BEAUTY & AMERICAN WOMEN

Beauty & American Women

Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of “Cosmetic Surgery” in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on “Cosmetic Surgery” and its relation with “the beauty and American women”. The research also analyzes many aspects of “Cosmetic Surgery”, and tries to gauge its effect on the American women in terms of gender and ethnicity and the culture that they reside in. Finally the research describes various factors which are responsible for “Cosmetic Surgery” and tries to describe the overall effect of “Cosmetic Surgery” on “the American women”.

Introduction

Uncomfortable living with a physical complex is no longer a problem, because cosmetic surgery can give the desired appearance, or at least close enough. Resort to surgery to improve the appearance is something common, and Mexico is a country that is at the forefront of this trend. So far cosmetic surgery is considered frivolous and a luxury, exclusive of certain elites. Things have changed considerably as today's surgery is no longer a luxury, those who choose to operate do not do it for vanity but by a complex that has tormented them for years.

Discussion

Gender in Plastic Surgery

Compared with other medical specialties, Plastic surgery is a highly gender based practice. In 2008, 91 percent of U.S. Plastic surgery patients were women and in 2000, 85 percent of Plastic surgeons were men. Plastic surgery exists within a range of body modification practices for women to closely approximate cultural ideals (Thompson, 2009).

Plastic surgery is also identified within popular media as a source of unrealistic body expectations for women and girls, in addition to the manipulation of, photographic images and valorization of anorectic body types. Because Plastic surgery is a medical procedure that is elective and usually financed by the patient (rather than state or private insurance), it is the patient who holds the authority to diagnose the problem that the surgeon will address, which is contrary to most other medical and surgical procedures. In response to this tipping of power, discourses of Plastic surgery in the West often adhere to strict sexist and heterosexual codes of behavior conceiving the patient as an undisciplined female body who submits to the help of the skilled and valiant male surgeon. This evidenced most strongly in anecdotal accounts of Plastic surgery, where women patients report that their surgeries were more painful than they expected, the side effects of their surgeries downplayed by surgeons, and that the results of the surgeries did not meet their expectations.

For example, breast implants can be very painful and can cause significant trauma to the tissues around the implant, which can be a surprise to patients who expect a routine surgery with a quick recovery time. Common side effects of breast implants include loss of sensation in the nipple, as well as encapsulation (formation of thick, hard scar tissue around the implant that must be manually broken down), which is again surprising to patients. Less common but very serious side effects of breast implants ...