Plastic surgery has become increasingly common in society as more people are undergoing procedures to make themselves look “pleasing” to society. The statistics to prove this is that in “In the US within the last decade, permanent changes of the body for aesthetic reasons has become increasingly popular. By 1988, 2 million Americans, 87% of them female, had undergone cosmetic surgery, which is a figure that had tripled in two years (Wolf 1991:218)”. This signifies that society is pressuring women to look a certain way for them to feel pleasing to others around them. Some women are encouraged to have plastic surgery because of opinions of others that imply that plastic surgery makes you look more attractive and glamourous. This leads more women to change their appearance and identity and wanting to look like a photoshopped celebrity just because they feel as if they need to make themselves look more attractive to others. This causes them to modify their appearance by getting plastic surgery.
Around 10 years ago less women who were in their teens and early twenties sought plastic surgery but now they are doing it because they are seeing themselves from a different perspective due to models like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian with their curious bodies (Salzhaue 2017) Women look up to celebrities that spend a lot of time focusing on their appearance and how they perceive themselves on the social media. Some celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner do this by photoshopping and using filters etc. to make themselves look good in the public eye but also to make themselves feel good about themselves as the pictures they post can never be real as it is physically impossible for plastic surgery to add to what they have already got done. Kim Kardashian is mostly known for having her fat transferred from areas such as the waist or stomach and had it put into her buttocks and hips to create a curvier frame to make it look more natural leading her fans to think she has not undergone any type of surgery. (Emmeline Saunders 2018). She has over 120 million followers just on Instagram which illustrates the fact that a lot of people look up to her and are influenced to do anything that makes them look like her. This is mainly by getting plastic surgery and implants to make the “curvious figure” that Kim Kardashian has built for herself by the help of plastic surgery. This indicates that many women are influenced by public figures to make themselves feel better as they look like a celebrity who is popular. As well as this Kim Kardashians sister Kylie Jenner also is a well-known celebrity and has a big influence on her fans. An example of this was when Kylie got lip fillers, she created a trend where many of her fans got their lips done and others tried to make their lips bigger in various ways. But after a while she had decided to get rid of her fillers and wanted to be natural and then influenced all her fans to embrace their natural look and had a good impact on all the people who look up to her.
However, some people feel as if they are obliged to fit into society and to that they need to undergo plastic surgery. This is because they feel as though they are treated better and are more recognised for their looks. A 20 year old woman said how people in society are rewarded for their efforts if they are attractive because of their body, especially if they are a girl. This is due to them changing their appearance by using plastic surgery to alter how they look. If they look pretty and neat, they are paid more attention to and seen as more desirable”(Eugina Kaw 1991).This signifies that women in particular are obligated to feel as though they are not attractive enough to receive attention and recognition and need to alter their flaws just to feel as though they exist and are significant to the world. This individual felt as if she had adjust her body to the opinions of others around her and is going to go through different surgeries to look like the ideal woman that mainly men want them to look like. When the women were questioned about why they wanted to undergo plastic surgery and what they expected from it most of them said they wanted to be 'normal' due to society changing their perspective of what normal means. (Andrade 2010). This illustrates how women don’t feel like they are normal as they are made to feel they need to go the extra step to be classed as “normal”. After they get plastic surgery they feel as if they have fit in to society and are more comfortable as other people around them accept who they are. This makes plastic surgery feel more normal as more people are undergoing surgeries because of the opinions of other people that make controversial comments that make women feel self-conscious about their body and feel uncomfortable in their own skin. This is a major cause of why women get plastic surgery.
Many people in society feel as if their natural body is not enough to fit in society and feel pressured to change it into the “beach body” the media wants to see. The “beach body” is typically having a skinny body with the help of surgery to make your curves such as your hips looking narrow and your bottom looking bigger in order to fit into the typical image of having a “beach body'. The shape of the body has become a significant important social dimension in a society where norms and images have been widely conveyed by the media (Daniela Dorneles de Andrade 2010).