Cosmetic Surgery
After reading The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I couldn’t help but think how some of the issues within the piece are still pertinent. Like Geogiana, many people today are so self-conscious about their physical appearance that they are willing to go to any lengths the repair what is deemed ugly. Just as Geogiana gave herself over to her scientist husband to remove her “deformity,” many people give themselves over to plastic surgeons to do the same every year. In 2005 11.5 million cosmetic procedures were performed in the United States alone. (click here for more cosmetic surgery statistics) It is obvious that some people are of the same mentality as Georgiana. “Either remove this dreadful hand (her birthmark) or take my wretched life.” It makes me wonder, why are there so many cosmetic procedures being performed? Who or what puts these pressures on individuals to feel that their natural appearance isn’t good enough? Is it internal or external, as in Geogiana’s case where previous to her husband’s “shutter” she was perfectly happy with her appearance? Maybe it is a mixture of the two. These are just some things to think about. If you are interested, here are some of the reasons found by American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS). (reasons for plastic surgery)
posted by Ami at 10:47 PM
5 Comments:
I completely agree that this issue continues to resonate (and quite strongly) today. The world witnessed the first complete face transplant in 2006, and Nip/Tuck is a hit show on television. Furthermore, one of the arguments against a government run medical program is that individuals would abuse the program with plastic surgeries in such high demand. It is an interesting universal, time-spanning truth that raises the question as to why humans are the only animals who are so troubled by their natural appearance.
It's also interesting why plastic surgery is typically associated with the female image. While I've certainly watched episodes of Dr. 90210 and discovery channel specials featuring guys who wanted to look more like Brad Pitt, it seems that it's primarily women who are undergoing painful alterations of their appearances. Perhaps this is because women seek not only to fit the media's definition of beautiful (and thus impress males), but also because they feel the pressure to impress each other (why else are name brand bags and jeans so popular?).
Quinn, I agree that it is interesting that this emphasis on appearance is much stronger for women than men. One explanation I have for this can be thought of in terms of evolutionary reasoning. Women with more symmetrical features and larger breasts, etc. would be more likely to be fertile and thus pass genes on to the next generation. These features cannot be altered without procedures such as surgery. For men, broad shoulders and chests, powerful legs, etc. were shown to be correlated with fitness and thus more likely to pass on genes. Men can acheive such features through working out and lifting, while it is harder for women to increase only certain portions of their body without increasing others. This is probably far fetched, but I think it might be one thing to add into the bag of explanations...
haha...Amit, I like your comment about how women who want to increase certain portions of their body must also increase others. But anyway, really like that Ami brought up this issue. The statistics for cosmetic procedures annually is quite surprising and it saddens me to think that so many people are that concerned about their physical appearance that they would go to such extremes. I do, however, understand and am grateful for this feature of science because it has allowed people who have been through drastic facial deformation in accidents to find some way to reconstruct their face to a certain degree. And this is at least some form of beneficial rehabilitation for the patient. This issue is somewhat personal because my uncle just last week was involved in a horrible generator explosion and is currently going through the process of cosmetic surgery to help re-figure his face. But at the same time this sort of reasoning behind cosmetic surgery only accounts for a small small proportion of your 11.5 million procedures statistic. I guess the only reason that I can come up with for you is that people are naturally selfish. Everyone, me included. We think and worry too much about ourselves and often forget about the more important things in life. Just think about how much money and time was put into those 11.5 million procedures. It could have been used more wisely on hungry people, disadvantaged communities, medical research, education, and the list goes on...
When I read your post a few days earlier, it reminded me of an episode of Oprah that I saw. On the episode, there was a women who has gotten numerous amounts of cosmetic surgery done because of the persistent complaints that she heard from her mother. Everytime she got over a surgery, her mother seemed to pinpoint some other physical problem with her that she believed could be remedied with another surgery. I think there is an actual mental condition for what her mother has (I can't remember the name of it at this time), that only allows her to see her daughter's imperfections. If Aylmer had to be diagnosed, I think that he would have this condition as well. He seemed so fixated on Georgiana's birthmark-- fixated with the way it melded with the physical and not the way that it ultimately melded with the spiritual. Luckily for the mother on the Oprah episode, she was diagnosed before she could convince her daughter to go through more surgeries that were hurting her body...Aylmer was not so fortunate.
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