A Culture study of Plastic Surgery and its presence on television

Essay by dgbrit3High School, 12th grade March 2004

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The cultural manifestations that I am really interested in pursuing for the Spring Project are the current programs on television concerning plastic surgery. There are several shows out right now such as MTV's 'I want a Famous Face' and FX's 'Nip, Tick'. I think that both of these shows present a discourse in identity in the idea of alterations of their physical appearance. Both shows present issues on what it mean's to be beautiful, the sanity of humans surrounding changing their physical appearance. There are so many sub-topics that surround each show such as cultural acceptance through physical appearance, personal gratification and satisfaction.

I am also really interested in discussing America's distorted views of beauty. Back in the day it was beautiful to be fat and large and now the entire world feels the need to have smaller legs, smaller waste, bigger muscles, larger breasts, smaller nose, large eyes.

The thing that is the most bothering to me about the people who are engaging in these physical changes are the fact that a lot of these people are beautiful to our society's standards from above, but still continue to change and alter their appearance. This is a huge issue on nip and tuck. There are some people that become obsessed with the concept of plastic surgery. (Just look at Michael Jackson). When is there a limit? Should there be a limit?

There are many different physical operations that can be performed on the body past the simple procedure of plastic surgery. There is also liposuction, face-lifts, collagen injections, botox injections, and tons of other implant operations. Recent studies have also shown that such implants such as breasts can even cause poisonous and cancerous side effects from the operation. With people still knowing the consequences, physical appearance still is...