Plastic surgery Assignment PDF

Running head: PLASTIC SURGERY: A THREAT 0
PLASTIC SURGERY: A THREAT
STUDENTS NAME:
11/30/2018

PLASTIC SURGERY: A THREAT 1
INTROCUTION
This essay will tell us that why plastic surgery has increased with time and why it is a
reason for concern. A contemporary issue that high number of plastic surgery due to lack of
love and acceptance for a person’s own appearance will be highlighted here (Turner, 2008).
Some key concepts associated with study of body in culture such as subjectivity,
responsibilisation and patriarchal power will be discussed here. This essay will mainly
discuss about the relationship between plastic surgery and embodied regimes of power
around sex, gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality and disability based on historic and
contemporary connections. A brief idea of transgressive cosmetic surgeries and Heyes idea of
all plastic surgeries to be ethnic will also be given.
COSMETIC SURGERY: A THREAT
Cosmetic surgery is a clinical operation conducted mostly by professional cosmetic
surgeons, which aims to change the outer appearance of a person’s face or body with the help
of reduction or injection of different chemicals mostly plastics. These changes are done for
achieving a better outer appearance in order to match the social and cultural norms and
beliefs of beauty. Women mostly opt for plastic surgeries but men as well are no stranger to
it. Some of the most common plastic surgeries include Liposuction, Breast Augmentation,
Blepharoplasty, Abdominoplasty, Breast Reduction, Rhinoplasty, Rhytidectomy, Breast Lift
etc. (Singh, Vatsa, Bhatt, Bharadwaj, Noore, & Nooreyezdan, 2010). Only in recent times
plastic surgeries have increased to a very alarming level because of continues changes in
lifestyle and perceptions of beauty.
Michel Foucault was a one of the most known theorists in socio cultural studies of
embodiment and made contributions in the field of Archeology, gynecology and technology
of self. Some of his ideas associated with study of body in culture are Disciplinary power and
Biopower (Kelly, 2018).
Some key concepts of body in culture are:
Responsibilization: This refers to the process where a person is rendered individual
responsibility of a task that was earlier somebody else’s, mostly a group’s duty ( Fleming &
Wakefield, 2018). In reference to the context of the text responsibilization can said to be
applicable to the fact that the idea and concept of beauty and bodily perfection is created by

PLASTIC SURGERY: A THREAT 2
the society. However, people take it on themselves to be acceptable and more liked in the
society by following these norms and that is what increases the rate of plastic surgery because
the unrealistic standards of society can only be archived by that. An example of this concept
is the rise of the fitness industry. The fitness industry promotes physical wellbeing to look
attain the perfect shape. However, some people see these fitness enthusiasts and models and
fail to understand the correct method to obtain it and thus indulge in practices such as plastic
surgery in order to achieve it. The absence of a perfect physical appearance makes people
self-conscious and makes them think they are unattractive and unacceptable.
Subjectivity: This refers to a philosophical concept, associated with self-awareness,
personhood and truth (Francescotti, 2017). In reference to context, it can be seen how
subjectivity has led to the increasing rate of unnatural bodily modifications. No matter what
the society believes or says, we are owner of ourselves and accountable for our own actions
but due to subjectivity humans always have the urge to be socially acceptable and match the
standards of beauty that is most admired. The self-consciousness that leads to the lack of
confidence makes a person feel unattractive, unpreventable and unacceptable and thus opens
a path for plastic surgeries. An example of this is increasing number of breast implantation
surgery. Women who lack huge breasts consider themselves to not be feminine enough and
thus get physically insecure which explains the number of surgeries.
Patriarchal Power: Patriarchal power refers to the power associated with the Men of
the society and the comparatively higher benefits and ease they have in life than women.
Women have always been attached to social norms and made to believe they are unwanted
and unacceptable if they do not look a certain way. Men and other women have always
deprived women from the feeling of self-love and satisfaction with respect to their external
appearance and the accumulation of this over years have settled in the minds of women that
they are not worthy enough due to their appearance. Women are made to commit with
unnecessary beauty rules that contemplate nature and are not associated with men such as
body hair removal. However many women movements have promoted acceptance of flaws in
appearances and taught them a lesson of self-love. An example of this concept is that in
ancient times when women did not have any financial independence of professional
ambitions, their only aim was to make a rich successful man to marry them to live a
prosperous life and for that, they focused only on looking more physically attractive
(MacDonald, 2016). Though plastic surgeries were not very common at that time due to

PLASTIC SURGERY: A THREAT 3
lower technological advancements the beauty industry did sell products to promote societies
idea of beauty and acceptance and not a lot has changed ever since .
A Contemporary issue associated with the body in culture is the alarming rate with
which the amount of plastic surgeries increasing due to continues trend changes with body
appearance. It is a very common psychological trait in human being to be self-conscious
while interaction with other fellow human beings but when it comes to a connection as close
as sex the level increases and leads people to go to an extend to get their bodies altered in
order to look unrealistically perfect.
In ancient times when cosmetic surgeries were not as popular, innerwear for women
were invented order to achieve the shape and size considered ideal and beautiful by the
society such as corsets, mastoids, girdles, farthingales, bullet bras etc. (Linding, 2016). These
garments often were very uncomfortable. In addition, took a lot of time to put on. Some
garments such as the steel corsets harmed the ribcages and backbone of women and caused
permanent changes in the shape of women’s body and were harmful up to a fatal extend
sometimes.
The norm of looking perfect and unrealistic throughout history is mostly attached to
women. Men and other women have always succeeded in decreasing self-esteem in women
and that has led them to follow methods such as plastic surgery in order to please them.
Women empowerment in modern times have completely changed this idea and women no
longer indulge into artificially transforming themselves externally with only the aim of
attracting men to get married. This is also done because of the rise of beauty and fashion
industries, social media and television who promote the idea of being a certain way in order
to look beautiful ( De Souza, Vail, Jewell, & Grief, 2018).
Throughout history the Whites have believed themselves to be superior and have
enslaved and exploited the blacks and forced them to believe they were primitive. The ides of
discrimination, just on the basis of colour throughout history has made black people believe
they are not beautiful and acceptable due to their colour (Hunter, 2011). They believed
beauty, acceptance and prosperity came with fair skin. This promoted plastic surgeries
associated to changing skin colour. In contrast, most recently darker skin has attained a huge
respect and popularity in the industry of fashion and beauty in western countries. As tanning
under natural sunlight is not realistic enough to attain this goal, women tend to choose

PLASTIC SURGERY: A THREAT 4
artificial methods to darken their natural skin tone I order to look more up to date with
fashion and beauty.
In ancient times, people of the LGBT community did not accept and come out
because any unnatural aspect associated with sexuality was a crime. More recently with the
positive alterations of laws associated with the LGBT community and rise in moments
associated to them more such people have accepted their sexual orientation and are willing to
change themselves. People who are transgender fail to accept the body that they have and
believe does not belong to the gender they actually are and thus undergo sex change
operation (Gates, 2011). As these operations in spite of medical and technological
advancement do not completely accomplish to alter the appearance of a person, people go
under the knife to change their face and body to attain more similarity with the gender they
believe they are. This is mostly done in male to female transition. Some people do not obtain
sex change operation in the first place due to lack of financial aid, or the horror of the
physical troubles it might bring along, as an artificial body does not hold the similar physical
strength as the natural body. However, they do go under the knife to alter their outer
appearance that is visible to world such as Rhinoplasty, Breast implantation, Butt
implantation etc. (Kraemer , Delsignore , Schnyder , & Hepp , 2008).
Even heterosexual men and women indulge is surgeries associated with sexuality to
overcome their sexual complexities and fears. Women who have smaller breast believe and
are told to be not feminine and sexually attractive enough and thus they undergo breast
enlargement surgery (Taylor, 2012). Other surgeries women undergo that are associated with
their sexuality are vagina-tightening surgeries to feel younger and more youthful. Men
undergo surgery to alter the shape and size of their genital as per social norms to feel manlier
and sexually appealing.
In some cases, plastic surgeries are done to hide or eliminate physical disabilities.
Some of them might be necessary for physical wellbeing while some are done to hide or
remove physical deformities. Some examples are Patients of breast cancer undergo breast
implantation to achieve back their breast that had to be removed for treatment of cancer;
Victims of acid attack or people who critically burnt their skin in a fire undergo plastic
surgery to make themselves look better. When plastic surgery is done because of a physical
disability the extent and form of the disability comes to an account in such cases.

PLASTIC SURGERY: A THREAT 5
A type of cosmetic surgery is the transgressive cosmetic surgeries in which people go
up to an extreme extend in order to achieve appearances that are extreme and even unnatural.
When a person indulges, in such kind of a surgery, it most often leads to addiction and the
number of plastic surgeries the person indulges in keeps on increasing. An example of such
surgery is Valeria Lukyanova who is also called the human Barbie who went under the knife
several numbers of times and completely transformed her appearance to look like a Barbie
doll (Propheta, 2017).
All the above-mentioned aspects have led to the increasing demand of plastic surgery
and the risks associated with it is a cause of concern. According to Heyes all plastic surgery
are ethnic because a person indulges in it to change his or her appearance as per the
suitability and likability of his surrounding which is his ethnic background. Every ethnicity
has standardised ideology of beauty and physical perfection. The variations in the changes a
white, black and Asian wants in themselves are proof of this point (Heyes, 2009).
CONCLUSION
This essay concludes that with continues changes in perception of beauty, associating
its idea with acceptance, likability, and technological advancements the numbers of plastic
surgeries have alarmingly increased over time. The people who associate with plastic surgery
are mostly women and patriarchy plays a big role in it. This essay mainly concludes that
surgical methods must only be opted for medical emergencies and must have the least risk
and hazard. People must love and accept their true selves and do not rely on such methods for
looking and feeling beautiful.
REFERENCES
De Souza, M. M., Vail, B. A., Jewell, A. D., & Grief, S. N. (2018, December). Plastic
Surgery for Women. Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice, 45(4), 705–717.
Fleming, J., & Wakefield, A. (2018). Responsibilization. Retrieved November 30, 2018, from
The SAGE Dictionary of Policing: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446269053.n111
Francescotti, R. (2017). Subjectivity. Retrieved November 30, 2018, from In The Routledge
Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/subjectivity/v-1

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Gates, G. J. (2011, April 1). How Many People are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender?
Retrieved November 30, 2018, from UCLA: The Williams Institute:
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/09h684X2#author
Heyes, C. J. (2009). All Cosmetic Surgery is “Ethnic”:Asian Eyelids, Feminist Indignation,
and the. In C. J. Heyes, Cosmetic Surgery : A Feminist Primer (pp. 194-204). London:
Routledge.
Hunter, M. L. (2011). Buying Racial Capital:Skin-Bleaching and Cosmetic Surgery. The
Journal of Pan African Studies, 4(4), 142-158.
Kelly, M. (2018). Michel Foucault (1926–1984). Retrieved November 30, 2018, from
https://www.iep.utm.edu/foucault/
Kraemer , B., Delsignore , A., Schnyder , U., & Hepp , U. (2008). Body Image and
Transsexualism. Psychopathology, 41(2), 96-100.
Linding, S. (2016, July 21). The Evolution of Lingerie. Retrieved November 30, 2018, from
Elle: https://www.elle.com/fashion/trend-reports/g28532/evolution-of-lingerie/?
slide=11
MacDonald, T. (2016). The New Man, Masculanity and Marriage in the Victorian Novel.
New York: Routledge.
Propheta, D. (2017, September 18). The Incredible Story of the Real Human Barbie.
Retrieved November 30, 2018, from Direct Expose:
http://www.directexpose.com/real-human-barbie-lives/
Singh, R., Vatsa, M., Bhatt, H. S., Bharadwaj, S., Noore, A., & Nooreyezdan, S. S. (2010).
Plastic Surgery: A New Dimension to Face Recognition. IEEE Transactions on
Information Forensics and Security, 5(3), 441 - 448.
Taylor, J. (2012, Decembe). Fake breasts and power: Gender, class and cosmetic surgery.
Women's Studies International Forum, 35(6), 458-466.
Turner, B. S. (2008). The Body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory. los Angeles, New
Delhi, Singapore, London: SAGE.

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