Plastic Surgery

0Stefanie Franks

Jie Li

ENG 111

Essay # 3 Draft # 2

October 11, 2007

Plastic Surgery: A Trend Taking Over America

What is the price to be beautiful? In today’s society many Americans are wildly spending their money to have plastic surgery. This is a trend that is rapidly becoming more popular in America. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) there were almost 11 million plastic surgeries preformed in 2006. In just the past six years, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons states that the amount of plastic surgeries preformed each year has increased by 48 percent (2000/2005/2006 National Plastic Surgery Statistics). There are many possible causes to this fast growing trend including affordability, the media’s influence, and gr owing acceptance, but I believe the most

probable cause is the improvement in quality and safety of the procedures.

(背景）Plastic surgery first originated as a means of correcting medical problems. Dr. John Peter Mettauer preformed the first plastic surgery in North American history when he operated on a cleft palate in 1827 (History of Plastic Surgery). World War I helped plastic surgery evolve by reconstructing facial wounds and burns on injured soldiers. For the purpose of making money, doctors began to perform these

reconstructive surgeries on people without medical conditions to improve their appearances. As time went on these surgeries became more and more popular bringing us to the quickly growing trend that we have today. What could have caused these surgeries to become so popular so quickly? （leads to the causes behind this.）One possible cause of this trend could be that注意措辞plastic surgery has become more affordable. Carrie Stetler of Newhouse News states that plastic surgery is now easier to afford, with many surgeons offering financing plans on procedures ranging from $2,000 for a nose job to nearly $10,000 for a face-lift (Stetler). Before it was common only for wealthy people to get these surgeries but now that plastic surgery has become more affordable, there are more people from the middle class receiving these surgeries as well. This may have caused a large increase in the amount of people who receive plastic surgery today. Although it makes sense, I do not feel that it is the most likely cause of this trend. While I am sure that the decrease in prices has increased the amount of people who have now received plastic surgery, I do not think that it would have made such a large difference. This cause would have only influenced the middle class Americans to join the trend. Because of how frequently the numbers of people who receive plastic surgery are growing, I believe that the cause must be something that involves many groups of people.

A second reason for this growing trend could be that in recent years the media has been very busy pointing out every little flaw that any celebrity might have. By doing this, the media has created this “perfect image” that everyone wants to fit into. Celebrities are usually known for being beautiful and many people feel that if they look like them they must be beautiful as well. The strive to look like this “perfect image” that