The new extreme - buying beauty
By Kendall Clarke and Michèle Nardelli
The
quest for beauty has crossed cultures and epochs. From the kohl that framed
the eyes of the Pharaohs, the whale bone corsets that cinched in women‘s
waists to a breathtaking 12 inches and the fetid foot-binding considered so
erotic in pre-Maoist China – pain and beauty have been handfasted across the
ages.
And in the 21st century the beauty quest continues; only today we have new technologies and quasi-medical treatments offering ‘perfection‘.
Once the salvation of burns and accident victims, plastic and cosmetic surgery have become commonplace as we become less and less tolerant of the cards nature deals regarding physical appearance.
Statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show that women are still the biggest consumers of cosmetic surgery. In the 2002/2003 financial year 7022 women underwent cosmetic surgery while only 757 went under the knife in the same year. And the stats for the year before are similar – a ratio of one man to nine women.
Having researched body image and its sociological impacts Associate Professor Wendy Seymour says many factors underpin an individual‘s choice to undergo surgery.
“In the west we live in advanced capitalist societies where the creation of desire and need is a key driver in the socioeconomic system," says Prof Seymour.
“But in order to create a sense of need, capitalism must also create a sense of dissatisfaction. Mass media, modern marketing and other agencies construct and promote an ever-changing ideal of physical perfection. These transitory images are reflected in fashion, ‘looks' and in a myriad of other ways that construct prejudices surrounding gender, race, age and disability. These images support huge profit making industries.
“People who believe that aspects of their body preclude them from conforming to contemporary ideas of beauty, may feel that they have no option but to use surgery to change their body. Cosmetic surgery, like other less dramatic forms of body enhancement or adornment, is also part of profit-making capitalist practice."
Senior lecturer in the School of Communication, Information and New Media, Dr Vicki Crowley believes identity and appearance are intense issues in society today.
“We are in a huge intense moment of consuming identities,“ she says. “I don‘t consider an extreme makeover to be that different from having braces on your teeth, having a filling, having your ears pierced, wearing glasses, or other things that seem everyday.
“However in a broader sense when people undergo extreme cosmetic surgery, they are probably hoping to achieve the unattainable.
“At the essence of continuous consumerism is the notion that desire is never fully quenched and there are some very famous examples of people for whom relentless plastic surgery is a way of life.“
And it seems the 21st century quest for beauty has been reconstructed as a modern day fairy story in the new spate of reality TV shows that look at cosmetic surgery and the makeover through the lens of the Cinderella story. The BBC's Extreme Makeovers takes plain ‘Janes' and ‘Johns' and reverses the work of nature using cosmetic surgery and new medical technologies to transform their looks into a movie star mould. Procedures include everything from hair extensions, dermabrasion and a new set of teeth, to liposculpture, rhinoplasty (nose surgery) and blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery). [Before and after results of Extreme Makeovers volunteers can be viewed at the following site: www.abc.go.com/primetime/extrememakeover]
Lecturer in health sciences Dr Grant Tomkinson believes these types of television programs have a huge impact on men as well as women. He says increasingly men are feeling a social pressure to look a certain way.
“Male magazines, male leads in all the hit shows for young people display an ideal body image, body size and shape,“ says Dr Tomkinson.
“That ideal is a very triangular shape – broad shoulders and a narrow waist – the classic iron man or Olympic swimmer. Popular media including the reality makeover television programs increase men‘s exposure to ideal body types, encouraging them to adopt a physical self consciousness that was not common say 20 years ago.“
The birth of the metrosexual through television programs such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, also work to promote men‘s quest for the new male beauty. The main character of the hit show, Kyan Douglas, along with his team of four homosexual design and food experts, work with heterosexual men to rearrange their lifestyles, including their wardrobes, culture, interior decorating and culinary skills.
While a complete overhaul for the new age guy may seem desirable, Prof Seymour points out that not everyone has the buying power to make the transition.
“This is just one of a number of reality TV programs which are a part of a more complicated system of influence which persuades men and women to hate how they look and live.
“While some men are able to buy the consumer and personal products that will display their status in the world, the majority do not have the financial resources to do more than tinker at the edges of consumer possibilities.
“As long as the media message says that everybody can look good, those people who struggle to survive on little or no money can be blamed for not making the best of themselves.“
For women and now also for men, it seems that in the short term at least,
there is a new divide between the beauty haves and have-nots in western
societies and it may be widening.