Kakish 1

Jazmin Kakish
Professor Ogbara
English 1A
2 December 2015
Artificial Self-Esteem.
The cosmetic surgery industry has made several advancements not just in the number of
individuals going under the knife, but demographically speaking as well. Due to the changes in
modern day culture women are not the only patients looking for a nip or a tuck, men and
teens are now being pressured into changing their appearances in order to be accepted socially
(Domanskis, 2004). Nowadays every insecurity or piece of self-doubt can be momentarily
diminished by a cosmetic procedure. The developments in the plastic surgery field are fueled
by the media and a socially created culture that falsely depicts unattainable, flawless, perfection
that consequently alters perception and reinforces insecurities with every new trend.
Cosmetic surgery is a procedure that is focused on enhancing one's physical appearance.
Although cosmetic and plastic surgery are in relation to one another, plastic surgery differentiates
from cosmetic procedures by prioritising deformities and correcting them. (Colin & Morrison
2008) Overtime the cosmetic surgery field has evolved dramatically and has expanded its
horizons to become limitless, so much so that simplicity is no longer a term that can be used
when discussing this discipline. Graham Lawton states in his article Extreme Surgery just how
much this industry has changed, A few years ago, it was all about fixing one or two irregular
features with a nose job or facelift. These days, it focuses on "harmonising" the "aesthetic units"
of your face and body by working on them all at the same time. Some surgeons are happy to

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perform four or five procedures at once. (Lawton 2004) Before it became a trend with
celebrities and society, there was only a handful of cosmetic procedures available such as; basic
nose jobs, breast augmentations, and liposuction. Nowadays, the sky's the limit for the amount
of changes one can make to their body. Due to the ongoing growth of this field, individuals can
readily change any aspect of their physical appearance that does not meet societys standard of
beauty. This makes it so much easier for an individual to look in the mirror and find yet another
thing they don't like about themselves. These enhancements are sometimes looked at as
corrections which can reinforce the notion that their natural features are flawed.
Although in most cases this is untrue, this belief is strengthened by social media and the
beauty standards they idealize. Social networks such as instagram, a smartphone application used
to share pictures, have seemed to make cosmetic surgery far more appealing to users due to their
false reflection of beauty. Individuals who use instagram sometimes use editing to change their
features, which can be seen as a less extreme way of changing ones appearance. In addition,
using these effects contribute to a toxic cycle by portraying falsified perfection. Helga Dittmar
and Sarah Howard did a study on how different body images portrayed in media impacted
women declaring, This analysis shows that the size of the negative effect of thin images on
womens anxiety becomes appreciable (and statistically significant) only for women who have at
least average internalization of the thin ideal . The impact becomes increasingly more powerful

with stronger thinideal internalization. In the present sample, about 50% of women showed
moderate or worse negative effects after thin images ( Dittmar and Howard, 2004). Thus

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research conveys that the more time one spends on social media and focusing on what's
advertised, the less happy they are with their image.
Cosmetic surgery has advanced dramatically over the years. Starting to develop close to
three thousand years ago with being as simple as renewing wounded tissue, cosmetic procedures
have gotten much more complex (Donoto, 2003). As technology has evolved, so has the plastic
and cosmetic surgery fields. The last 50 years have seen the transference of the skills developed
to restore damaged bodies to cosmetic enhancements. At the same time, increased affluence have
enabled millions to not only shed deformities, but to seek youth and beauty through the surgeon's
knife (Donoto, 2013). The market for plastic surgery has expanded due to the demand of
wealthy patients that can afford to pursue attractiveness at all costs. With individuals showing
greater interest in the desire to seek perfection, surgeons are now under more pressure to
complete the task by constantly looking for innovative, efficient techniques that leave the patient
wanting more. It is apparent that prosperity and fame are correlated with plastic and cosmetic
operations and viciously make young girls and women question whether they can ever be
beautiful enough. As stated in her book The Beauty Myth Naomi Wolf introduces the idea that,
Cosmetic surgery processes the bodies of woman-made women, who make up the vast majority
of its patient pool, into man-made women (Wolf 1991). Wolf envisions that more and more
people are going to follow the trend and get cosmetic enhancements done and makes it difficult
to differentiate the artificial and natural features.
Celebrities have a major influence on ones decision to go under the knife. Eighteen year
old Kylie Jenner, who has over forty three million followers on social media recently had lip

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injections done. Due to the fact that so many of her followers idolize her and want to have a
similar look it influenced some to go ahead with the procedures or even start the Kylie Jenner
Challenge. This challenge was a trend that became popular on the internet in which one would
suction their lips in small objects until their lips became swollen enough to give off the
impression of the same silicon injections Kylie has. This challenge became so intense that some
participants went as far as busting their lips in the process. One of the most dominant
advancements in technology is how heavily followed social sites have become. Many young
people spend time on YouTube watching beauty videos with tips and tutorials. These beauty
gurus demonstrate how to temporarily give the allusions of surgical procedures. By using
makeup to contour their face and nose, to define and slim them, and overlining their lips to give
off the impression of fuller lips, these media stars instilling additional misconceptions of beauty.
Social media is not the only thing drawing people to the idea of surgically changing their
natural born features. Society as a whole builds up high and nonrealistic standards of beauty for
both men and women alike. According to Emily Balcetis, Individuals are frequently exposed to
available standards of attractiveness. For most women, one particularly salient available standard
is the thin ideal perpetuated throughout American society. An analysis of characters on television
sitcoms found that 76% of female characters were below average weight (Fouts & Burggraf,
2000). These changes in socio cultural norms have shifted conceptions of the ideal female form;
this shift has created a readily available, yet often unrealistic and unattainable, standard or the
ideal body shape (Balcetis, 2013). Though no one person is the same, the desire to successfully
reach societys ideal perception of what beauty should look like with an hourglass shape, blemish

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free complexion and perfectly proportioned features has become almost as or even more
important to this generation and a successful career.
Despite the fact that individuals go through these cosmetic procedures to get rid of their
insecurities, does it really stop there? It is only a matter of time before these individuals find the
next flaw they are unhappy with and want to change. The pressure of beauty and perfection is an
ongoing cycle that is expanding throughout Western culture. Michael Taussig ponders the
question, Is beauty destined to end in tragedy?(Taussig 2012) In his novel Beauty and the
Beast he discusses not only how deceiving the beauty industry has become but how vital it is as
well. Taussig declares, Surely it is the case that cosmic surgery was among the first technologies
in the great drama of the domination of nature, and that beauty has been as much a goal in life as
the quest for food and shelter (Taussig 2012). The desire for beauty has become so significant in
today's generation that it is now becoming just as important as key elements for survival. With
the evolution of surgical and nonsurgical opportunities in the beauty and cosmetic worlds at hand
it has become a factor that most spend a majority of their time and money on obtaining.
The demand for cosmetic surgery has grown so rapidly that it is at its highest point in the
past few years. Though the field has become so popular in present time, there are prediction that
the trend is only going to further expand from here. Grand View Research reports, As of 2014,
North America is the dominating segment due to the growth factors such as increasing awareness
and sense of self esteem amongst the people, advancement of technologies used in the
manufacturing of the surgical products and rising adoption rate of advanced aesthetic products.
(Cosmetic 2015). Nevertheless, society as a whole could make adjustments to limit just how
much cosmetic surgery expands. By changing the way media advertisements beauty, stopping the

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way they photoshop images, and holding high standards of what is considered beauty this
generation could vastly put boundaries on aiding insecurities and encouraging cosmetic surgery.
The expansion of cosmetic surgery can be highly toxic to this generation and the generations to
comes self-esteem their perception of beauty. Based on similar ideas Naomi declares, Surgery
changes one forever, the mind as well as the body. If we don't start to speak of it as serious, the
millennium of the man-made woman will be upon us, and we will have had no choice. (Wolf
1991) With these adjustments patients will no longer abuse the cosmetic surgery field by over
using it and will stop themselves from falling head first into low self-esteem.
The field of cosmetic surgery exceedingly advanced in the past few year. With help from
technology advances and social media the demand to surgically enhance physical features has
increased by portraying unrealistic measures of what beauty should look like. Changes within
society and social attitudes could greatly improve these negative effects of the cosmetic world.
Whereas not all cosmetic procedures are bad, it could become overwhelmingly popular that
artificial features will become more common than untouched.

References
Balcetis, Emily Cole, Shana Chelberg, Marie B.Alicke, Mark. "Searching Out The Ideal:
Awareness Of Ideal Body Standards Predicts Lower Global Self-Esteem In Women." Self &
Identity 12.1 (2013): 99-113. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.

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"Cosmetic Surgery Market Will Rise To $12 Billion From 2015 To 2022: Grand View
Research, Inc." M2presswire (2015): Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.

Donato, Vincent. "Cosmetic Surgery Roots Go Deep In Ancient History And Modern
War." Westchester County Business Journal 42.52 (2003): 9. Regional Business News. Web. 2
Dec. 2015.
Edward, Jonas Domanskis. "TO CUT OR NOT TO CUT." OC Metro (2004):
106,106,108. ProQuest. Web. 25 Nov. 2015.

Lawton, Graham. "Extreme Surgery." New Scientist 184.2471 (2004): 54. MAS Ultra Scool Edition. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Taussig, Michael T. Beauty and the Beast. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2012. Print
Morrison, M.Sc., Colin, A Survey of Cosmetic Surgery Training in Plastic Surgery
Programs in the United States, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal of the American
Society of Plastic Surgeons, pp.1570-1578, 2008

Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women. New
York: W. Morrow, 1991. Print.