Cosmetic Surgery in the Pursuit for Beauty

The pursuit of beauty is the instinct of most human beings. Evidence of this assertion is ubiquitous in the world. Have a look at the women in Hong Kong, and hardly can you seek for someone that is without make-up. Flipping through the magazines, you will never cease to be amazed by the enormous number of advertisements on slimming and cosmetic products. In recent decades, the advancing technology has inspired new hopes for those who desire to have a fundamental change in their appearances– through cosmetic surgery. Just like almost everything in the world, cosmetic surgery also has its own disadvantage such as leading the society to a more image-obsessed one, causing addiction and health consequences. Many people regard cosmetic surgery as part of modern life and undoubtedly, it has some favourable spots that attracting people. In fact, everyone may have some imperfection on our bodies: one may have small eyes, or have some freckles on her face. It is human’s nature to subconsciously judge people by their appearances which may affect ones’ career prospect. A psychologist Edward Thorndike suggested that human is psychologically conditioned to consider beautiful people can perform better than the ‘ugly’ ones judging by the fact that pretty people earn more and succeed more. Considering this, people may go for cosmetic surgery to attain a perfect body which boosts their confidence and offering a successful future. However, using cosmetic surgery as a tool for being beauty may lead the society to become more and more image-obsessed. When taking cosmetic surgery becomes a trend, the concept of beauty will gradually distort.

Recently, Zara has come under fire in China due to posting Chinese top model in an advertisement without airbrush her freckles. Some of the Chinese considered it as an insult to Asian as the advertisement depicting the model with little make-up and lots visible freckles. But instead, it is real beauty. Since the widespread of cosmetic surgery, people appreciate those with impeccable facial appearance and increasingly judge others by their appearance. Nonetheless, if the trend of cosmetic surgery become prevalent, everyone tends to undergo surgery. Eventually, people will all look like the same with a flawless face and a thin waist. The consequence brought by cosmetic surgery is disastrous not to mention people will addict to it. Not only does it bring social impact, but cosmetic surgery may also cause obsession. People who undergo cosmetic surgery can remove the imperfections on one’s body. But just because it makes one’s eyes larger or the nose look taller, people might unnecessarily start finding other faults in other parts of the body. Then, these manners perpetuate their desire for more cosmetic surgery. From facelift to liposuction, then breast augmentation, the addicts will undergo more and more surgery endlessly. Either the East or the West, addicts of cosmetic surgery are omnipresent. He Chengxi, who start taking cosmetic surgery since her age of 15, in order to emulate a Chinese actress, Fan Bingbing; Pixee Fox, who is a self-proclaimed human Barbie, had fifteen surgeries and six ribs remove to attain cartoon characteristic. There are more than we cannot see but incredibly exist. Sometimes, when the outcome of the surgery is not equal to addicts’ expectation, they may want to have one more operation. In addition, as time changes, the definition of beauty by taking another operation. Undeniably, it will be a vicious circle.

Causing obsession aside, cosmetic surgery brings irreversible damage to human bodies. No matter how advanced the technology is, there are still risks involved. Numerous cosmetic procedures pose serious health threats to the body, such as excessive blood clots, collapsed muscles, and scar tissues. The substances put in the bodies are artificial which may result in infection or damage the original functions of the body parts. For example, if a woman undergoes a breast augmentation, she will no longer available to breastfeed her babies. Since cosmetic surgery destroys the original structure of one’s body, it brings permanent harm to oneself. There are more tragedies that attribute to cosmetic surgery, Pete Burn is one of the examples. He cannot stop his fascination with cosmetic surgery, having had extensive polyacrylamide injection in his lips, cheek implants and several nose jobs. He has taken probably 300 surgeries and most of them are reconstructive surgeries due to the injection of his lip. Eventually, the doctors use part of his stomach to recreate his lip and he died of cardiac arrest recently. Undergoing cosmetic surgery for pursuing beauty is both personally and socially undesirable. Not only does it bring impairments to human, but it also conveys about bad moral value, stressing the importance of beautiful appearance. Everyone has imperfections unavoidably, but it is better to embrace rather than hate them, and besides, true beauty lies on the inside, not in plastic injection.