This type of advertising is having negative effects on society by increasing the number of needless procedures, changing the true meaning of beauty, and harming females’ self-esteem.
“Addiction is a brain disease expressed in the form of compulsive behavior,” says by Alan Leshner in his article, “Addiction Is a Brain Disease” featured in the book Drug Abuse: Opposing Viewpoints. Addiction has a variety of meanings depending on what your viewpoint of addiction. According to dictionary.com, the concrete definition of the word addiction is, “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.” Basically various doctors and therapist consider addiction to be a genetic disorder. “Provocative, controversial, unquestionably incomplete, the dopamine hypothesis provides a basic framework for understanding how a genetically encoded trait — such as a tendency to produce too little dopamine — might intersect with environmental influences to create a serious behavioral disorder. Therapists have long known of patients who, in addition to having psychological problems, abuse drugs as well. Could their drug problems be linked to some inborn quirk?” (Nash, and Parker, pg 2 of 8). Along with addiction being possibly a genetic disorder, a minority of scientist believe that the word ‘addiction’ is too broad in its denotation. “If addiction means ‘compulsive, out of control use of a dangerous drug’ is this the same as a person’s being ‘addicted’ to a cell phone? Scientist cannot work or live with this imprecision.” (Erickson, 2 of 253). They believe that the word is misunderstood in denotation. “It is important to correct the common misimpression that drug use, abuse and addiction are points on a single continuum along which one slides back and forth over time, moving from user to addict, th...
Many startling statistics surround the topic of plastic surgery. The strong economy of the 1990's, and the decrease in the average amount of children, is what many credit for the excess income that has allowed for "discretionary spending" on plastic surgery. An opportunity to improve one's self-image at what seems to be a fair deal. Cosmetic surgery fees, as reported by the Sun-Sentinel, range from a modest six thousand for a complete facelift to a meager five hundred for a partial chemical peel. Once you have completed a consultation with the chief surgeon, or a patient coordinator, a financial arrangement is typically available through some type of assistance program. While women make up most patients, (Neimark 9), men represent 13% of current patients. This trend has been on the rise mainly because of the mainstream acceptance society has of plastic surgery. In addition, the expectations of women are strongly based upon their physical beauty, especially in the workplace. Yet some link the psychological need for an acceptable body image to the fact that plastic surgery helps emphasize the feminine and masculine features that many desire. Is this national ob...
“Individuals are encouraged, even expected to make ‘lifestyle’ choices to maximize their life chance and simultaneously held responsible for managing and minimizing the risk associated with these decisions” (Leve, 2012:124). Media discourse is part of everyone’s day to day life, ideals of bodies are shown in all these media communication’s in order to appeal to the consumer. This could be considered to have made society become obsessed by looks, meaning that individuals feel the pressures to keep up with how people are represented in the media, for example recognized celebrities in magazines. According to The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, or BAAPS, there was a 16.5 percent increase of procedures in 2012. These statistics show that cosmetic surgery is becoming normalized, “This is how we live now. Anything that makes us feel better about our appearance, whether it involves needles, knives or acid, is acceptable’ (Wiseman, 2012)
Sometimes teenagers have certain features that can benefit from plastic surgery, but most of the time society makes teenagers have an altered sense of the perfect body image. In reality, the perfect body image is something that does not exist. Plastic surgeons comment about how common it is to meet a young patient who would like to have features of their favorite celebrities. Young women want Jennifer Lopez’s bottom, Jennifer Aniston’s nose, and Britney Spears’ facial features. Young men would like to have Brad Pitt’s facial features. To me, such expectations seem implausible. God made me the way I am. I would not change a thing. But I am sure that at one time the teenagers who are receiving these procedures believed th...
While plastic surgery is definetly a self esteem booster, who started these trends. Instagram models, and celebrities on social media play a huge part in the boost of plastic surgery. With apps like Instagram, snapchat, and twitter we ge get a view into these celebrities daily lives. We see their daily routines and we want to achiev what they have. And as celebrities begin to own up to plastic surgery we begin to see the effects it has on society. A rise in “lip fillers”, “tummy tucks”, breast implants, and butt implants. People want to obtain the look that celebrities have. With the rise in plastic surgery there is also a rise in self esteem as people are closer to the look that others
Flipping through the pages of Vogue's latest edition, 23 year-old Susan seems quite upset. She struggles with the thought of lacking the perfect body and delicate features in order to be considered attractive. Surprisingly, Susan is not alone in this kind of an internal struggle. In contemporary society, every other woman aspires to have the lips of Angelina Jolie and the perfect jaw line of Keira Knightley. Society today looks down upon individuals that do not fit in, whether in terms of body shape or facial attractiveness. This forces them to consider the option of 'ordering beauty.' Since cosmetic surgery is no longer a social taboo in America given its widespread popularity, more people are promoting it which ultimately affects the rest of the world due to the unwavering influence of American culture. Cosmetic surgery should be deterred in the US because it promotes the idea of valuing appearance over ability, gives rise to unrealistic expectations, and brings with it high cost to society.
Cosmetic surgery has become a vital component of modern-day society. It’s good has left the apprehensive glistening with confidence and poise. However, like everything else it’s bad has many times over shadowed and been disputed against. Its ability to replace flaws with ideal body features has left numerous patients with an obsession for the quest of perfection. Individuals go to large magnitudes in order to seek this perfection such as spending irrational amounts of money and for those who cannot afford these surgeries, traveling to different countries in order to get surgeries done. These surgeries that have levitated millions of insecurities have many times left the patient mentally unstable with obsession disorders or physically botched if not done correctly or by an unaccredited surgeon.
“Beauty is only skin deep.” Everyone knows the quote, yet why is it that we still struggle to look our best? Why is it that some women bother to wake up an hour early to do their hair and makeup? Its simple etiquette, some might argue. However, etiquette aside, why is it that twentymillion people in America alone suffer from eatingrelated disorders? Why is it that a 38 inch plastic doll is a little girl’s role model? This is why (visual aid). Magazines, movies, newspaper advertisements, the internet. All of these tend to showcase seemingly thin, beautiful, toned models and celebrities, causing many women in the world to be pressured to have the ‘perfect’ body image, never satisfied with their own bodies and looks and willing to do anything to achieve the ideal image, even if it means having to subject themselves to dieting, hunger and eating disorders. Now, what should blame for this unhealthy obsession that has bloomed among today’s women? Of course it would have to be the media. Don’t get me wrong, there
Ever since the 70s, body image has been heavily influenced on young adults. Trying to fit in and look skinny has always been a big problem. Media has played a huge part in this by showing what they believe being beautiful means. In the 70’s curves lost their popularity and the look to achieve was slim and slender. Making the supermodel Twiggy a big deal; not only because of her beauty, but because of how skinny she was. Making “the average fashion model” at that time 8% thinner than the average woman. Today, that number has risen to 23%” (Derenne 259). Making the 70s the beginning of the “me generation” – an era that saw many bouts of plastic (Klein 39) surgery in an attempt to fit a certain mold of unattainable physicality (Mulvey 165). Extremely high amounts of money were spe...