blog #6 (cosmetic surgery)

Cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery is a huge industry in our society today. According to Gimlin in her essay, cosmetic surgery was originally used for disabled war veterans and industrial workers, usually men. She also mentions the fact that cosmetic surgery is now centered around women because they are unhappy with certain aspects of their body. It is interesting how the industry keeps growing and growing, and the patients are mostly women. This means that more and more women have to be unhappy with their bodies. Is it because women gain more economic power as time goes on and this makes men in the positions of power feel more threatened? And if so, have men been trying to oppress and control women even more throughout the years with the "beauty myth" because we are gaining more power? I really do not have strong feelings about cosmetic surgery either way. I think cosmetic or plastic surgery is like aspirin. It is just fine in moderation and sometimes it can really help people if they have something that is causing them pain, but if you take the whole bottle it can kill you. Just like going too far with the surgeries can have devastating effects. I do think that some people in our society take plastic surgery too lightly just because it has become so mainstream. Most people do not think about the fact that it is like any other surgery and you could lose your life in the process. I think that it started off as a great thing that would help people and i think that plastic surgery is still a positive thing that can help improve peoples' self-esteem. I also think that a lot of people take it to far, and too lightly, and this makes us look like a vain and shallow culture since we have let it go to such extremes. So I do believe that it depends on the context of the situation.