University Essay: Social Construction of Beauty and Cosmetic Surgery

This essay delves into the social construction of beauty, examining how societal perceptions shape beauty standards and influence individual behaviors. It explores the impact of these constructed ideals on society, focusing on the rise of cosmetic surgery as a response to changing beauty norms and body image concerns. The essay analyzes the role of social media, body dissatisfaction, and self-esteem in driving the demand for cosmetic procedures. Furthermore, it discusses how the social construction of beauty has led to gender construction, altered perceptions of gender roles, and impacted ethics and standards within society. The essay also references the influence of religious beliefs on attitudes towards cosmetic alteration and concludes by summarizing the significant effects of social construction on societal values and individual perceptions.

Key Ideas
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
The change in perception of people and society has resulted in modernisation. People
lifestyle has changed to a great extent. Alongside, it has also led to change in their needs. But on
contrary modernisation has created a new challenge for society (Fulk and Connie Yuan, 2017).
For example – hegemony, discourse, etc. which has impacted in negative way. Thus, people are
diverting towards those changes and adopting them. There are various changes observed in
society such as ethics, values, change in attitude, and others. However, entire theory of sociology
is changed. New culture and tradition are adopted by individuals. This essay will describe about
how social construction of beauty reflect and affect the society. Also, it will be discussed about
increase in cosmetic surgery and how it changed out ideas.
MAIN BODY
Social construction refers to a theory of knowledge in context of sociology and
communication. It investigates development of new understanding of world on basis of certain
assumptions about reality. In that people assume and construct new ideas with their own
understanding (Pettenger, 2016). It has been identified that beauty is a western concept which
has emerged since last few years. The beauty among women reflect her physical appearance. In
addition, the social environment has a significant influence on people desire to undergo cosmetic
surgery. For instance, experiences of bullying and teasing force people to undertake cosmetic
surgery and to fix body dissatisfaction (Haslanger, 2017). There is high impact on social
construction on society. This can be identified that when people relate beauty with society it
leads to discrimination. The individuals are discriminated on basis of it. Furthermore,
assumptions made are not specific which leads to following of unethical practices. Besides that,
people faith and belief is impacted. Additionally, the entire perception about men and women is
changed. Society starts adopting those new understanding. In terms of beauty there is negative
impact on society. The people start judging each other on basis of beauty. There are many new
forms of beauty. Individual perception regarding how they see body, shape, weight, etc. highly
influence their behavior.
There has been high increase in cosmetic surgery in both men and women. It is because of
change in perception of people and new social life. For society the definition of beauty is
changed. It is based on physical appearance. In addition, it has been analysed that cosmetic
surgery has become a new tool for maintenance and enhancing of one physical appearance.
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However, there are many other factors as well of opting for cosmetic surgery. First is body
dissatisfaction in which both men and women ae not satisfied with their physical appearance.
Another is self esteem as individual thinks that they want to look similar like others. Also, there
is high impact of social media in use of cosmetic surgery (Kelly and Symonds, 2017). This is
because it has provided a platform for men and women to show their beauty to others. Now,
physical appearance is way of comparing with others. Alongside, there is high influence of social
media on socio cultural. This has enabled in generating awareness among people regarding new
shapes and trends of body, face, etc. it has influenced mind of people in negative way. moreover,
with change in time concept of beauty is evolving as well. Now, physical appearance along with
body shape, figure, etc. reflect personality of person. Furthermore, there is change in attitude of
people as well. The faith and vanity of social norms and gender perception is way to social
construction (Moll, Diaz, S. and Lopes, 2017).
It is proposed that if a person internalizes beauty ideals about appearances that men or
women cannot live up to and/or habitually engages in appearance comparison, this can create
problems with body image such as body dissatisfaction. The media exerts a strong influence on
societies ideas about body image i.e. what body type one should have, what one should wear.
This is highly changing perception of people regarding their physical appearance. Now, they
think that by doing cosmetic surgery it is easy to become what they want. Moreover, beauty is
considered as more important in human being (Seidman, Fischer and Meeks, 2016).
Furthermore, society thinks that it is necessary to look beautiful and have a strong physical
appearance. Cosmetic surgery has also led to gender construction. This means that men can look
like women and vice and versa. The perception of gender in social group interaction has
changed. Feminism is considered a major factor within society. Many new cultural origins have
arisen along with outcomes of gender. In present times, ethics and standards set by society of
beauty is changed. Henceforth, gender equality is eliminated. At present times, looks of
individual is considered as beauty. Therefore, certain changes is observed in society such as
change in attitude, and others. However, entire theory of sociology is changed. More religious
individuals may be likely to perceive cosmetic alteration as a direct contravention to their
religious beliefs.
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CONCLUSION
It is summarised that social construction has impacted on society to a great extent. People
perception has changed resulting in adopting of new ideas. There is high impact of social media
in use of cosmetic surgery. This is because it has provided a platform for men and women to
show their beauty to others. Also, cosmetic surgery has allowed in gender construction where
perception of gender has changed. However, there are many other factors as well of opting for
cosmetic surgery such as body dissatisfaction, self esteem, change in attitude of people etc.
Cosmetic surgery has also led to gender construction.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Fulk, J. and Connie Yuan, Y., 2017. Social construction of communication technology. The
international encyclopedia of organizational communication, pp.1-19.
Haslanger, S., 2017. Gender and social construction. Applied ethics: A multicultural approach,
pp.299-307.
Kelly, A. and Symonds, A., 2017. The social construction of community nursing. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Moll, L.C., Diaz, S. and Lopes, L.M., 2017. Making contexts: The social construction of lessons
in two languages. In Cross-cultural literacy (pp. 339-366). Routledge.
Pettenger, M.E. ed., 2016. The social construction of climate change: Power, knowledge, norms,
discourses. Routledge.
Seidman, S., Fischer, N.L. and Meeks, C., 2016. The social construction of sexuality.
In Introducing the New Sexuality Studies (pp. 59-66). Routledge.
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