GRSJ224/feminism-in-cosmetic-plastic-surgery

From UBC Wiki

Feminism in cosmetic/plastic surgery

Cosmetic surgery

           Cosmetic surgery is medical practice that focused on improving appearance through surgical procedures. Cosmetic surgery can broadly be applied to our body, from the head, neck and rest of the body. Cosmetic elective procedures can be performed by doctors or other surgeons in the field. For example, liposuction, face surgery, breast surgery, tummy tuck and other cosmetic surgeries[1].

Plastic surgery

           Plastic surgery can be defined as surgical and medical discipline specially to reconstruct facial and body defects cased by trauma, burns, disease and other dysfunctional body part. For example, hand surgery, reconstructive surgery, trauma surgery and congenital defect repair [2].

Brief History & Influential figure in plastic/ cosmetic surgery

           Nowadays, being a successful and outstanding woman in the society, intelligence and beauty are both standard requirement for acceptance and appreciation by the community. Combination of beauty and wisdom has been the slogan and motto of Miss Hong Kong Pageant. Wisdom can be formed up if a person consistently learning new things and gathering different knowledge, but outlook of a person is controlled by gene expression mostly. Practically, people might have to violate the laws of nature and gone through cosmetic surgery to get their outlook modified.

           Suzann Noël is one of the most important figures in the field of cosmetic surgery as early as the period of World War I. She is not only the first cosmetic surgeon in France, she also had active involvement in feminist movement[3]. In other words, Dr. Noël had been fighting for gender equality within the workforce dominated by males back old days by enhancing women’s appearances. As a result, her contribution on cosmetic surgery was much motivated and inspired by the beauty culture in early twentieth century and the femme moderneframework.

           Earlier within her career in the cosmetic surgery field, she mainly helped injured soldiers from the War to undergo plastic surgery to reconstruct their shredded faces. And later on, as the expansion of Soroptimist across Europe, Dr. Noël became more active in feminist activity and started to expend her cosmetic surgical procedure to pursuit of beauty.

           Notably, on one hand, there are many feminists argue that Dr. Noël is a pioneer of some cosmetic surgical procedures. On the other hand, some modern feminists also view Dr. Noël as an innovator but in negative way as the innovative surgical procedures that she came up with are somewhat risky and life-threatening to women[4].            

Feminism & Cosmetic surgery in contemporary society

There are so many definitions established by different literatures on “feminism” and cosmetic/ plastic surgery. Some feminists argue that within cosmetic/ plastic surgery, females have the freedom to choose whether they would undergo the surgery to improve the outlook. The “freedom of choice” has already embodied one of the most important ingredients of feminism where back in the days, females did not have powers and freedom compare to males in the society (e.g. voting, family role). Other feminists argue that by improving their outlook through cosmetic or plastic surgery, it would give them more privilege and power in the society (e.g. position upstream in the workforce). And those “owned” privilege and power enable females to insist gender equality and embrace feminism.  

           Rather than saying cosmetic surgery is limited in improving one’s outlook, Susan Bordo argued that high level of physical modification is consistently perceived as prerequisite and culture in enhancing romantic success and workforce[5]. To be more specific, today, any faults on a woman’s face or body can be seen as a defect[5]. For example, with the growing industry of breast augmentation, many people consistently establish new norms and adjusting their viewpoint about “beauty”, some of them even see whose who have a smaller or less firm beast as a defect or “disorder”. Because of the “defects”, thousands of women regularly are being segregated and discriminated in the workforces; getting lower chances in employment. Thus, improving one’s outlook by cosmetic surgery not only “improve” one’s physical traits as a result to gain any sort of benefits and privileges from the society (e.g. work opportunity, romantic success, boosting one’s confidence), but also promoting feminism through their “gained” or “owned” success or privilege in the society. Therefore, these points of view and culture about “beauty” are persistently advocating competition among women and also provoking the link between cosmetic surgery and feminism.

           On the flip side, some feminists argued that both plastic and cosmetic surgery is somehow antithetical to feminism. They argued the primary function of beatified body and outlook in some way is only to draw male gaze, and the attention from males has become one of the standards for women to measure their own worth[6] . One of the typical examples is that female models would usually undergo plastic and cosmetic surgeries to make their outlook become more “ideal”, however, the way to reconstruct the body might sometimes only serve a function of satisfying fantasies of men and it is conceivably antithetical to feminism.

Beauty is socially constructed

           More importantly, personal physical traits, such as “smaller breast”, “smaller eyes”, “less attractive face” and more, are completely socially constructed by the society. In 1900s, women were hiding their breast with clothes to look more boyish, but today, how a woman’s body should look like (e.g. big and firm breast with a slim body) has been artificially implanting to our mind through movies, TV shows, Internet and more. These “standard” physical traits are more likely to become salient and mainstream as people continuingly forming a misconception what a woman’s body should look like by talking to each other and perceiving and sharing related information in a society (cultural exchange). It turns out everyone in the society at least has similar kinds of thoughts, idea and personal feeling about “beauty”, as a result, everyone would generally improve their outlook and engage in the social comparison. Kathy Davis argued that whether or not to take plastic surgery is an individual choice, and the freedom to choice whether to take the surgery has already embodied the most meaningful ingredients of “feminism” [5]just like “freedom of vote”. Also, even society has an identical perception about “beauty”, but still it is a very hypothetical and subjective term in general, for example, one woman can see her breast as big but the society could perceive the size as average. In other words, even society seems to standardized “beauty”, but people would still have intuitive and subjective evaluation on what’s call “beauty”. Subsequently, people could have a different way to beautify their outlooks based on individual commitments or demands. For example, person A would spend more money on cosmetic product, and person B would spend a big portion of money on cosmetic surgery. Considering there are contrasting perceptions about “beauty” across individuals within contrasted identical conception made up by the society, people would still have different way to improve their outlook. And this concept is tied up with the idea of Conrad & Barker (2010) where they suggest illness is also socially constructed by the society and people will use different means to tackle their illnesses[7], for example, some people would just stay home and rest, some of the individuals would go consult with a doctor immediately when ill, it really depends on personal knowledge and perception about the illness. Similar to the cosmetic surgery and beauty, society has a hypothetical standard about beauty, but different individuals would have different perspectives about certain topics, therefore, they would be engaged in various of means to improve their appearance and promote feminism based on their personal understanding and interests.

Referece

[1]Cosmetic Surgery vs Plastic Surgery: cosmetic vs plastic surgeons. (2019, September 4). Retrieved from https://www.americanboardcosmeticsurgery.org/patient-resources/cosmetic-surgery-vs-plastic-surgery/.

[2]Frequently Asked Questions About Cosmetic Surgery. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cosmeticsurgery.org/page/CosmeticSurgery.

[4]Martin, P. J. (2016). Suzanne Noël: Cosmetic Surgery, Feminism and Beauty in Early Twentieth-Century France.

[3]Sihq. (2018, November 9). Founder of European Soroptimist Federation Suzanne Noël honoured. Retrieved from https://www.soroptimistinternational.org/founder-of-european-soroptimist-federation-suzanne-noel-honoured/.

[5]Heyes, C. J., & Jones, M. (2016). Cosmetic surgery: a feminist primer. Place of publication not identified: Routledge.

[6] Chappet, M.-C. (2018, July 18). You CAN have plastic surgery and still be a feminist so please stop judging the Love Island women. Retrieved from https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/plastic-surgery-and-feminism.

[7]Conrad, P., & Barker, K. K. (2010). The Social Construction of Illness: Key Insights and Policy Implications. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 51(1)S67-S69.

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Cosmetic Surgery vs Plastic Surgery: cosmetic vs plastic surgeons".
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Frequently Asked Questions About Cosmetic Surgery".
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Founder of European Soroptimist Federation Suzanne Noël honoured".
  4. 4.0 4.1 Martin. Suzanne Noël: Cosmetic Surgery, Feminism and Beauty in Early Twentieth-Century France.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Heyes (2016). Cosmetic surgery: a feminist primer.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Chappet, Marie-Claire. "You CAN have plastic surgery and still be a feminist so please stop judging the Love Island women". Glamour.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Conrad. "The Social Construction of Illness: Key Insights and Policy Implications". Journal of Health and Social Behavior.