Anna Grofik
Surgery
Junkies
This article begins by discussing the popular reality television show,
Extreme Makeover, and the ways in which the shows achieves its popularity. The
personal accounts of ‘real people’ serve to connect the character with the viewer
and their experiences of ‘revealing their inner selves’ offer an emotionally
deep journey that would seem to be out of place on a show concerned with
shallow appearance.
The show’s main idea is that the participants are not in their ‘real
body’; rather they are in a body that needs to be transformed in order to
become a better version of their inner self. I think this paradox is a way to
mask the hypocrisy in cosmetic surgery by offering a spiritually renewing idea
that you are not your true self unless you look the way you desire, forgetting
your natural born body altogether. While reading the accounts of some of the
participants’ Extreme Makeover experiences, I noticed that words such as wrong,
broken, ugly, distorted or marred were used to describe the ‘old bodies’. I
believe these words, along with self-hatred, form the foundations of the
cosmetic surgery market demand. In the article, the cosmetic surgery phenomenon
is compared to winning the lottery and the pain is described as being ‘worth
it’ to achieve one’s ‘dream-come-true’ transformation. On the Extreme Makeover,
pain is minimized to the effect that the focus is not on the means of
transformation, but rather the benefits of it. I agree with Michelle, a
cosmetic surgery patient, that the show’s depiction of cosmetic surgery is “a
kind of deceptive marketing”. By glossing over the reality of the invasive and
risky nature of this surgery in reality television, reports show that the
number of surgeries has increased significantly. The cosmetic surgery industry
denies that the show has been the main factor in this increase; rather they
allot this change to an increase in public awareness of the industry itself.
In the article, cosmetic surgery is described as a practice that
“pathologizes the body in order to claim the psychological wellness of its
participants”. Promoting the ideology of “have the outer beauty match the inner
beauty” is a main component of the industry. In my opinion, changing the outer
beauty through cosmetic surgery devalues personal beauty.
The Poor have
the Right to be Beautiful
This article discusses the major
prevalence of cosmetic surgery in Brazil, focusing specifically on economically
disadvantaged Brazilians and their desire for what they call “plastica”,
cosmetic surgeries. This idea is so commonplace that they treat it as a
practice of self-care and a right that everyone should have.
There are public
hospitals that federally support these surgeries at no cost at all. As
mentioned in the article, with Brazil’s lacking health system, I don’t believe
that cosmetic surgeries should be frivolously given away with zero cost. A
Brazilian news magazine coined the article title, ‘Brazil, empire of the
scalpel’, a circumstance that brought attention to Brazil as a major ‘champion’
of cosmetic surgery. I also found it interesting that the growth of plastica is
viewed as an indicator of economic growth in Brazil. Reading Denise’s story and
how the doctor referred to her principal illness as poverty as a reason for him
to perform her cosmetic surgery was disheartening. To consider cosmetic surgery
a route to happiness for a disadvantaged person makes me realize why this is an
epidemic among the poor in Brazil. The article raises a great point in
questioning why do we not use psychologists to treat these troubled psyches
instead of cosmetic surgery. Some surgeons argue that they can change
everything while psychologists change nothing. The article then goes on to
discuss how some Brazilians use cosmetic surgery as a way to ‘get ahead’ in
life or to raise their social stature. The article also discusses the concept
of a ‘racialized beauty myth’ and how the ideals of beauty and race are
combined in a very specific image that transfers to the types of cosmetic
surgeries such as attention to ‘filling out’ the lower body. This preference
was strange to read about seeing as though we discuss the restrictions on the
female lower body in the U.S. I was shocked to read about Brazilian concerns
about ‘racial mixing’ and the doctors’ opinions that different racial
characteristics sometimes make an ‘ugly combination’. The fact that racial
characteristics are erased by cosmetic surgery is a monstrous occurrence in my
opinion. By rejecting your racial characteristics, I feel that you reject your
ethnicity and culture.
The article concludes that modern medicine, notions of
health and changes in sexual and social relationships, in addition to the
beauty myth, fuel the fire of cosmetic surgery in Brazil. As mentioned in
class, the article discusses the fact that most people undergoing cosmetic
surgery just want to look normal, not necessarily beautiful. However, there is
attention paid to being sexier and fulfilling female ideals of beauty. The
article speaks of beauty as having a democratic appeal, something that can be
obtained by all. This idea may hold the key to the idea that ‘the poor have the
right to be beautiful’.
I like how Anna points out how one of the Brazilian doctors said that poverty was her main illness, and how the mixture of races is considered ugly, and it is thus why people want to fix their faces. But I think it is important to point out the alarming issue that Brazil has with racism, and how much it actually does affect people who carry traces of these racial mixtures. It is a very unfortunate, but it is our reality, and plastic surgery procedures have indeed helped people gain and maintain jobs.
ReplyDeleteI also realized how problematic the cosmetic surgery is in Brazil to those who use it as a means to happiness and defeating all other life problems. Plastic surgery functions as a way to cure low self esteem and “get ahead” in life. This mindset is totally skewed, it sends a message that a person’s value lies in their body and they begin to see themselves as objects where in order to be attractive, successful, and accepted they must align themselves with the radicalized beauty myths and the “eroticized and aestheticized hybridity that has been a key symbol in elaborations of national identity” in Brazil.
ReplyDeleteSammy Secrist
Jane Vinocur
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anna that the show Extreme Makeover presents “idea that you are not your true self unless you look the way you desire, forgetting your natural born body altogether.” However, I think the show looks past the body that “you desire”, and instead focuses on the body society desires you to have. While participants on the show would say that one thing, for example their nose, was bothering them and they wanted it fixed, they would then be presented with a team of surgeons who would tell them all sorts of other procedures that they should also have in order to be “the most beautiful they could be”. The doctors on this show represent society and show that no matter what you change about your body, it’s never enough.