Extreme Dieting and Plastic Surgery - Essay Example

?Extreme Dieting and Plastic Surgery The criteria for judging women attractiveness today has taken ridiculously high standards that it has ceased to be a simple matter of beauty. The focus has now shifted to the question of how far one is willing to go in the quest to have the “perfect” body. Through measures such as advertising, the manufactures of these beauty products have made these standards even higher which makes the definition of beauty unhealthy, unnatural and unrealistic. The findings of a research conducted by Dove indicated that of the 3,000 women sampled from ten countries, only about two per cent considered themselves beautiful (Dove 2004). The research was conducted in a number of countries such as USA, the UK, Canada, Italy and Canada amongst others, which are considered Westernized countries. In these countries, the cultural concept of what is beautiful is based on ideals that include thinness, tallness and whiteness among others. According to the study, those women that do not possess these qualities see themselves as being less attractive. It further trickles down to the issue of low self-esteem reported by these women. Such women may do what it takes to make themselves beautiful through correction of the parts of their bodies that make them feel less attractive. Thus, these women have resorted to plastic surgery as a means of correcting what they perceive as a defect in their bodies. The first reason why women use extreme dieting or plastic surgery as a means of maintains what they think is a perfect body is the need for a quick fix solution while at the same time maintaining their unhealthy lifestyle. Such women do not wish to spend their time exercising or consuming healthy diets. Thelma is excited about the impending release into the market of Flowcal which manufacturers claim reduces weight faster without one having to give up on their eating lifestyle. What is funny is that while discussing the new diet medicine, Thelma is actually taking beer that has a high level of calories. Body integrity is one of the reasons that women choose extreme dieting and plastic surgery. Many women claim that they wanted a part of their body structure to be aligned into the rest of their body. They claim that they felt uncomfortable because the particular body part prevented them from doing some activities. Due to this, such women see plastic surgery as a corrective solution that will make them to dispose or rectify certain aspect of the body part that they feel uncomfortable living with (Fox 1997). Claudia claimed that her breasts were too heavy and could not allow her to put on T-shirts. For her, she had to rectify that part of her body so that she would be able to feel light and also put on a T-shirt. The need to have a body that looks younger and age appropriate may also drive women to undergo plastic surgery or use extreme dieting processes. Since the body fat percentage tend to increase with age, women who want to main younger look will find they need to find a way that will reverse their biological clock by reversing the effects of aging from showing on their bodies. These women will go for any procedure that promises quick and painless solution to their weight issues. Some women may also feel that their bodies do not represent their actual age as they think they should look younger (Fox 1997). Possibly, this is perfectly captured by the two women; Thelma in her late forties while Maria in her forties. These women are engrossed in what they find exciting news about the impending release of a new diet medicine in the market they claim does not have a side effect. Their excitement shows that even as they continue to progress in age, they will do anything to ensure that their bodies do not reflect this advancement. Some women claim that some psychological factors contribute to them seeking these measures as a means making them more comfortable with their own bodies. Such women take the option of extreme dieting and plastic surgery state unhappiness, low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence as among the driving force that make them choose these measures of weight loss. They claim that the discrepancy between their personalities was affected by their body image (Ovreberg 2012). These procedures represent an out let for them to change what they see as a mismatch between what they should look like and what their body image reflects to the outside world. The mass media through advertisement has also changed the concept of beauty by presenting a woman with flawless skin and body features as being the epitome of attractiveness. The media can go as far as presenting photo-shopped images of celebrities to popularize the products they advertise. The use of celebrities in these advertisements also makes many hooked to these products; many of the women wish to look like their popular celebrities. Such women follow blindly what is advertised without making their own enquiry to find out if it is actually true that these celebrities actually use the products they advertise. Further, do not investigate whether the advertisement presents the whole truth (Lim 2011). The presentation of popular television celebrities Carolina Ferraz, Silvia Pfeiffer and Jose Mayer in the Flowcal advertisement contributed to popularization of the product. The actors are presented in a setting that indicates a wealthy status. Consumers of such products are thus attracted to the diet medicine, as they want share the social status of these celebrities. The need to identify with westernization may also come into play as a factor when discussing the reason why women might go to the extent of getting into extreme dieting and plastic surgery. These see the thinness and skin colour promised by these products as a representation of a modern and progressive woman. They see it as a way of proving that they are advanced and have adopted the western culture that they see as being technologically advanced (Gregory 2011). The middle class in Brazil saw the use of Flowcal as a symbol of their access to the first world. Since the origin of the diet medicine was Switzerland, the middle class consumers in Brazil saw themselves as being a part of the first world population who had embraced the science of the day. Women who continuously procure these extreme dieting and plastic surgery services may end up developing an addiction to them (Samuels 2011). The real reason they use such means of body correction might not be because of the defects they perceive but because they cannot stop using them. Such people are highly critical of their bodies and they will aim to correct any part of their body they feel does not fit the description of what their bodies should look like. This claim is supported by the fact that the women in Leaky are excited by the fact that there is a new diet medicine coming into the market called, Flowcal. They cannot wait to test it out to determine its effect even when they have been using other products. The women eat more food claiming that eating more improves the effect of the medicine in their body. Logic would dictate that if they wanted to reducer weight they should reduce the calories they consume but not to consume more. This proves the addiction they have towards diet medicine and they are willing to test any such products that lands into the market. Women today are faced with a big challenge of keeping up with the societal standards of beauty. Women are faced with the need to maintain body shape without going through the longer route that involves exercising and eating healthy diets. Some women are also afraid of having wrinkles therefore such measures present a solution to the problem they dread. There is also a psychological angle to the reasons for women accessing extreme dieting and plastic surgery. Such women claim that these measures will help them improve their self-esteem and general outlook of life. Advertisements play a role in influencing the decision to go through such personal decisions. Those that are swayed to believe that they can achieve the beauty as advertised by their popular celebrities do not resist the chance of trying it out. Those that go through such procedures should be careful that even as they go through these processes, they are not consumed with the desire to be perfect which lead to an addiction to these products. The long-time effects of extreme dieting and plastic surgery are another matter to take into consideration. Engrossment into perfecting the shape of our bodies should not make these women blind to what the side effects of the products was doing top their bodies. References Dove, 2004. Only 2% of women think they're beautiful. [Online], Available: http://www.dove.co.uk/en/Tips-Topics-and-Tools/Articles-and-Advice/Only-2per-of-women-think-they-are-beautiful.aspx. [accessed Oct. 07, 2013] Gregory, A. 2011, Plastic surgery can’t fix cultural blinders, The State Press [Electronic], Available at: http://www.statepress.com/2011/01/18/plastic-surgery-cant-fix-cultural-blinders/ [accessed Oct. 07, 2013] Lim, C. 2011. Factors contributing to high rates of cosmetic surgery in Utah [Online], KSL. Available: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=968&sid=18081280 . [accessed Oct. 07, 2013] Fox, K. 1997.Mirror, mirror: A summary of research findings on body image. SIRC- Social Issues Research Centre [Online], Available: http://www.sirc.org/publik/mirror.html. [accessed Oct. 07, 2013] Ovreberg, E. 2012, Education, social status, mental health and childhood events are factors which can be used to predict which women consider cosmetic surgery ScienceNordic. [Online], Available: http://sciencenordic.com/why-women-want-plastic-surgery. [accessed Oct. 07, 2013] Samuels, H. 2011, Plastic surgery addiction [Online], Available: http://drhowardsamuels.com/addiction-guide/plastic-surgery/.[accessed Oct. 07, 2013] Read More