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Armand Yahyapermana
Professor Sarah Hong
English-122
5 February 2014
Extreme Makeover
How many times have you seen people on the television shows or in the news where
teenagers are going for plastic surgery to become more handsome and beautiful, in order to look
similar to their favorite artist? Do you find their plastic surgery more attractive than their natural
beauty? In a world where image seems to be everything, it's hard not to pay attention to the way
you look. Body Image is a rapidly growing fad all over the world today. Everyone wants to be
that "Victorias Secret" model or the buff guy on the cover of Gentlemens Quarterly magazine.
The problem not about trying to look better. The problem is with the method people use
nowadays to obtain that image and they go to the extent that they actually start hurting
themselves just to get that ideal look. They begin to follow in the steps they see and imitate their
lifestyle, no matter how bad the path is. The audiences imitate them and try to be similar to them
even if it hurts their body. By establishing unattainable and unnaturally high standards of beauty
and bodily perfection, the media drive ordinary people to be dissatisfied with their body images.
This dissatisfaction can result in people resorting to drastic measures, and can cause disorders of
behavior, as people try to achieve these unreachable goals.
Today American culture is so obsessed with looking and acting young, its difficult to
believe that their American founding fathers used their gray wigs in order to appear older and
wiser. Back in 18th or 19th century, being old and wise with monocle (single eye glass) was the
trend. But that trend has been far outdated. From hair dyes to face plastic surgeries to make them
look young or beautiful. The culture has remained forever young. We are bombarded daily with

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images via magazines, television shows and, the internet. Nowadays, people prefer to look young
over-looking shrewd and intelligent in any way. Virtually every public figure from politicians to
actors to TV hosts have had some sort of work done to their face or body. Just to look more
attractive in front of the TV.
Victorias Secret is known for their fashion style and model show. Victorias secret 2010
advertisement by Michael Bay was one of the popular commercial that shows about womens
sexual beauty, using models as the subject to advertise their products. Their slogan says one
give a thousand fantasies which means that only one brand of the underwear could give a
wide image of the person who are wearing it. The women audience that watch the commercial
might get attracted to the underwear that they see, making them interested to buy the underwear
to be similar to them. Not only that it will affect the audiences to buy their brand, but also the
audience will try to imitate the models body. It doesnt matter if the method can hurt or damage
the audiences body. Jean Kilbourne, a visiting scholar at Wellesley College and an adviser on
alcohol and tobacco advertising to two surgeons general, writes on her essay In Your Face
All over the Place about how the American advertisement could affect the audiences
perspective. She states Advertising sells a great deal more that products. It sells values, images
and sexuality, romance, success, and, perhaps most important, normalcy. To a great extent, it tells
us who we are and who we should be. (Kilbourne) I agree with what she writes. What the
people see on the advertisement, slowly will make them imitate it. American culture back in the
past wasnt like that. The people were affected by the groups of stylish people such as hippies.
But that isnt as damaging as todays commercial. The hippies group back in the past only affect
the peoples clothing. They do not lower other peoples self-esteem. They created their own
identity.

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Nowadays, women who watches reality show have lower self-esteem. The people who
get really attracted to it starting to imitate the models, such as doing plastic surgery or buttocks
injection. As Stephen Hinkshaw, the chair of the psychology department and professor of
psychology at university of California at Berkeley, writes on the essay What is the Triple
Bind? about a set of impossible, contradictory expectation of womens behaviour. He states,
First, the definition of sexy and pretty have narrowed enormously in recent years, with an
ever escalating demand that girls turn themselves into a sexual object. For a girl to fit acceptable
look now requires an almost superhuman commitment to dieting, waxing, applying make-up, and
shopping; For some girls, plastic surgery has also come to seem like a minimum requirement.
(Hinkshaw) This is one example from the essay that concludes body image is the top-most
attribute priority for woman. The drastic measures and face beauty has messed up their mind.
They believe that if they get plastic surgery, theyll get eternal beauty. No matter how hard or
painful it is, body image has corrupted their minds in a sense that the women would take any
route to get the desired body look. Hence, they have forgotten the definition of natural beauty.
Drastic measures is something the society needs to think about nowadays. There is an
easier, cheaper, and more painless way to become more attractive. But instead, society takes the
hard way which can result in permanent damage to their body or even can cause disability or
death. They do not think about the long term effect of taking this these shortcuts to improve their
beauty. A former Miss Argentina died in Buenos Aires after a legal operation believed to have
involved buttock implants and injections. A similar example is of a former Korean model Hang
Mioku, who became a plastic surgery addict after she received silicone injections to her face for
smoother, softer skin at age 28. After more than a decade of cooking oil injections, hang's face
became severely swollen, scarred, and disfigured. In fact, Hang Mioku's face suffered such a

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dramatic change that even her own parents could no longer recognize her (isciencetimes). Why
are people not satisfied with the natural beauty they are bestowed upon by God? Are they unable
to recognize it? Or do they seek to look more beautiful?
Most of the women must have watched this TV program called Victorias secret fashion
show where they show the lifestyle of the models. This is also one of the method they uses to
promote and market its goods in high-profile settings. On one part of the interview on Adriana
Lima, one of the Victorias secret angel, she told the U.K telegraph that she indulges in "no
solids" for those days. Then, for half day before the show, she states that she didnt drink any
liquids at all so her body dry out, sometimes she could lose up to eight pounds just from that. She
said that she does this extreme diet for the show, to make her body shape looks perfect.
According to Chicago Tribune News, a study analyzed the drinking habits of 3,397 adults who
participated in the National Cancer Institute's Food Attitudes and Behaviors Survey. It was
published in the April 11 on the issue of the CDC's (Center of Disease Control and Prevention)
journal, Preventing Chronic Disease (Tribune). By not drinking enough liquids, Adriana Lima
has endangered her own health and she can get a chronic disease which cannot be cured. This
kind of method can also be called as drastic measures. Instead of taking a longer time but a
healthy diet to create an excellent body shape, she took the faster but more dangerous method
that could damage her body.
As a conclusion, it is really different when we compare today American culture with the
past American culture. In 1960s, there is no such thing as plastic surgery or liquid injection. Most
of the people doesnt really care about the shape of body, the only care about their style such as
hippie and gothic fashion. The people was not affected by the media but by the society and they
do not hurt themselves to achieve their body image. Nowadays, they do not think of the long

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term effect by taking this drastic measures. The media also affects them to the extreme makeover
and slowly lower the audiences self-esteem. It is a good perspective that American people cares
about their body image and their style. Still, they dont need to apply extreme makeover on their
body. Plastic surgery is not a good idea because the risk is not worth the image. This image
change the perspective of the world sees the American Culture. Now, drastic measures is
considered normal in American Culture.

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Source
Kilbourne, Jean. In Your FaceAll Over the Place. Read, Reason, Write: An Argument Text
and Reader. Ed. Dorothy U. Seyler. 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education,
2008. 371-76. Print
Hinkshaw, Stephen. What is the Triple Bind? The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas.
Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell 7th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2010. 301-308.
Print.
Victorias Secret. Victoria's Secret - 2010 Commercial (by Michael Bay).
Youtube. Youtube. 27 Dec. 2009. Web. 1 May 2014.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmNEG8IFd_Y>
International Science Times. Plastic Surgery Addict Hang Mioku: Cooking Oil
Injections Disfigure Face Of Former Model. Isciencetimes. N.P. 8 May
2013. Web. 14 May 2014.
<http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/5109/20130508/cooking-oilplastic-surgery-addict-hang-mioku.htm>
Chicago Tribune News. Study finds nearly half of Americans not drinking
enough water. chicagotribune. N.P. 5 June 2013. Web. 14 May 2014.
<http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-06-05/health/ct-x-0605drinking-water-20130605_1_dietary-guidelines-much-water-drinkingwater>

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