Preview

Television and Domestication of Cosmetic Surgery

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3029 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Television and Domestication of Cosmetic Surgery
TELEVISION AND THE DOMESTICATION OF COSMETIC SURGERY

ARTICLE BY- Sue Tait

INTRODUCTION:
Today, there are a number of reality series on television which make over “ordinary” people. Two such US produced shows are Extreme Makeover and Nip/Tuck. Extreme Makeover aired from 2002 to 2005 was the most successful of television’s surgical reality shows and Nip/Tuck which was on air from 2003 was the first drama series about cosmetic surgery.
This article by Sue Tait throws light on how cosmetic surgery advertised in television shows have played a major role in changing the thinking of women. There are celebrities out there on television, having had a number of cosmetic surgeries to their “imperfect” body part, who influence viewers thinking to a great extent. Feminists believe that women now think that a physical transformation is the route to happiness and personal empowerment.
These television programmes domesticate cosmetic surgery by advertizing its positive effects and showing how these surgeries can change one’s unaesthetic looks into an appealing character. People who are not interested in altering their imperfect body parts are also pulled into this industry.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
Banet-Weiser and Portwood-Stacer’s work (2006, page 257) on surgical reality television identifies post-feminism as the logic which shows “where a celebration of the body, the pleasure of transformation, and individual empowerment function as a justification for a renewed objectification of female bodies.”
According to researches by Jeffreys, Morgan, Sullivan and Wolf, cosmetic surgery is dangerous
Many scholars like Bordo, Davis, Gagne & McGaughey, Gillespie, Padmore and Woodstock examine the desire for surgery and the natural contradiction that giving in to hegemonic standards of beauty enables the experience of liberation.
Davis argues that cosmetic surgery is not about subscribing to popular standards of beauty, but about performing a more coherent identity. It is about

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Glassmeyer addresses how our appearance-obsessed culture has facilitated an enormous incline in the pursuit of plastic surgery and consumption of weight loss products. Glassmeyer explains how transformation stories that drive body-enhancing advertisements captivate consumers with blandishments of beauty, improved self-image, and success. Recently, Glassmeyer describes, these industries have flourished and received more attention as individuals’ confidence in their bodies have plummeted. Glassmeyer clarifies…

    • 1145 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    She believes that plastic surgery should only be a right when reconstructive because aesthetic surgery, more often than not, is problematic within the media. “The people in media have a large influence in other people’s lives.” Although we may not explicitly chase after these body types,” she says “we allow for these images to subconsciously tell us that is what we also want to look like.” The two young women, through their comments, seem to disagree with a point of view that Edmonds brings up regarding cosmetic surgery having a direct relationship to health. For these young women, there appears to be a disconnect in terms of aesthetic surgery and health. Plastic surgery, only when considered reconstructive, appears to serve a social purpose. On the other hand, most people that Edmonds spoke with seemed to think that both aesthetic and reconstructive surgery are a part of health, explaining why most public hospitals offer it for free even when the funds are allocated only for reconstructive surgery. Surgeons have made an argument that since cosmetic surgery can be psychological, it coincides with mental health and something worth treating (Edmonds…

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In today’s society, the one thing most stressed about is one’s outer appearance. It doesn’t matter how smart one is or how talented you are, if you have beauty then you have the world. Margaret Atwood, author of Oryx and Crake, focuses her novel around a society where most companies promote a better outer appearance for people. People would spend every spare dollar to get wrinkle free skin, so that they can be young looking old people. The “Crakers” were made to have no human imperfection, which is the cause that makes people feel inferior. Free experimental procedures enabled people to look younger at any risk because it was free. Lastly in Atwood’s society, cosmetic procedures have become so normalized that one can never tell what is or what isn’t real. Today’s society has become so fixated on having procedures, such as plastic surgery, that it has become an obsession to be beautiful. Atwood’s prediction on how society will become obsessed with cosmetic procedures is accurate because of the path our society is headed. According to the research, people are on the path to a plastic surgery obsessed society, because they feel like their looks are inferior, people are oblivious to the risks because of the cheap procedures that are out there, and it is no longer considered a taboo.…

    • 2122 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    One of the most shocking, yet consistent themes in Nip/Tuck is the unforgiving visuals of surgical procedures. Although it is plastic surgery, the depth in which Nip/Tuck creators go to depict every aspect of these procedures seems to have an impact both on the meaning, and the ideological views the show portrays. Vanity being the most common motivation for plastic surgery, the question posed to the audience is–does this…

    • 2321 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In today’s modern culture, many men and women suffer from a variety of psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety and anorexia. Many of these psychological disorders can be prevented if society did not have preset standards for us to follow. For example, our society from an early age tells us that all women have to have a slim waist and be curvy. The controversial issues amongst women and their outward appearance can be found in “The Ugly Truth About Beauty” by Dave Barry as well as “The Pitfalls of Plastic surgery” Camille Paglia. In these two essays both writers put an emphasis on how the media often demoralize women by having preset standards of beauty, that threaten the female identity.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Women and men should always have their right to be accepted the way they are. Cosmetic Surgery is really a major influence in the American Society. According to the write, the culture has become obsessed…

    • 198 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    No matter where you look in the media, it seems there is always news about celebrities with their latest updates about their beauty and appearance. By publishing this media, companies are conveying to society what the “ideal image” is, and that changing your body by the means of plastic surgery and cosmetology will be the solution to sadness and self consciousness, making you live a better and happier life. A notorious example of this “ideal” image being portrayed in modern society is Heidi Montag, who arguably ruined herself by getting too much plastic surgery. In stark contrast, The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a much different example of cosmetic change during the 1700s, and shows that the “ideal” image is not something from the modern world, but rather has been around for a long time. Dark romanticism, otherwise stated as the dark side of human nature that is caused by self obsession and vanity, plagues the world we live in by convincing people…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Throughout the article “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery” Camille Paglia in the Essay The pitfalls of plastic surgery the author states her opinion and views on the topic of Plastic Surgery she gives the reader for example the history of body modification and how it went from something not many people out of celebrities status had access to until the late 1990s-2002 where almost every major city has a plastic surgeon.…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Tell us what you don’t like about yourself,” Dr. Troy and Dr. McNamara ask patients at the beginning of each plastic surgery consultation on the Emmy Award winning series Nip/Tuck. The patients, predominately Caucasian women or aspiring models and actresses, then give a detailed list of what they dislike about their bodies and the procedures they would like to have done. Dr. Troy will even go as far as to peruse Miami’s most popular bars and nightclubs for beautiful, insecure women in the entertainment industry. After sleeping with them sleep, he points out flaws on their body that he could fix in their most vulnerable moments after consummation. Fox channel’s Nip/Tuck is just one example of how women are frequently objectified or underrepresented…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dittman, Melissa. 2005. “Plastic Surgery: Beauty or Beast?” Monitor on Psychology 36(8): 30. Accessed March 8, 2014. Miah, Andy (PhD).…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Body Alterations

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages

    On the opposite side, cosmetic surgery can be applied for several reasons. One of them is looking for example as a certain idol, celebrity or any public figure. This aim is becoming very redundant between women who seek having this actress’ nose or that singer’s lips. From this way of thinking, we can say that cosmetic surgery promotes a kind of stereotype. For that, the uniqueness of each individual is abolished. For this way of interpretation, I stand on the same shore as the author.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Regardless of gender, plastic surgery is now becoming more and more widely accepted all over the world. Enhancing beauty used to be a feminine thing but in the modern times, it is now starting to become a part of global norms. Celebrities from Hollywood and local artists in different countries are now openly admitting their beauty transformation from cosmetic surgery. These celebrities play a great role in normalizing cosmetic surgery and making it a necessary procedure to transform one’s personality.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    greek mythology

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Susan Sontag insists that sometimes people pay attention only to their outer beauty than the inner beauty. As I mentioned in the essay, I too think that the reason why more and more people are willing to get a non-medical purposed plastic surgery is because they only pay attention to their appearance and care about how other’s may think about their outlooks. The author maintains that it is partially due to the social influence. People nowadays are prone to the public TV shows, commercials and movies that aim to grab the audience’s attention by projecting the what is to be thought “idealized” female and male performers. Her theory of the origin of our obsession with beautiful women explained how most women including me behave in certain ways.…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The most common response found in the questionnaire was that people found cosmetic surgery to be “stupid”, “against God” or “a violation of nature”, these responses mixed with the media responses to it, such as segments on Australia’s Today Tonight, 60 minutes and the US Good Morning America, make it obvious that cosmetic surgery is not an accepted procedure in today’s world, and that people, adolescents especially, are viewed negatively if they partake in a cosmetic…

    • 1729 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    America's True Beauty

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages

    More and more people are getting cosmetic surgery each and everyday. The popularity of beauty can be dangerous to people who are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve beauty to the fullest. Plastic surgery has not only become a want or need to some people, but an addiction. They will go above and beyond to do whatever it takes to find the best surgeon in the United States. “It is a troubling case study of how American culture grapples with techniques designed for therapy that can be used to fulfill our personal desire” (Rosen). Cosmetic surgery is also in denial of aging because women tend to “lift” their face with botox to make wrinkles and blemishes…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics