Progress Report
The research topic of my choice is as follows: “Does the image of women promoted by the media cause them to undertake cosmetic surgery?” The interest in such kind of a question is based on the growing persuasion that media have more effect on people than people even realize. My work should shed light on the relationship between the media’s efforts in promoting artificial beauty and the successful and developing business of cosmetic surgeons in developed and developing countries.
Additionally, my interest is conditioned by the desire to know the depth of the influence of the media on the decision-making process that makes people around the world visit cosmetic surgeons. The study should provide enough background to draw clear and strong conclusions about the presence or absence of the mentioned relationship and its nature.
The appropriate research thesis has been developed. Thus, the paper is going to explore the relationship between the media’s content, methods, and the desire of women to undergo cosmetic surgery, as well as to discuss the effect of this relationship on women’s health and well-being.
The organizational approach to the research process is based on the evaluation of the available literature that is credible enough to provide solid and trustworthy data concerning different aspects of the research. The literature review includes 18 sources and covers most, if not all, areas of interest that need to be explored during the study. The available sources are to be analyzed and compared to see how the areas of interest are covered in the literature and if there is a significant interest of the researchers in this topic.
Stephanie Berberick (2010) explored the presentation of women in mass media and the impact of this presentation on the self-esteem of a modern woman. It appeared that the media tended to create the image of perfection that could not be achieved by most of the women today due to various restrictions, including medical ones. Therefore, mass media do influence women negatively, at least in this aspect. The research of Furnham and Levitas (2012) evaluated the factors making people use services of the cosmetic surgery clinics. The authors evaluated numerous psychological dimensions to receive valuable and credible results.
These results showed that people were mostly influenced from outside to make such a kind of decision rather than it was a real necessity. The study of Naish (2011) tried to answer the question of cosmetic surgery could be dangerous to the health and well-being of women who use such services. The results appeared to be even frightening sometimes in regards to the outcomes of unsuccessful surgeries explored in the study.
Introduction
Cosmetic surgery belongs to the procedures of non-obligatory nature. However, the businesses in this sphere grow successfully. Women, as the most potential clients of such clinics, are under serious pressure these days, considering the content demonstrated via the variety of media channels. The audience of the paper is women of young and middle age who have the desire to change something in their appearance and bodies but cannot say of this desire is conscious and well-weighed. The purpose is to explore the potential presence of the relationship between this desire to undergo cosmetic surgery and the content provided by the vast majority of mass media today.
It is not a secret for anyone that women always want to look great and that cosmetic surgery can give a hand in such an endeavor. The looks affect women’s self-esteem greatly and influence their well-being directly. The positive impact on health is rather questionable, though. Cosmetic surgery has not that long a history as of today, and it should be said that cosmetic procedures of such nature have always been rather risky.
The tremendous growth of the number of cosmetic surgery clinics can be attributed to the impressive increase in the content depicting perfection of a body as it is seen by the marketers in the media. Considering the continuously growing interest in cosmetic surgery in the world, the paper aims at exploring the relationship between the media and the desire of women to undertake cosmetic surgery, as well as discussing the effect of this relationship on women’s health and well-being.
Importance of Cosmetic Surgery for Modern Women
There are two major points of view regarding the importance of cosmetic surgery for modern women. One point is that a modern woman can be happy without the perfect shapes and outstanding facial proportions today. The proponents of this point of view insist that a woman should live in harmony with her self-esteem and understanding of the peculiarities of the body and look. However, according to the other point of view, cosmetic surgery can make a woman look much better, and thus, increase self-esteem and improve the quality of life. It is true that cosmetic surgery can help some women to improve their self-esteem but in cases when it is conditioned by medical necessity.
It only supports the point that the importance of cosmetic surgery is over evaluated today and that the fuss about it is artificially created by outside factors. Mass media influence appears to be one of the most significant ones.