Cosmetic Surgery Essay

983 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of mass media and advertisement on consumers

Cosmetic surgery is a globally well-known term, which is undertaken to alter and enhance human self-imageand esteem.Cosmetic surgery is different from all other forms of surgeries and is a treatment for “want” rather than for “need”. Along with gaining popularity due to social obsession, it also creates health risks due to invasive surgery. This essay will argue for government control of cosmetic surgery in the areas of advertisement, medical malpractices and human welfare.

Media advertising industry is playing a vital role in an exponential increase in cosmetic surgery. These advertisements need to be regulated that mislead viewers by showing unrealistic programs, for example rapid weight reduction reality shows. Recent data released by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons states that there are more number of aesthetic surgery and weight reduction surgery such as face-lift and liposuction than ever before (as cited in Petrie, Faasse and Fuhrmann, 2008, p.244). According to Crockett, Pruzinsky and Persing, the major reasonbehind this increase is reality television programslike fox’s ‘The Swan’, that attracts viewers by offering various types of discounts, special offers, two for one deal, etc. (as cited inAtiyeh, Rubeiz and Hayek, 2008, p. 835). Crockettet al. depicts that 4 out of 5 patients that undergo cosmetic surgery are regular viewers of reality television programs, which influenced their decision (as cited in Petrie, Faasse and Fuhrmann, 2008, p.245). According to Spilson, Chung, Greenfield and Walters, the reality shows harm viewers by hiding real consequences of complications, infections and failed procedures and thus showing the false picture and misleading audience (as cited in Atiyeh, Rubeiz and Ha...

... middle of paper ...

...O and Figen Özgür. 2007. "Postoperative satisfaction and the patient’s body image, life satisfaction, and self-esteem: A retrospective study comparing adolescent girls and boys after cosmetic surgery." Aesthetic plastic surgery 31 (6): 739-745.

McHale, Jean V. 2012. "Regulating cosmetic surgery: a scalpel where it is needed 21 (3): 190-191.

Mcsherry, Bernadette. 2007. "COSMETIC SURGERY IN AUSTRALIA : A RISKY BUSINESS? 15 (1).

Newell, Brittany L. 2011. "Informed Consent for Plastic Surgery: Does It Cut Deeply Enough?" Journal of Legal Medicine 32 (3): 315-335.

Petrie, Keith J, Kate E Faasse and Sarah AI Fuhrmann. 2008. "Influence of television on demand for cosmetic surgery." Med J Aust 189 (5): 244-5.

Sterodimas, Aris, Henrique N Radwanski and Ivo Pitanguy. 2011. "Ethical issues in plastic and reconstructive surgery." Aesthetic plastic surgery 35 (2): 262-267.

Show More
Related

  • Plastic Surgery and Sir Harold Delf Gillies

    1074 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nordqvist, Christian. “What is Cosmetic Surgery? What is Plastic Surgery?” Medical News Today. 30 June 2009. Web. 13 March 2014.

    Read More

  • The Pitfalls Of Plastic Surgery By Camille Pagalia

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Media Influence Over Body Image

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Aesthetic And Cosmetic Surgery

    2694 Words  | 6 Pages

    Aesthetic, cosmetic, or commonly referred to by the layman as plastic surgery refers to a range of operations performed in order to repair or restore body parts to look normal or to enhance a particular structure or anatomy that is already regular as a fully functioning body part. The demand for this form of surgery has undergone an increasing trend in recent years, as various societies’ cultures have become more concerned with external human image and appearance. These growths in demand for aesthetic plastic surgery and the advocacy of practice in the media have invited concerns about the ethical aptness and permissibility of this medical procedure (Sterodimas, Radwanski, & Pitanguy, 2011). Advanced research, and novel technologies derived from such research, almost always raises ethical and moral considerations. It is essential to create an educated and well-informed public about the ethical issues in this field of medical study. This paper seeks to investigate and illustrate the ethical considerations that are in relation with the implementation and adaptation of cosmetic surgery, ranging from those that are related to injuries sustained from traumatic accidents to those that are purely initiated for enhancement purposes by individuals for various reasons. Also, various perspectives toward the issue of cosmetic surgery will be illustrated and discussed with respect to the basic normative theories in order to allow the evaluation of its moral correctness from various viewpoints.

    Read More

  • The Influence Of Cosmetic Surgery

    1182 Words  | 3 Pages

    The advertisement of cosmetic surgery can be seen just about anywhere today. Driving down the street it is advertised on billboard ads, listening to the radio it is advertised by radio spokespersons, while surfing the net it appears in pop up ads, even social media is flooded with cosmetic surgery advertisement, and with the vast majority of those who surf the net, and use social medial on a regular basis it lures, thousands of teens on a daily basis, and increases the number of likely candidates for such

    Read More

  • plastic surgery advertisment

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plastic surgery advertisement increases the number of unnecessary procedures performed by attracting people who are vulnerable or unsatisfied with how they look Rather than targeting the people in need. Most ads contain images that stimulate the need to change a person’s appearance or change their lives. They contain phrases like “before” and “after” with images of depressed...

    Read More

  • Female Body Image and the Mass Media

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sullivan, Deborah A. "Tightening the Bonds of Beauty." Cosmetic Surgery: The Cutting Edge of Commercial Medicine in America. N.p.: Rutgers UP, 2001. N. pag. Print.

    Read More

  • Plastic Surgery: Should It Be Banned?

    669 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some people’s obsession with plastic surgery is obviously getting out of control. It starts with only getting one thing fixed or corrected but then quickly escalates and before you know it, a face that once was all-flesh turns into plastic. According to a study conducted by Nigel Mercer (2009), “The number of official cosmetic surgeries has more than tripled to 34,000 since 2003”. The two reasons why plastic surgery should be banned are because of its high health risks, and because of the additional pressure it puts on people to look picture-perfect.

    Read More

  • Cosmetic Surgery Essay

    3256 Words  | 7 Pages

    “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)

    Read More

  • Cosmetic Surgery - No Longer Only For the Rich and Famous

    1399 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cosmetic surgery companies offer many options in which to finance cosmetic procedures for individual of all income levels. There were over 10 million surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures performed in the United States in 2008, as reported by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). (Surgery, 2009) The statistic mentioned, clearly shows how many of us now would be willing to undergo cosmetic surgery. But, have you asked why? In today’s society, plastic surgery is the number one chosen alternative decision for the augmentation of physical appearance, scar repair and for the repair of a deformity, whether it be a birth defect or disfigurement from an accident.

    Read More

  • Informative Speech: The Negative Effects Of Cosmetic Surgery

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nowadays, since the number of procedures increases, cosmetic surgery has rapidly developed all over the world. According to an annual report of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) in 2015, the United States is the biggest market of cosmetic surgery in the world. Near 16 million cosmetic procedures were performed in the U.S. in 2015, with the five most common surgeries being breast augmentation, nose reshaping, eyelid surgery, liposuction and tummy tuck (“Plastic Surgery Procedures”).

    Read More

  • The Unfortunate Prevalence of Cosmetic Surgery

    1968 Words  | 4 Pages

    Turner, L. (2004). Cosmetic surgery: the new face of reality TV [Electronic version]. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 328(7449), p. 1208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.328.7449.1208

    Read More

  • Teenage Cosmetic Surgery

    2340 Words  | 5 Pages

    To many, the notion of a teenager undergoing plastic surgery is appalling and unbelievable. For others, such as eleven-year-old Julia, a nose job was able to help her lead a happier and more normal life. To eighteen-year-old Kristen a breast augmentation is a traditional rite of passage of the family. She claims that she “just wanted to look normal,” and that after surgery, she does. (Sweeny, 2009) In these types of cases, cosmetic surgery can be beneficial to the confidence of teenagers in what Ann Kearney-Cooke calls “an epidemic of low self-esteem among girls.” (Sweeney, 2009) Whether it is a physical deformity, such as protruding ears, or simply a lack of something that other peers have, such as large breasts, cosmetic surgery can help teenagers cope with self-worth in a world where beauty is ridiculously selective. However, aside from the confidence-boosting possibilities resulting from teen cosmetic surgery, there are many reasons why it should not be taken lightly for an adolescent. Although cosmetic surgery can potentially be beneficial, there are also many extreme risks for teenagers, including medical complications and in some rare cases death, and thus should be solely a last resort after meticulous analysis for serious cases. Furthermore, neither the adolescent brain nor body is even fully developed.

    Read More

  • Pros and Cons of Cosmetic Surgery

    1529 Words  | 4 Pages

    Colins, Joan. N.d..”The Pro’s and Con’s of Plastic Surgery”. Retrieved on January 28th, 2008. From http://cseserv.engr,scu.edu/StudentWebPages/KNguyen/researchpaper.htm

    Read More

  • Effects Of Plastic Surgery Essay

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 2007 alone, Americans spent $13 billion on 11.7 million cosmetic procedures. This is a fact that, to me is astounding. In such a world of debt and loss of jobs this industry has flourished with out even a hint of slowing down, for some this has become and addiction. Many major television networks have covered the dramatic growth and addiction of the procedure, which such shows as “MTV’s True life I’m getting unusual plastic surgery” or “True life I hate my plastic surgery” as well as “botched” and “My strange addiction”. Now the shows show different spectrums of this billion-dollar industry. For example on an episode of My strange addiction on addict has had 125 different procedures to look like the Ken doll which has cost him up to nearly $160,000. On botched this show centers on procedures that have gone wrong. In once instance the show features a woman named Alicia that has had a breast augmentation that has gone completely wrong from the position of the implants to the location under the skin where they were put

    Read More

More about Cosmetic Surgery Essay

Open Document