Plastic Surgery: Low Self-Esteem?
Low self-esteem is defined as having no confidence. It is when people feel like they are not enough and wish something about them would disappear. However, just because someone does not love something about themselves, it does not necessarily mean they feel worthless. A person can hate the way their nose looks or how their lips are thin and at the same time feel confident about themselves. So, does getting plastic surgery mean having low self-esteem? Does making changes to the body create confidence, or does it mean the person is insecure?
Low self-esteem applies to people who isolate themselves or are anti-social, while high self-esteem applies to people who are mature and are not afraid of their failures. People who are focused on their appearance often spend much money to make significant changes to their bodies. To have a more alluring social life, people strive to have the right features and facial structure. Surgeries such as breast enlargement, liposuction, and face lifting, are soaring in the west. In a meta-analysis study, the goal was to discover how plastic surgery affects one’s perspective of their body and self-image. According to the results, the study demonstrated that plastic surgery can assist individuals who have lost some of their beauty as a consequence of wounds, accidents, or events by enhancing their self-esteem and perceptions of their bodies. This plays a significant role in healthcare systems particularly when it comes to the way health insurance companies deliver their services. Surgeons should pay closer attention to the patient's mental health and be more comprehensive when analyzing their behavior, and feelings, and speaking from a psychoanalytic perspective when choosing the ideal candidate for plastic surgery. This study may be relevant to health policymakers and practitioners since it shows that plastic surgery can lead to improvements in self-esteem and body image.
Have you ever taken a selfie and thought you did not look your best so you decided not to share it on social media? Maybe, but has it ever crossed your mind to consider getting plastic surgery from the selfies you take? The article, Does taking selfies lead to an increased desire to undergo cosmetic surgery, explores why people in India commit suicide due to selfies. The goal of the study was to see if taking selfies leads to wanting to get plastic surgery. This study was done with 300 participants; It investigated whether taking and uploading selfies, with and without photo editing, impacts young men’s and women's emotions, body image, and urge to seek plastic surgery. As a result, the experimental group displayed noticeably higher levels of social anxiety, a sense of waning self-assurance, a sense of waning physical attractiveness, and a desire for plastic procedures. Furthermore, the results were higher for women than for men. According to the findings of this study, taking and posting a selfie on a social media platform has a detrimental impact on humanity and well-being. This compulsively looks-oriented culture is consuming the innocence of the youth and therefore requires a quick response. A few steps taken at the right moment and on the proper path can spare us from the devastating ramifications of the selfie addiction ahead. It would be a vital step to create a media literacy involvement approach, as well as educate young people and guardians about the powerful influence of uploading selfies on overall body image and body image disorders.
There is this misconception that plastic surgery means having something fake in your body. This is not entirely true. The reality is that plastic surgery is a branch of medicine that deals with enhancing a person's appearance as well as fixing facial and body tissue deformities brought on by disease, trauma, or congenital defects. People who are uneducated on the topic of plastic surgery may criticize those who decide to get it, they may assume that a person does not love themselves. However, a person wanting to change the shape of their nose, or hands, does not mean they hate themselves from the inside. There is nothing wrong with disliking something from your body and wanting to improve it. As a person's self-confidence improves, their mental health also improves as they experience less stress, anxiety, and uneasiness when interacting with society. A higher desire to try new experiences or open up in social environments is also a result of increased confidence based on plastic surgery.
People who get plastic surgery are often perceived as fake and having no value. For example, women who want to enlarge their breasts may be viewed as women who do not love themselves and are desperate for attention. However, not all countries view plastic surgery in a negative way; Brazil is one of these countries. Ivo Pitanguy (1923-2016), a plastic surgeon from Brazil, believed that a woman's beauty was so essential to her opportunities of success that she had a fundamental right to improve her beauty if she so desired. The significance of beauty in contemporary Brazil has risen to the point where it is now regarded as a serious threat to societal divide. The employability and ultimate earning potential of working-class women are boosted by plastic surgery. As a result, Brazilian culture glorifies plastic surgery, particularly among those from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds. The same cannot be said in Western culture when it comes to plastic surgery. In western society, plastic surgery is considered immoral because it is perceived as impure and artificial. Because of this mindset towards plastic surgery, people who make changes to their bodies through plastic surgery are condemned and seen as having no value.
Let us go back to the question, does getting plastic surgery mean having low self-esteem? Remember that low self-esteem means people having no confidence and always saying something negative about themselves. But what is wrong with human beings disliking something about their bodies and wanting to better it? Can humans not love themselves and at the same time want to change something in their bodies? In short, plastic surgery is not viewed the same by everyone and it is okay to get it or to not get it. In the end, what really matters is if people are happy with themselves.
Works Cited
Kazeminia, M., Salari, N., Heydari, M., Akbari, H., & Mohammadi, M. (2022). The effect of cosmetic surgery on self-esteem and body image: a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trial studies. European Journal of Plastic Surgery, 1-9.
Shome, D., Vadera, S., Male, S. R., & Kapoor, R. (2020). Does taking selfies lead to increased desire to undergo cosmetic surgery. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 19(8), 2025–2032. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocd.13267
Spataru, R. L. (2021). The Beauty of Plastic Surgery. Archives of Clinical and Experimental Surgery, 10(6).
Bonell, S., Murphy, S. C., Austen, E., & Griffiths, S. (2020). When (fake) beauty turns ugly: Plastic surgery as a moral violation. Current Psychology, 1-14.
