GLOBALIZATION TECHNOLOGY & SOCIAL CHANGE
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. For a majority of my life, I’ve always thought that phrase was so cliche due to the countless number of times I’ve heard it through the shows I’ve watched or the books I’ve read. But as I’ve grown older, I now understand and have gained the ability to fully interpret the meaning of this phrase. Societies and individuals around the globe have a specific mindset on what they perceive as beautiful. Despite our differences in geographic locations , cultures, and beliefs, every single individual has their own special definition of beauty. Moreover, all , if not, most people want to attain that desired level of beauty. Whether it be through dieting, through the clothes they wear, makeup, etc., a majority of people alter themselves in a manner in which they themselves deem as beautiful or attractive. However, some go as far as going under the knife and receiving cosmetic procedures as well as body modifications in order to gain physical traits that are sometimes too drastic or too unrealistic to be attained through the little things that could be removed at the end of the day. I’ll be going more in-depth into plastic surgery , and more specifically, why people would go to the great lengths they do in order to be seen as “beautiful” in society.
hISTORY OF COSMETIC SURGERY
Cosmetic surgery can be traced back to Ancient Egypt at around 3000 to 2500 BC with medical records being written on papyrus. In the papyrus contained treatment for the plastic repair of a broken nose , which was documented. Later on at around 800BC, cosmetic surgery was being carried out by famous ancient Indian physician , Sushruta. Unheard of to other civilizations, British physicians traveled to India to see rhinoplasties being performed. Reports on these Indian rhinoplasties were documented in 1794. After studying the practices of cosmetic surgeries for decades, English surgeon Joseph Constantine Carpue managed to perform the first major surgery in the Western world by 1815[1].
Before the creation of anesthetics, surgery involved a great deal of pain and infection was unavoidable. However, thanks to new practices such as using disinfectants and sterile tools as well as the usage of painkillers and antibiotics, this made cosmetic surgery far less risky. In 1827, the first American plastic surgeon was John Peter Mettauer who conducted the first cleft palate operation using surgery equipment that he himself designed. In 1845, German surgeon Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach wrote an excerpt based on rhinoplasty titles, Operative Chirugie, which introduced the concept of actually making reconstructed noses look attractive rather than only just reconstructing for medical reasons[2]. During World War II, cosmetic surgery was on a rise due to the thousands of men who served in the war having their faces left horribly disfigured. Known as the “father of plastic surgery”, Sir Harold Delf Gillies developed many of the techniques of modern facial surgery. Gillies and his colleagues carried out more than 11,000 operations on more than 5,000 men. When the war was over, Gillies travelled around the world to further promote his new surgical techniques on a global scale[3]. |
RISKS OF COSMETIC SURGERY
Plastic surgery is a global practice , meaning every part of the world has a different approach to it. For instance, a procedure that may cost $3000 in the U.S. may cost only $400 in Taiwan. Ideally, most people would want to save an extra buck or two and go for the cheaper option. However, just because the same procedure in the U.S. is being done in a different or foreign location doesn’t mean the policies and practices of the cosmetic surgery will be the same. Unfortunately, many people have fallen victim to malpractices of cosmetic surgery in places that offer “cheap” cosmetic surgeries , resulting in them becoming “botched”.
Famous reality television show "Botched", documents the journey of patients who have been left disfigured due to cosmetic surgeries gone wrong and go to plastic surgeon specialists doctors Terry Dubrow and Paul Nassif to correct the mistakes of their surgeries.. A majority of the cases documented involve the patients going to foreign countries to receive the cheaper alternative of surgeries , with the most common botched cases being breast augmentations and rhinoplasties. The patients talk about their hellish experiences with these doctors. One case I remember vividly was about a woman receiving a tummy tuck in a Mexico who said her surgeon used blocks of ice as anesthesia . Another patient on the show recounts the time she actually woke up during her surgery. However, sometimes the risks of cosmetic surgery are far worse than being left disfigured. Famous rapper Kanye West lost his mother , Donda West, to plastic surgery in November of 2007 a day or so after receiving multiple cosmetic procedures. Autopsy reports say many factors could have played a role in her death, but still to this day it is unsure what caused her death. This illustrates the danger some people will put themselves through for aesthetics and it is incredibly shocking to think people would risk all these complications for beauty. |
beauty in the workplace
Believe it or not, being attractive has its perks in the world, especially in the workplace. An interesting study conducted by Newsweek in 2010 involved one-thousand participants, some of them even being hiring managers, revealed that 72% believed being considered attractive was an advantage for a woman who's interviewing for a job. Cindi Leive, the editor-in-chief of Glamour, told NBC: “I think that a manager at work wants to know that you care enough about your appearance to be able to project professionalism on the job.” In another study, it was shockingly revealed that “attractive” people earned roughly 11%-15% more than their “less good-looking” counterparts[4]. Upon discovering this, I was hit with an immense wave of shock. It absolutely puzzled me to think someone could have more financial gain and overall privilege than another simply based on their outwards appearance as opposed to their skills and abilities. It is obvious that any person who wants a successful career path who sees this statistic will want to look their best in their job in order to make more money and have that advantage over others to in a sense “stand out from the rest.” Sometimes, “looking your best” for people might mean going under the knife and receiving surgeries to boost up their chances of getting a financial advantage. Furthermore, there is even believed to be a type of cognitive bias called the Halo Effect, where people will “often think attractive individuals are smarter, funnier, kinder, and even more athletic than average-looking people”, as put by Newsweek.
beauty in the legal system
If you think the importance of beauty goes only as far as the workplace, then you are extremely wrong. Beauty even has its perks in the justice system. In fact, a study based on the effects of physical attractiveness on judges were so influential, they fined unattractive criminals 304.88% higher than attractive criminals . According to Holmes, The more unattractive the criminal, the higher the sentence, and the more attractive the criminal, the lower the sentence.
|
In a Pennsylvania study, researchers gathered 67 defendants and amongst those defendants, were people of a mix of white, black, and hispanic races. On average, criminals who were simply not that good-looking were sentenced to 4.10 years in prison and attractive criminals were sentenced to 1.87 years in prison[5]. As stated, being attractive has even been proven to give advantages to attractive individuals when dealing with the law. Ironically, this is a very unjust thing to be done by the “justice system”.
Notorious serial rapist and murderer Richard Ramirez, also known as the “Night Stalker”, killed a total of fourteen people within the time span of April 10, 1984 , to August 24, 1985. However, he was so attractive, he literally received fan mail and visits from women while he was serving his time for his heinous crimes. He even went on to marrying one of his hundreds of admirers, Doreen Lioy. While incarcerated, Lioy sent Ramirez nearly 75 letters. She loved him so much that years before he actually died (he died due to long term health problems in 2013) , she said she’d commit suicide when Ramirez was executed[6]. It absolutely shocked me to know that not only a couple, but hundreds of women seemed to have completely look past and disregard the absolutely brutal and gruesome crimes this monster of a human committed just because of how attractive he was. This is a prime example of how much power someone holds if they are attractive , and another reason why beauty is sometimes highly sought out by some individuals and how cosmetic surgery can find its way into the mix of options for these people who seek beauty, |
the appeal of cosmetic surgery
People with a public platform and a fair amount of supporters and an overall following sometimes use their popularity to endorse certain foods, clothes, music, etc. but it has started to become a trend for these media influencers to glamorize and endorse cosmetic procedures. Countless amounts of “beauty bloggers” are sponsored by plastic surgery agencies to receive these cosmetic surgeries, which are paid in full or if not, mostly covered by the agency in exchange of the the blogger “sharing out” their experiences and basically letting their audiences know just how great the agency is. Now from what I have seen online, all of the cosmetic agencies that reach out to these bloggers are from South Korea, which just so happens to be known as the plastic surgery capital of the world. These plastic surgery agencies know how big of a role digital technology plays in the world today, and they cleverly use it to their advantage by using these bloggers with a significant amount of supporters as a platform to get their “name out” on a global scale rather than a local one. Here are just a few thumbnail clips from these sponsored bloggers:
Keep in mind, all of these videos each have over a hundred thousand views, all praising these plastic surgery agencies. There is not a doubt in my mind that out of these thousands of viewers, some are actually considering getting these procedures done.
In 2014, studies revealed that in America “nearly 64,000 cosmetic surgery patients in 2014 were aged 13-19, and experts believe this number is bound to rise”, according to People Bodies, The reason why so many young adults and teens are finding themselves in the operation room? The media. Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, CEO of BeverlyHillsBody, tells People: “There has been an increase in teens coming in for plastic surgery...This is directly related to the surgery of the stars of their reality shows, and the acceptance of cosmetic procedures on social media”[7]. For these teens, the common cosmetic surgeries are: rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, male breast reduction, ear surgery and dermabrasion. In South Korea, the desire for beauty is so desired, parents allow their children to get cosmetic procedures done as gifts.
In 2014, studies revealed that in America “nearly 64,000 cosmetic surgery patients in 2014 were aged 13-19, and experts believe this number is bound to rise”, according to People Bodies, The reason why so many young adults and teens are finding themselves in the operation room? The media. Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, CEO of BeverlyHillsBody, tells People: “There has been an increase in teens coming in for plastic surgery...This is directly related to the surgery of the stars of their reality shows, and the acceptance of cosmetic procedures on social media”[7]. For these teens, the common cosmetic surgeries are: rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, male breast reduction, ear surgery and dermabrasion. In South Korea, the desire for beauty is so desired, parents allow their children to get cosmetic procedures done as gifts.
conclusion
Cosmetic procedures brings a whole meaning to the phrase “Beauty is Pain”. For centuries, cosmetic surgery has been around but it wasn’t until the 19th century where these cosmetic procedures were carried out with the intent of improving someone's looks. As mentioned before, it as though society has put "attractive" people on a higher pedestal, giving them in a sense, more advantages than the other "plain janes" of the world. To attain this level of beauty, men , women, and even children find themselves going under the knife to alter themselves that not only they see as attractive but also deep down; what society sees as attractive.
RESEARCHER: GESSELYS NUNEZ
sources:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery. Accessed: 14 December 2017.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery. Accessed: 16 December 2017.
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery. Accessed: 16 December 2017.
[4]https://www.aol.com/article/2015/09/11/a-look-at-how-attractiveness-affects-the-workplace/21234844/. Accessed: 10 October 2017.
[5] http://www.thelawproject.com.au/blog/attractiveness-bias-in-the-legal-system. Accessed: 13 October 2017.
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez. Accessed: 14 December 2017.
[7] http://people.com/bodies/thousands-of-teens-are-undergoing-cosmetic-surgery-procedures/. Accessed: 10 October 2017.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery. Accessed: 16 December 2017.
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery. Accessed: 16 December 2017.
[4]https://www.aol.com/article/2015/09/11/a-look-at-how-attractiveness-affects-the-workplace/21234844/. Accessed: 10 October 2017.
[5] http://www.thelawproject.com.au/blog/attractiveness-bias-in-the-legal-system. Accessed: 13 October 2017.
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez. Accessed: 14 December 2017.
[7] http://people.com/bodies/thousands-of-teens-are-undergoing-cosmetic-surgery-procedures/. Accessed: 10 October 2017.