Women and Beauty: Has the modern woman become obsessed with body alteration in hope to attain societal beauty standards in Singapore?
Introduction
The pursuit of beauty is prevailing in contemporary Singapore. From the trend of more Singaporean women opting to go for plastic surgery (Soh, 2013), to the changing attitudes towards plastic surgery (Soh, 2012), to more youths pursuing plastic surgery (Xiong, 2011) and Singapore being chosen as one of the world’s best destinations for plastic surgery procedures (Link, n.d.); it is evident that our society is obsessed with beauty, and uses body alteration as a form of this pursue. Women seek this pursue as they believe that with plastic surgery, they “gain control over their body and looks” (Luo, 2012), allowing them to better manage their lives. This obsession is a problem as it could lead to people being addicted to plastic surgery, a condition known as Body Dysmorphic Disorder, where they are never really satisfied with how they look, and undergo multiple surgeries (Lifespan, 2010). This is significant as it questions the impact of beauty standards
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Up till the mid of the 20th century, plastic surgeries were used to treat birth defects and automobile and industrial accidents as well as injured war soldiers such as the connecting of the severed hand back to the arm. (Gilman, 1999) This suggest that plastic surgery was of a medical and functional value, to enable the normal human day-to-day functions rather than for aesthetic purposes. It is only with the American eugenics movement, coupled with the “advent of motion pictures and television” (Donohoe, 2006) that help propel plastic surgery into cosmetic
Gillies most “ground-breaking work” was when he introduce “the tubed pedicle, which used the patients’ own tissue to be used to patch unsightly wounds with reconstructive surgery” (Furness 5). Without Gillies use of the person’s own tissue to fix their own wounds, the lives of many soldiers back in WW1 would have been made much shorter and they would have had to live with their face deformities from war. This innovation of plastic surgery is still used today but in a much different sense; plastic surgery is looked at now as something you do when you dislike something about yourself. For example, if you think your nose is too big, then you would get a nose job whereas back in the days of Gillies plastic surgery, they were only done when needed like wounded soldiers with a gunshot wound to the face. Because of Gillies innovation, soldiers wounded in battle were able to continue living their life without suffering the major disfigurations
Everyday females are exposed to how media views the female body, whether in a work place, television ads, and magazines. Women tend to judge themselves on how they look just to make sure there keeping up with what society see as an idyllic women, when women are exposed to this idea that they have to keep a perfect image just to keep up with media, it teaches women that they do not have the right look because they feel as if they don’t add up to societies expectations of what women should look like, it makes them thing there not acceptable to society. This can cause huge impacts on a women self-appearance and self-respect dramatically. Women who become obsessed about their body image can be at high risk of developing anorexia or already have
There are many aspects of how beauty has played an important role within the African American history. Since early time periods, beauty has constantly been implied within various aspects of cultures that has been passed down from generation to generation. Based on today’s society, there has been a lot of influence within the beauty industry that has been shown to have some sort of effect based upon the social, economic, and political context of African American individual throughout the twentieth century. Through the aspect of trying to be the “perfect woman”, there have been large number of debates that are associated with trying to become the ideal woman within the twentieth century. Now a days, everything is based upon how good a woman
Goals and Background Throughout history, there has often been a social stigma related to those with facial deformities. Even throughout the more progressive centuries, people still associate negative connotations with those who have facial disfigurement. This was especially the case after the Great War. Most historians’ only attribute a side note to the thousands of mutilated soldiers that returned from World War One, and very few go on to talk about the rehabilitation process that these men had to endure.
Cosmetic surgery or plastic surgery is defined as a form of medicine focused on making enhancements to the body. It is intended to correct flawed areas on the body and is restoring in its nature. This type of surgery can be performed on the head, body, and neck. During a study, performed by Dr. Jane Weston and Anne Pearl, they found out high school junior’s opinions on cosmetic surgery. According to Attitudes of Adolescents About Cosmetic Surgery, “A survey of the junior class of a California suburban high school showed that one-third of respondents would consider undergoing cosmetic surgery.”
According to a survey done by Jesse Fox, Ph.D., 80% of women feel bad about themselves just by looking in the mirror (Dreisbach). This has happened because of social media being changed to make girls feel like they need to have a certain body shape. Models and celebrities in magazines and media show unrealistic beauty and it contributes to eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and much more (Seventeen magazine). Media has put lots of stress on women throughout history with changing body shapes. A survey done by Dove found results that 9 out of 10 women want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance.
Men and women nowadays are starting to lose self-confidence in themselves and their body shape, which is negatively impacting the definition of how beauty and body shape are portrayed. “...97% of all women who had participated in a recent poll by Glamour magazine were self-deprecating about their body image at least once during their lives”(Lin 102). Studies have shown that women who occupy most of their time worrying about body image tend to have an eating disorder and distress which impairs the quality of life. Body image issues have recently started to become a problem in today’s society because of social media, magazines, and television.
Today plastic surgery is being embraced by the millions and highly looked upon. Advertisements and media incorporated young, beautiful women to sell the product with fake and flawless women in advertisements, an ideal body is created by the minds of viewers. This causes viewers to do as much as possible involving plastic surgery, to look like the models. For Instance, in 2015 more than 13.5 million women went under the knife by surgeons certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, says the American Society of Plastic Surgeons statistics. The five most popular invasive surgical procedures for women in 2015 were liposuction, breast augmentation, tummy tucks, eyelid surgery and breast lift (ASPS statistics).
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a psychological disorder revolving around body-image and self-perception. Body dysmorphic disorder is also known as a somatoform disorder. People with body dysmorphic disorder are preoccupied with an imagined or slight defect in their appearance. Even if to others the defect is minor or nonexistent, people with body dysmorphic disorder can spend hours thinking about their perceived flaw or flaws. The thoughts they have can cause them severe emotional distress, and they can interfere with the person’s daily life.
In 1998, people did not realize what they were doing to girl’s confidence and ability to feel beautiful in their own skin. They were showing the world what women could now look like through photo shop. For many years this trend continued, fortunately, in the year 2015 everything changed for the
“Body dissatisfaction, negative body image, concern with body size, and shape represent attitudes of body image. ”(Dixit 1), women are so obsessed with looking good that they are missing out on enjoying
1.0 Introduction 1.1 Background of the Issue This report is written to find out the pros and cons of cosmetic surgery to people as well as how much cosmetic surgery has benefited people both positively and negatively. Cosmetic surgery procedures have been performed back in the early 1800s, which means it has been in existence for centuries as what history has suggested. Besides that, the development of cosmetic surgery states that it started to gain popularity since the 1970s and 1980s. Cosmetic surgery can be defined as the operative procedure as improvement of appearance is the principal purpose (Medical Dictionary for the Dental Professions, 2012).
For example, girls will style their hair to “become more attractive” (Berger 2014), or they will purchase ‘minimizer,’ ‘maximizer,’ ‘training,’ or ‘shaping’ bras, hoping that their breasts will conform to their idealized body image” (Berger 2014). This all appears to be harmless activities, yet when body image is only addressed outwardly and not psychologically, there can be an increase in poor and destructive behaviors. For instance, body image dissatisfaction can lead to poor self-esteem, which can create a cycle of increased body dissatisfaction, followed by decreasing self-esteem (Stapleton et al., 2017). Ultimately, a teenage girl can find herself in a cycle of “depression, eating disorders and obesity” (Stapleton et al., 2017). On study in 2012 revealed, “Two-thirds of U.S. high school girls are trying to lose weight, even though only one-fourth are actually overweight or obese” (Berger 2014).
"Today, hundreds of thousands of aesthetic plastic surgery procedures are conducted each year" (Petechuk, 2014, p. 4). People do not think twice about having a procedure done because they have enough money. People believe that insecurities can be fixed to make themselves feel better. Unfortunately, people all over the world are having surgeries done. Most might not think this is unfortunate, but some do.
The human body is an amazing thing made up of many different parts. These parts are cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems. For starters, one type of cell makes up one type of tissue. Next, two or more types of tissues make an organ. Then, a few organs working together make an organ system.