Plastic Surgery: Is the Industry to Blame?

In the busy lives we lead, we are most likely to make a quick dinner and turn on the tube. As we inhale our several hundred calories, we are bombarded with images of women, as the graphic to the right demonstrates, who look as though they have not had a single calorie in the last decade, and on top of that, they look as though they have not aged a single year in that same decade, either. A television show of any genre, a commercial and even your average reality TV show tends to depict a different kind of woman than what we are used to seeing on a day to day basis. The star of their show is a pin thin, twenty-something looking thing, who looks as though she just so happened to roll out of the tanning bed long enough to film her latest project. It’s no wonder that women feel physically inadequate, leading them to loads of plastic surgery.

Nearly 11.7 million cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures were performed in 2007, according to The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Women account for 91% of those procedures, while men are responsible for the other 9%. In 2001, women accounted for 87% of procedures, and men the remaining 13%. The top surgical procedure performed in 2007 was liposuction and the top non-surgical procedure was botox, which strongly indicates that women’s body images are affected the most in regards toward weight and age.

I believe there is a correlation between the spike in female plastic surgery procedures and the increase in the amount of reality television shows that have been filling our television screens for the past few years. There was a writer’s strike in the entertainment industry in 2001, which was right after the creation and nearly instant success of the “reality” television hit, Survivor. The strike is often attributed with being the reason why so many reality TV shows came into conception. No fiction equals no writing equals lower production costs. And so it began. The industry’s carefully packaged presentation of what is “real” began airing like there was no tomorrow. Well, apparently tomorrow never dies, because America is currently standing knee deep in reality television—swamped with the notion that perfection is normal.

One show, notorious for mis-portraying reality is MTV’s The Real World. The characters on the show are “usually beautiful and always overly dramatic,” says Danielle Stern, an Ohio University Ph.D. candidate in mass communications. She says they illustrate “the larger problem of television producers using sex and the exploitation of the female body to attract a young audience.” Networks are eager to attract a young demographic, because advertisers are constantly seeking their attention, seeing as how they are frequent shoppers. The advertisers sell young women products and clothing, while the very networks that do business with those advertisers cause girls to hate how they look while wearing their purchases.

Thankfully, there are real life efforts to change the image of beauty. There has definitely been a recent trend in owning one’s body and accepting it as beautiful. I attribute the start of this movement to playwright, Josefina Lopez, who wrote Real Women Have Curves, which was adapted for the screen and starred America Ferrera who is not only known for her acting chops, but also her curvaceous figure. Since 2006, Ferrera, pictured in character below, has been playing the role of Ugly Betty on ABC’s hit show by the same name. One show that does not get enough credit when it comes to the topic at hand, is E!’s reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians. This is a family full of full figured women, who are proud of their bodies and more specifically their derrières. The show may be lacking when it comes to intelligent content, but it and Ugly Betty certainly deserve a nod for giving curvy women at home the opportunity to find a mirror in reality television.

Even the theatre community is getting involved. WET, Women’s Expressive Theatre based in New York, has a program called Risk Takers which “teaches girls how to look at the media with a critical eye, and to distinguish empowering risks from damaging risks.” Programs like this are important, because it requires physical connection and direct affirmation. The images of Ugly Betty and the Kardashians are left to interpretation. Theatre companies like WET are doing good work in showing young women how to find empowerment in the industry’s portrayal of “real women.”

It is my great hope that this trend in the honest portrayal of women proves to be more than just a trend. May it muster up the courage to persist and achieve longevity. Women need more images to balance out the bevy of unrealistic images they see every day, so that if they do want plastic surgery, they can make a more informed decision without the pressure. Playwrights, television and film writers, producers and advertisers need to take into consideration who we actually are, instead of who they want us to want ourselves to be. Every girl should be able to sit down in front of the television, eat her dinner, and use a toothpick after her meal, instead of watching one on the screen during her meal.