Blog Six.

Gimlin says that, for a long time, most of the people getting cosmetic surgery were men who were disabled by accidents on the job or in war. At the end of WWII, there were only 100 plastic surgeons in the country, which is a statistic that blows my mind in juxtaposition to how many there must be now. If there were 3,850 in 1990, there must be thousands more now. Eek!

I think cosmetic surgery is a multi-faceted issue. I think that reactionary plastic surgery (people who have been deformed by an accident, burn victims, fixing a deviated septum or cleft palate, breast reductions to alleviate pain, etc) is totally fine, but that doesn't fall under the category of "cosmetic" for me because it is done either for health reasons or as a reaction to something negative.

I do think that people "take it too lightly." I don't really understand why it's basically acceptable to alter one's body so significantly. Everyone has insecurities about their bodies, but I don't think that's a strong enough justification for invasive surgery.

I think what is actually taken too lightly is that justification itself. Why are women (and men) so unhappy with their appearances? I think the answer is what we've been talking about in this class from the beginning, what we're reading about - The Beauty Myth. The image of the perfect woman that is projected into pop culture, and probably pushed/paid for by the plastic surgery industry itself. The reading said there were 2.2 million procedures in 1999 - wow! I wonder how many there were in 2009!

I think the phrase "vain and shallow society" is a bit too reductive. Sure, it's easy to blame it on vanity, but that would be denying what's going on under the surface. This is demonstrated by the story of Ann-Marie, the woman who got the face-lift. She said that she considered the surgery for years before she actually did it, and her reason for doing it was that she didn't look the way she felt on the inside when her face started to show the effects of aging.

As far as whether it's positive or not, I certainly don't want to take anything away from the people who have had cosmetic surgery and experienced higher self-esteem as a result. That's great. But, again, that's not the problem - the reasons for getting the surgery in the first place is the problem.

Three examples from pop culture:

• Heidi Montag, obviously. She recently, famously underwent 10 procedures at once. I recently saw some pictures of her from before any surgeries and I thought she was so beautiful! Now she looks like a real-life Barbie, which is not attractive in the actual world.
• Joan Rivers has also had a lot of work done...she looks really creepy now. It's kind of ironic that she has a career in body-snarking on the red carpet, when she's had so much work done. what an obnoxious cycle.
• J-WOWW!!! from "Jersey Shore." Her boobs are crazy huge and crazy fake-looking. That's what I REALLY don't understand - women who want to look completely unnatural. Why??
  

Random parts I found interesting:

• "many of the women I interviewed expressed enormous satisfaction with their procedures."
• "cosmetic surgeons are frequently critical of their female clientele, seeing them as obsessed and impossible to please."
• he determines "appropriateness" of surgery. "John positions himself not only as a surgeon but also as an expert in contemporary standards for female beauty." he examines psychological health as well - to see if they're getting the surgery for a non-physical reason, like a recent personal trauma. He rejects two to three requests per week.
• even the women who are happy with results are defensive when explaining.
• Ann Marie makes a point that is striking for me... she says that if you look better, you feel better, and thus become a better worker/family member/friend/etc. Why is it that appearance is the thing that starts that cycle of positivity? That makes me sad.
• Bonnie's liposuction eliminating the most "female" parts of her figure as a reflection of her identity problems. femininity = inherently imperfect, or at least that's what culture would have us believe...