The Pursuit of Physical Perfection: Understanding Women and Beauty Surgery
In recent decades, cosmetic surgery has become increasingly popular around the world. While people of all genders seek these enhancements, studies show that over 90% of all beauty surgeries are performed on women. This discrepancy highlights the immense societal pressures women face to achieve idealized standards of beauty.
From a young age, girls receive messages that their worth is tied to their appearance. As adults, this translates into dissatisfaction with one’s looks being commonplace among women. Beauty surgery offers the chance to alter features that women have been conditioned to critique about themselves, like the size of their breasts, the shape of their nose, the fullness of their lips, etc. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reported that in 2021, breast augmentation would be the number one women’s surgical procedure.
The internet, social media, and reality television have also contributed to distorted beauty ideals that favor Eurocentric features. The desire for bigger lips, wider eyes, narrower noses, and smaller chins has boosted demand for cosmetic enhancements and beauty surgeries among women of color too. Critics argue that women’s surgery promotes conformity rather than self-acceptance when taken to extremes.… Read More