cosmetic surgery research (dissertation)

hi everyone,

I am a third year university student, doing my dissertation on the different types of body modification, and why some such as cosmetic surgery, are seen as socially legitimate, and others, such as tattooing are not. what i want to do is conduct some primary research using those who have, or are looking into getting some form of comsmetic surgery done.

what i would do is post a series of questions periodically, to which everyone can reply and express their views, what i would encourage people to do is reply not only to my questions/comments, but to other users posts as well. This will create a virtual focus group, which will be asynchronus, allowing you respond at your conveniance (you can also write as much or as little as you want) and it will be confidential. if anyone is interested in taking part, or has any other questions please post back.

Thank you

I have a microsoft office word file where I wrote everything about my experiences, why I did it etc. for if I do any magazine/newspaper articles if you would like to give me your email I could send you it?

Hi. I had my first consultation on Saturday and seeing the surgeon on 31st march. My op is booked for 27th April. I’d be happy to take part and let you know about my experience.

I will take part as i am heavily modified! Scarification, tattoos, piercings, stretched ears, split tongue, skin divers and micro dermal implants and I have also had 2 boob jobs.

I’d love to take part. I’ve had cosmetic surgery aswell as having tattoos and piercings. I plan on having more surgery too x

Thank you all for your interest, as i said my initial aim was to create a virtual focus group with this thread, ie i’ll pick a start date (probably in the next couple of days) and i will post my first question, to which you can respond (for ethical reasons i must add here that by responding you are consenting to me documenting the information you give, howeever no other information other than your username ie ‘lza89’ will be shown at any point, and if you wish i could cover that and replace it with ‘respondent A’ etc) however if anyone would rather do this over an email/private message interview setting then let me know! whatever works best for you xx

ill be more than happy to help as well hun i also have numerous tattoos and piercing as well as my fake boobies xx

id be so happy to help, like a couple of the other girls on here ive also got the full package! tats and fake boobs. im ready when you are! xx

im quite interested in helping out, but im a man, is this ok? x

hey i have piercings, tattoos and microdermal implants and am currently looking to get my breast augmented in the next few months. i would gladly help out as i too find it interesting the difference in social perception between society norms such as boob jobs and the taboo mods such as piercings etc. fire away

Ill help you hun x

Hi everyone thanks for the feedback.

ok first of all, I would ask everyone to indicate their age range (i.e. 18-24, 25-34, 35-44 etc) as well as how many cosmetic modifications they have (if any)and if they have anyother modifications such as tattoos, and their sex (even thought this may be obvious from your user name/profile pic) in their FIRST post. Thanks.

(as a final note, as much as I encourage discussion between members, I would ask you to refrain from insulting anyone, for everyone’s sake. by contributing to this discussion, you are consenting to me using this information in my research, and everyone has the right to end their contribution at anytime)

Now for the first question/topic for discussion:

What are the motivational reasons for modifying the body with cosmetic surgery? Aesthetics? Assimilation? Individuality?

Hi Hunn, I’m 25 and female. I’ve had my boobs done. I plan on having lipo and rhinoplasty in the future aswell as getting my teeth done probably with veneers. The reasons behind me getting cosmetic surgery are quite complex. I was bullied as a child by family aswell as kids, I was overweight, I grew up feeling quite self conscious and that’s stayed with me. Also my ex use to pick on my appearance too saying that I could do with putting weight on etc. I went from too big to too skinny. So I’m very aware of how others perceive me so therefore I like to look my best, for me and to some extent, others too. Everyone likes to be called good looking after all. Also I’m a perfectionist I want to look a certain way and I’ll do everything possible to achieve that, I guess you could say it has a lot to do with media and the way beauty is portrayed.

I have 8 piercings and three tattoos, I plan on getting more. It’s a combination of liking the way they look and wanting to express my individuality. I plan on getting a dermal anchor soon as I like the way they look.

As well as this I fake tan, wear extensions, dye my hair, wear fake eyelashes and makeup which are all forms of modification too I guess. I like that in this day and age your not confined by what natures given or not given you. If your not happy with the way you look, change it xx

hi im 23, female, and i have had my boobs and a nose job done, and i have 5 tattoos. i was also bullied as a child, im jewish, and i used to have a typically ‘jewish nose’, im not ashamed of my roots, but i was of my nose. i felt over shadowed by it, people would say ‘oh you have pretty eyes, and a nice smile’ but no one would ever say that i was pretty, and in my mind this rested solely on my nose. i was extremley self conscious of my nose, and i felt held back by it. so at 18, before i went to university, i had a rhinoplasty, for which my parents both agreed with and paid for. it turned out amazingly, the surgeon said i shouldnt get my hopes up expecting a cute button nose, but thats almost what i got. i had so many compliments on my nose and my over all appearance, it was overwhelming. id never had confidence like it. my boob job i got just after finishing uni, as a graduation present to myself. id never been particularly happy with my boobs, but i in no way considered them to be as problamatic as my nose! i had them done because i wanted to, unlike my nose which i NEEDED. as for other people reasons, i guess everyone wants a better version of themselves, people dont want to be ugly, or unnacceptable looking. no matter what anyone says looks count, it may not be socialy correct to acknowledge this, but its the truth and deep down everyone knows it. xx

28; male; chin implant, botox; 1 tattoo.

the reason i decided to have a chin implant is that ive always had a rather sunken chin, which effected my overall facial appearance and profile. i work out keep trim but no ammount of working out, eating right and ‘beauty regimes’ was going to fix my jaw, so i saw a surgeon and he said he could give me a more masculine feature than what i had. its made me much more confident within my career and social life. as far as the botox goes, after having my chin fixed, i decided to do a bit more tweaking to look the way i wanted, so i had botox to get rid of my frown lines, giving me an overall more youthfull fresh look to compliment my new found facial structure. as mentioned above, looks matter, this is especially true within a work enviroment, and i do feel like ive become more succesfull in my job, especially as my career centres around dealing with clients a lot, so presentation of the self is key. i do feel the better looking you are the more clients trust you, and warm to you. people have surgery to be the best they can get to further themselves in life, after all no one ever gets left out for being to ‘pretty’.

hello,

29, female, cheek implants, forehead reduction, rhinoplasty, lip fillers.

My reasons for undergoing cosmetic surgery were because i feel your face is one of the most important physical features we as humans have. Unfortunately I was not born with a beautiful face, i would like to point out here that i am not some poor deluded young girl who looks in the mirror and sees the elephant man when in actual fact i am quite pretty, no no no, this is not the case. I’m nearing 30 now, god forbid, and i feel the same way now as i did back at 16 when i had my first op, (the dreaded nose). ever since i was young I’ve noticed how people react to beauty, my mother was quite something to behold in her day and it did not escape my attention how men and women looked at her, good looks command attention, respect and acknowledgment. i assure you a good looking man or stunning woman will not walk around a shopping mall without being noticed several times, however your average plain Jane will most probably go by overlooked. Fact. Therefore i have been critical of my facial aesthetic worth since a very young age, and between the ages of 16 and 20 i tweaked myself into the girl i wanted to be. my nose was somewhat of a ‘witches’ nose, bumpy, too long and hooked, -dreadful- i had a prominent and all to large forehead, your typical ‘slap head’, my cheek bones were nonexistent, and my lips were so thin that when i smiled they all together disappeared. So funded by my parents, who also regarded beauty very highly, i changed my face. Now i would also like to point out that although this may sound like extreme surgery for a 16-20 year old, i assure you, i don’t look bad. i don’t have massive clown lips, a Michael Jackson nose, nor do i look like i have a swollen face. i have the facial structure to be a good looking woman, once paired with my makeup, coiffed hair and body of which i work hard for. This is something i don’t understand, why women pay for liposuction, work it off! Eat less! or any other body surgery (a breast reduction however i see as a medical need, and a breast enlargement, well we all know that in a patriarchal society boobs are as much a signifier of beauty/sexual appeal as the face). Anything i can work on myself i will! i will never have Botox or a facelift as natural ageing, to me at least, is not something to counter in any way possible, however i will also not be one of those women who simply give up, because as i said, facial beauty is of importance.

Hi, I’m female, 30. I’m having an uplift and implants on 27th April. My breasts are different sizes so I’m having the op to make them symmetrical. It effects my confidence especially in the summer. I always have to wear padding in my bra etc. Hopefully after the op I’ll feel better and be able to wear the clothes I want to!

question 2: Do you feel there are stereotypes of those with cosmetic surgery? If so what are they? And have these or do these effect you?

Hi my name is Amanda and i am a female and i am 19. I have had breast enlargement surgery, when i first told my close family that i wanted a “boob job” it triggered quite a lot of different reactions. Some people thought i was mad and that i was going to look like a fake plastic barbie doll, and others thought it was the right thing to do if it made me feel happier about myself. Generally i think men will stereotype woman more who have had boob jobs because they see it only in one way, but woman will either bitch about it because they dont think it is good to change the way nature made you or that it will attract male attention, or they will agree with it and deep down want one aswel.

Yes, you are stereotyped as being vain. Which I personally don’t mind, I’ll admit it myself, I’m vain. I don’t see anything wrong in being vain – to me ‘vain’ means taking a pride in your appearance. But when someone comments on another’s vanity, I think it’s more of an underlying issue with that someone not being entirely happy with who they are or how they look and jealousy on their part.

It IS sort of vanity but people make that out to be such a negative thing……I think being really vain and ACTING vain and you thinking yourself as being absolutely amazing and better than everyone else and looking down on people etc. is a bad type of vain.

BUT doing something that will make YOU feel better and not for throwing it in people’s faces is being vain to some extent but not in a bad way…..does that make sense to anyone??? lol xxxxxx

I think there are so many different levels of vanity for that word to be only used as a negative…..

Like with me I would never have known I wasn’t “normal” BEFORE I had surgery if it wasn’t for some very harshly opinionated and out-spoken and ignorant people……and to be honest if it wasn’t FOR these people I probably never would have noticed there was something “wrong” with me and therefore I probably never would have gotten the surgery….

I think vanity can be good and bad. Everyone has a bit of vanity in them otherwise why would people get dressed to impress for special occassions and for dates etc? but its the people who look down on others and have an extremely high opinion of themselvees which show the bad side to being vain. My motto in life is that no matter what you do in life you will never please everyone, so live life to please yourself and those who really matter to you. I was mocked for having small boobs but thats not the reason i decided to have a boob job, i couldnt care less what other people think about me because then i would never be happy, so i did it purely for myself despite the shocked reaction i got for wanting it. lol sorry for the essay xxx

See I cant tell if I got it done PURELY for me or not…..I got it done because I didnt like how I looked in certain dresses and clothes and bikinis etc but the fact that people highlighted it made it even more apparent……. I definetely did it FOR ME to some extent but cant tell if I would have felt so strong enough about them to have the surgery done if they’d never been commented on…..

Yeah its a shame that there are people out there who feel the need to comment on other peoples appearances and to lower peoples self esteem. Its people like that who have a lot of self insecurities and try to hide it by putting other people down, the main thing is now you have had it done and if you feel alot better in yourself then thats great xx

yea I do lol xxxxx one of the ar**holes that used to take the piss said something else AFTER my surgery, “it would be nice to see a bit of cleavage though” <

---

quoted from my BFs brother

Oh no! what did your bf think! i take it you had a BA? x

my bf knows hes a little arse-wank but never does much about it, I just try to stay out his way and be a nasty bitch back if i can….I never START anything though, all my mates have SEEN what he does to me….

had my BA on like the 25th January lol

I honestly wanted to rip his head off lmao! xx

I think WOMEN are stereotyped when they have cosmetic surgery, but I think it feeds into a bigger picture about how women are seen, and see themselves in society. There is so much pressure on women to look younger, you only have to look on the TV to see the age differences between the male and female presenters! Youve got the likes of Bruce Forsythe (legend) working alongside Tess Daley, but you wouldn’t see a young male presenter working alongside an 80 year old woman! Society, the media, peers, all put pressure on women to look a certain way! Most of the attitudes we still see are deep rooted in history. I do think there is a lot more pressure on men to look a certain way now too! I doubt men opting for cosmetic surgery would be stereotyped in the same way though!

Having said all that, I’m having my op on the 27th and can’t bloody wait! I’m doing it for me and me only! And I don’t care if ignorant people stereotype me!!!

im 100% sure that there are steretypes of those who get surgery, as mentioned above the main one would be vanity, because youve spent a certain ammount of money correcting or enhancing yourself you obviously cant see past your own looks, and for that fact anyones elses, so your vain as well as superficial or shallow. i do however think the level of stereotyping is different for different procedures, i dont feel that i was stereotyped that much once people found out that i had a nose job, i dont know if this is because its the face and theres a certain ammount acceptability when enhancing the face or what, but there was a hell of alot of stereotypes when i had my boobs done, my boyfriend was annoyed because he said guys would think i was a slut or a showoff, and there is truth in that, people ask if i want to be a page 3 model or something, i dont see why people automatically assume that! its quite insulting that people think they can judge who you are as a person because of what youve had done to your body. ive heard it all, airhead, slut the works. i do agree that when it comes from men they stereotype women into some sort of sex object, and if youve had a boob job your fair game and cant dispute it, and women have a sense of jeleousy that men then think that about you, althought they pretend to pity you for being so insecure.

everyone iv told i had a boob job too says they wouldnt even have noticed they were fake/done because I used to wear a heavily padded 34C bra and they only look about a D cup now but measure a DD/E

maybe its because i went from a 30b to a 30d/30dd, kinda noticable, and theyre pretty high, and very round, i didnt want tear. so i think its quite obvious, i dont mind though, thats how i wanted them, and it doesnt bother me that people can tell, and if anyone asks il be honest, but i can sorta tell by peoples reaction or tone of voice the attitude they have towards it. one of my friends had hers done, as natural as poss, only two cup sizes up, tear and under. and she NEVER tells anyone there fake, she hates people knowing, both because she wants people to think she naturally looks like that, and because shes afraid of getting judged, she didnt even tell her dad because she thought hed be ashamed! he lives abroad so its not awkward or obvious. but i guess it just depends how much what other people think effects you.

awww thats a shame she feels that way, Im fake and bloody PROUD OF IT!!! lol yea its good your so open about it too, lol most people are always nice about it and interested etc. but you do get the odd “tone of voice” lol

Just jealously Bex or folk that are too far up their own… behind lol

xx

Jealousy brings out a very ugly side to people. I think any form of cosmetic surgery should not be stereotyped or frowned upon because it is making people feel alot better about themselves, its not as if all the tax payers have to pay for it, we get the money ourselves, what are we expected to do, just live our lives constantly unhappy about the way we look just to please other people. Lol i love the fact that i have fake boobs! its the best thing i have ever done and i will never regret it lol xx

as a man i feel that there are stereotypes of those with any sort of cosmetic surgery. some of the girls have mentioned the stereotypes of women with fake breasts, and i hate to say it but all my male friends would feel that a certain type of girl would get her boobs done, sometimes i think its the connotations of having surgery to make yourself look better more than anything, you know, you have procedures to looks good, so others will look at you, or like the look of you. and i can sort of see where some are coming from with the stereotypes even if i dont agree with them. me personally though, i get asked alot if im gay! because its a bit weird for a man, let alone a straight man to have surgery. its a feminine thing to care about your appearance that much, and even though people and society are ok with metro men more nowadays, i think cosmetic surgery is still a bit taboo i guess. i get a bit of stick with it.

I would agree that there are stereotypes, of course, we as a human race stereotype people as much as possible to make things easier for us to understand. People who get surgery are vain and egotistical shallow superficial, the list goes on, because that just puts us into a neat little box for others. god forbid that they actually acknowledge that it is perhaps (and in most cases) society that set these physical(and very unrealistic)standards that we must meet in order to be a fully accepted member of society, and all we are trying to do is meet them. Many girls (sorry, and men) maintain that they did not have surgery for anyone else but themselves, poppycock! They may not realise they did it for someone/something else, but they did. Stereotypes lead to generalizations, and it is these that will affect the cosmetically altered in their day to day life, although it might not be alarmingly apparent.

I’m 25, female and going to have laser lipo on my lower tummy in May. I’m very active in my job and always have been. However no matter how slim I become (lost a stone this year) I still have a stubborn podge of belly fat below my belly button. It drives me mad. I look at it all the time in the mirror. Not matter how many sit ups I do it will always be there. So I am truly hoping that laser lipo will get me what I want to give me the confidence about my body that I want. I’ve got 4 tattoos (well chosen and rarely on display), ears and belly pierced. I think do there us some stereotypes about both tattoos and cosmetic surgery but it just depends on how you feel about it, not what others think of you for having it. Vanity is probably my motivation, I just want a flat tummy to go on holiday will and to feel confident about it and not to keep trying to hide it. Fingers crossed hey! X

@tiggi3000, i was just wondering what you meant by saying that people have surgery for others, even if they dont realise it???. i think i know what you mean when you said that its easier for others to label us as shallow etc instead of accepting that they have set standereds for everyone to meet, im pretty sure i agree with this, i just wanted you to expandx

roxyferns, what i meant by that was that everyone on this thread has altered themselves so they are happier with themselves, but why are they happier? because they look better, which may seen vain at first, but when you think about it, we’re all conforming to the beauty supreme set by society, we didnt make this idea, society did, we’re just going along with it. i had a forehead reduction, but im pretty sure you dont get many people saying to surgeons ‘i want a big forhead please, the bigger the better!!’ that would be ‘weird’ and unconventional. there are two types of people, those who fit the beauty supreme, and those who dont. and within those who dont, you get two more kinds of people, those who are willing to change themselves to fit the beauty supreme, and those who are not. do you see what i mean? x

I think that cosmetic surgery is for those who just want to enhance what they already have to feel better in themselves, in a way we are kind of doing it for other people because we look for compliments from others but thats not the only reason people have it done. Unfortunately all we can see on the tv, in magazines etc are people that are classed as “beautiful” and this can put pressure on people to change the way they look, if the media only used images of people that havnt made much of an effort in their appearance then everyone else would feel like image is not such a big thing.

I get wat tiggi meant, as you can see from my posts, I wouldnt have even realised I was not “normal” (or not percieved as normal according to some insecure and over-opinionated people in themselves) and if these people had never mentioned it I would never have realised I wasnt “normal” and I cant tell if I would have not gotten surgery if theyd never mentioned them to me…..I always knew they were small and I commented on them myself about not having any boobs and didnt like how I was in bikinis and some clothes and I always tried to make my boobs look bigger by wearing heavy padded bras 3 sizes too big for me etc. but I wasnt as insecure about them until they were pointed-out by others for no reason…….

ok so a few of you have highlighted the fact you feel there are negative stereotypes surrounding those who have cosmetic surgery, do you feel this is stigmatizing to you, or other modifiers?

or do you feel that there are positive aspects of the surgery?

i think this is a tricky one, stereotypes yes, and perhaps even negative stereotypes, but im not to sure if there is stigma anymore. people almost encourage you to have a nip/tuck when necessary, make the most of what you’ve got, its always in the magazines isnt it, and for a lot of people botox is as essential as air! as i said i get asked if im gay sometimes, but thats not stigma, i tend to take it as a bit of a compliment!, men are quite curious about it, they think it looks good and you can tell they’ve got that look in their eyes, like their thinking about it, its always different when you know someone whos had a tweak and you can see it for yourself. women are a bit surprised by it, but i think they appreciate the new stance men are taking, we can understand what its like for women a bit, this pressure to be on top form. so i think its very understood, the only real stigma i can think of is where people have gone to far, like women with stupidly big boobs (even for america!) or when they’ve had sooooo much work on their face they look like some kind of alien. thats weird, theres obviously something not quite right.

i agree, there are stereotypes like being vain, but im not sure you could say this was stigma, i dont think me having surgery has stopped me doing anything in life, if anything its the opposite in my opinion. i think people who are scared of admitting theyve had surgery over estimate bad reactions, these days going to the surgery for a quick filler or jab is as simple as getting a hair cut, no one cares! its just a talking point, like ‘oh yesterday i went and had my lips done… and people are like oh really? how was that for you? nice doctor. your literally just enhancing your looks and confidence, thats what everyone tells you to do isnt it? magazines and all them makeover programmes, how to look your best, and how to be confident. i think thats what society (as everyone keeps saying) wants, but chrisdowntowns right, its different when youve got someone thats gone too far, theyre obviously not well when they keep going back for more and more, never happy and looking so bad by the end of it, part of thats the surgeon though so perhaps they shouldnt get as much stigma as they do. live and let live etc x

I dont feel im vain. Im 37 years old, took me this long to talk my hubby round to letting me have a boob job. I was always very aware that i could not wear certain clothes. I dont see my self as being fake, I just filled out my boobs that god did not give me.

I am now hoping i can go down the beach, without being paranoid of my chest. or finding a push together bikini. Everyone ive told has bees supportive, even tho my sister does like to stich her DD chest out when i mention i could be a DD, saying hers are all natural.!!!! (but her teeth are not all natural!!!)

I have my bellybutton pearced, which i loved when i was a size 8, but dont like now im a 12…i have my tongue pearced that i love, and a tiny tattoo that i hate. But we do these things when we are young. I dye my hair blonde as thats the best colour for me, have tried other colours. But im also a tom boy who lives in trainers etc. Hope this helps. xx

I am 25 and female and have had over 40 piercings, over 20 tattoos, a split tongue, stretched ears, scarification, micro-dermal implants, and have had 2 breast enlargement surgeries.

What motivated my first op was the fact that I felt like a boy and I was so unhappy in my eating disorder that I thought it would solve all my problems! How very wrong I was! It only created more! but I didn’t have those issues until last year. So the issues then motivated my next surgery!! Which I had this year. I had to have dangerous implants removed and a huge amount of scar tissue removed with it and then implants replaced.

As for the stereotype not many people guess that I would have fake boobs. But looking at me they expect me to have a new tattoo or piercing etc. I am stereotyped as an emo/goth/scenekid when infact I am a woman who just happens to like a few bod mods and thats all. Some close to me do say I’m a narcissist though! ha ha

im not to sure if id say there were even negative stereotypes to be honest, and i would say that there was little if not stigma these days. The only stigma i feel there is, is when people see you as fake, and i mean that in a deeper sense of the word, yes you are physically attractive, but you had surgery, therfore its not real, and neither are you. that sort of stigma i think remains, but i feel this only happens when people feel threatened by the ammount of people striving for physcial perfection, society wants a hiarachy, and if everyone becomes good looking, this hierachy is diminished. in nearly every magazine i read there are articles on cosmetic surgery, who had what done, make over stories etc. but every now and again those same magazines will throw in a stroy about how bad surgery is and that the nation is becoming consumed with fakery, and we should al find happiness within ourselves blah bla blah, its such a contradiction that its almost insulting.

Hi I’m female, 35 and considering breast enlargement. I’m doing this because it’s something I’ve thought about for many years. I don’t feel like a woman without breasts, I always say to my husband ‘How would you feel without a penis?’!! Clothes are designed for feminine figures and they just don’t look the same on a flat skinny body, I feel they just accentuate the fact that I don’t have a figure. If I have’t got any make up on I feel like I look like a boy. My husband always tells me I’m perfect and gorgeous, which is what I want to believe, but I just can’t because I don’t feel like a WOMAN.

I suppose some of it is for other people, because people do think they can tell what sort of person you are by the way your body looks (They’re fat, they must be lazy and greedy – She’s skinny, she’s either anorexic or on drugs) and as much as you don’t care what others think, it plays on your mind when you meet new people.

My poor husband has never seen me fully naked and when he does walk into a room when I’m undressed I scream and cover myself. It’s pathetic, I know, but I can’t help it – it’s what I do. I’m so unhappy with the way I look it affects my sex life with the man of my dreams. I know he doesn’t care what I look like, but in the back of my mind I think he thinks the same as I do about my body, but just isn’t cruel enough to say it out loud.

I want to feel like a woman, I want to be able to buy clothes without having to consider if it shows off too much flat chest. I want to be able to buy pretty underwear that isn’t padded or filled with gel. (I even have gel bikinis!) I don’t want to cry in the changing rooms anymore. I don’t want to cover myself when my husband tries to touch me, I want to have sex naked. I want him to have what all other men have in a sexual relationship.

I’ve really depressed myself typing this!! It’s something that really does affect you mentally, for years. You carry your body everywhere you go, it’s how people judge you and it’s how you judge yourself.

I hope this helps…x

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