Every year Hundreds of thousands of Americans undergo different plastic surgery procedures. Both men and women find this is a rapid and effective solution to obtain their dream body, or so it is sold to them.
There are three different types of surgeries, plastic surgery, which targets the body for removing fat and shaping it; as well as removing tattoos and acne scars. Reconstructive surgery, which targets burned and accident victims. Also replaces missing "limbs or teeth, or arthritic hip and knee joints". And the cosmetic surgery, which is done on the face. This type of surgery for being the most performed is also known as plastic surgery overall; as long as it is performed for cosmetic purposes, otherwise it would be reconstructive.
Ever since 2006, "nearly 11 million cosmetic surgeries were performed in the United States alone. The number of cosmetic procedures performed in the United States has increased over 50 percent since the start of the century. Nearly 12 million cosmetic surgeries were performed in 2007, with the five most common being breast augmentation, liposuction, nasal surgery, eyelid surgery and abdominoplasty(tummy tucks).
But why do people choose having their body cut open as opposed to safely losing weight through exercise and an adequate diet?
I consider it the same as making money. Most people, if not everyone, rather win the lottery than working for hours and hours to become rich. As people living under this society we want free time to live the Good life. There are many requirements for this life to even happen. The most known are being financially stable, looking good, and being part of different groups/communities,etc. These characteristics would also represent someone who is Cool.
Plastic surgery would be like winning the lottery, although a great amount of money is being lost at the same time.
The truth is that most people do not like working for what they want, they just want to automatically obtain it. Things such as Hard work, determination, perseverance and commitment are not usually, if not ever, applied to anything we do in life. Does this mean we do not love or respect ourselves that much to dedicate time to achieve what our goals? I don't think so. It is more like we do not actually understand the effectiveness of hard work. And this is because it is uncool to work hard or to try hard(naturally cool). However the good results of it are always cool. So how can people obtain this good results, or good image of themselves, without working hard?
There are of course other factors to consider about being cool. People who go to the gym everyday or are part of any sports team is considered cool. And this is because they are physically strong and look good. But for those who do not have enough commitment or motivation to work out but want to look good might highly consider plastic surgery, because ultimately we all want to be cool. So this is a contradiction suggesting that being cool or not depends on people's opinion. However, looking -Good- is ALWAYS cool.
Experience
My mother had a breast augmentation and liposuction and she was still not satisfied with the results. It was not only expensive going through this procedure but she took weeks to recover. After experiencing this long and painful experience she realized that it was not the right choice after all. Because even though she was told to that it would make her look great she did not see herself that way. A few years after the surgery she still had the scars which made her even more upset everyday about her decision.
In my mother's case, she wanted to look physically better. Of course after being pregnant three times and breast feeding a woman may experience drastic changes in her body, but its natural. However this type of nature dissatisfies us. Those uncool looking marks and body shape that having a child cause are not something women want, and this is because it does not look good.
My mother decided to have a costly surgery to go back to good old days (before having us) and feel attractive once again. Unfortunately, the results did not meet her expectations and she regretted ever going through surgery. In my opinion she did look fine, even before the surgery because I never considered my mother as cool because of her appearance. And although I did communicate that to her, she still thought the opposite of herself, which makes me think that being cool or not it is something you decide at the end, not other people.
Another experience I had was with my friend Max from Venezuela. He wanted to become a plastic surgeon because he wanted to make women beautiful. I have never been against nor in favor of plastic surgery, therefore, I never argued with him on his idealism. He was really determined to become surgeon so he looked for many different colleges that would give him what he wanted. I lost touch with him and after nearly one year I saw pictures of him on facebook going to medical school studying to become a plastic surgeon.
Now that I think about it I am very surprised he is actually doing it. This is not because i doubted his determination, but because his reason to become a surgeon was ridiculous! I wonder if he ever consider that a woman can be naturally beautiful. And the way I see it all women can actually be naturally beautiful, they do not need to go through something such as surgery. But I just never told him.
So we know that plastic surgery is one of the methods to become cool. But there are other more simple methods that will make one person consider himself/herself as cool. One of these methods is having a tattoo.
Plastic Surgery v.s. Tattoos.
I personally think that going through plastic surgery takes a much more courage than getting a tattoo. Some people have one or the other and others have both, but all of them with the same purpose: Look good according to their own definition of it. Having a tattoo is something that is meant to last for the rest of your life, which is the opposite of having plastic surgery. Although with cosmetic surgery people can have their tattoos removed even if they thought that once it was cool.
In conclusion plastic surgery or any other methods to look good in order to be cool is just one more thing that makes us who we are and live as a society. These methods are just sold to us, our decisions are just making the economy run. A surgeon stops caring about making you beautiful and only about how many pay checks he earns. In my case I would not go through plastic surgery or any related procedure not because I like working hard, but because I am scared of the process. I also think that all that pain and money is not worth it. Even though millions of people out there think it is, we just do not know.
Sources
Plastic Surgery
Answers.com/Plastic Surgery
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