JAVNA USTANOVA GIMNAZIJA OBALA

JOVANA LALOVIĆ

NORMALISATION OF PLASTIC SURGERY

MATURSKI RAD

SARAJEVO, MAJ 2023

 Javna ustanova GIMNAZIJA OBALA Sarajevo

MATURSKI RAD IZ ENGLESKOG JEZIKA

NORMALISATION OF PLASTIC SURGERY

MENTOR UČENIK
Kaknjo Amina, Prof Lalović Jovana, IV5
Sarajevo , maj 2023.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 1
1.Procedures................................................................................................................................. 2
1.1.Rhinoplasty............................................................................................................................. 2
1.2.Botox...................................................................................................................................... 5
1.3.Liposuctin............................................................................................................................... 5
2.Origins of plastic surgery........................................................................................................... 7
3.Social media............................................................................................................................... 8
3.1.Instqgram face........................................................................................................................ 8
3.2.Body image.............................................................................................................................10
4.Gender affirming surgery......................................................................................................... 12
4.1.Health risks and side effects.................................................................................................. 13
4.2.Regret.................................................................................................................................... 13
5.Plastic surgery fails....................................................................................................................14
6.Conclusion.................................................................................................................................16
7.Literature...................................................................................................................................17
8.Illustrations...............................................................................................................................18
 INTRODUCTION
Plastic surgery is the umbrella term for two major subgroups: Cosmetic/ aesthetic surgery and
reconstructive surgery.
Cosmetic surgery is the plastic surgery we are most familiar with today. It's changing your
appearance for aesthetic purposes.
Reconstructive surgery is defined as "restoring function to a body part that's been disfigured".
Gender reassignment surgery is under this category as well.
Plastic surgery has become increasingly more popular in the last decade than ever before.
Country with highest percentage of plastic surgeries in the world is South Korea, followed by
Greece and Italy. South Korea is frequently called the “plastic surgery capital of the world”.
Nearly 25% of women, ages twenty to thirty have underwent some form of plastic surgery,
while men 2% of the times.
The global cosmetic surgery market size was accounted at USD 71.5 billion in 2021 and it is
expected to reach around USD 205.1 billon by 2030.
With the development of new technology, performing cosmetic treatments is a lot easier and
more affordable, which results in more people undergoing cosmetic treatments. Is this a
positive thing to promote and should it be normalised or should it be heavily criticised?
 1. Procedures
In this day and age plastic surgery has had a major increase in popularity. It is becoming
normalised for average people to decide to undergo plastic treatments. Plastic surgery is mostly
a female dominated field, however, in last years there has been a growing number of men
undergoing cosmetic procedures. This does not include celebrities and other wealthy people
but average humans. They are undergoing plastic surgeries that slightly change their
appearance since everyone can tell that celebrities had surgeries because of their unnatural
and seemingly fake facial features. The most common cosmetic surgeries that are being
performed, in both women and men are rhinoplasties, botox treatment, chin augmentation,
liposuction, neck lift and eyelid rejuvenation. And for women it is breast implants. These
procedures can be done without a drastic change to their appearance. Every day people aren’t
going for the perfect faces, they just want to improve their already good features and hide their
flaws, not completely get rid of them.
1.1.Rhinoplasty
Rhinoplasty is a surgery in which plastic surgeons break the bones of the nose in order to
change the shape of the nose so it matches patients wish for a more aestheticly pleasing
appearance. It is the most popular procedure of them all since the nose is usually a part of the
face we mostly struggle with aestheticly and does the most change to our appearance if fixed
properly.
However, this is a rather difficult operation and it is due to several crucial factors. First, the nose
is an extremely complicated 3D shape centred in the middle of the face. Changes that are made
during rhinoplasty are very small, but these changes can make a big difference in the way the
nose looks and functions. Because these changes are small, so is the margin for error. A lot of
teenagers want to have a rhinoplasty done and unfortunately a lot of them do have them. This
is extremely problematic because the nose didn’t fully develop at such a young age so there can
be a lot of complications for the next couple of years since the nose won’t stop growing.
Secondly, rhinoplasty  doesn't have a regular plan or set order of steps. Surgeons personalize
each operation according to the needs of the patient. They carefully study a patients nose and
rest of their face so they can have a successful result. If not enough attention is given that can
pretty much ruin a persons appearance since it’s a big part of our face.
Fortunately, the risks of rhinoplasty are small and complications are rare. Patients health care
provider talks to them about the risks and benefits before the surgery takes place.
After the surgery is done, nearly everyone is able to leave the hospital the same day as the
surgeon. In very rare cases, a patient may stay in the hospital for one night.
And that is because they might be having a hard time with nausea or they have other health
problems that need to be monitored.

The recovery period after the surgery is done is usually around two weeks. Patients feel better
each day during the first week. After the first week is done, they feel like themselves again.
Swelling is present. The swelling can take many months even a full year before it completely
goes away. Although it stops being noticeable after a couple of months.
Most people, especially celebrities, try and hide the fact that they underwent a rhinoplasty and
they claim that they had a surgery to fix their breathing. That procedure is called a septoplasty.
Septoplasty is a surgery to improve breathing. It straightens the wall inside the nose that
divides the nasal passages into a right and a left side, known as the nasal septum. When the
septum is crooked, it can make it harder to breathe through the nose. A septoplasty is often
done at the same time as a rhinoplasty.

Rhinoplasty is the most popular cosmetic surgery in Iran. Iran is known as the “nose job capital
of the world” because of the high rate of the procedure. The cost of rhinoplasty in Iran starts
from 1000 $ and can go up to 2500 $. Some surgeons may require higher or lower prices.

Picture 1. An example of a rhinoplasty in Iran

Picture 2. An example of a rhinoplasty in Iran
1.2.Botox
Botox is a drug prepared from botulin, used medically to treat certain muscular conditions and
cosmetically to remove wrinkles by temporarily paralysing facial muscles. When botox is
injected it causes the blocking of nerves to the muscles. This prevents the targeted muscles
from contracting, which can ease certain muscular conditions as well as improve the
appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
This is a procedure that isn’t as complex as some other operations. Botox is mostly used to slow
down aging. Older people would get injections into their foreheads and around their eyes to
remove wrinkles. Today young people, ages twenty to thirty, are using botox to smooth out
their skin.
What are the side effects of botox?
Although botox isn’t entirely dangerous there are always side effects and other risks. Side
effects of botox include superficial reddening of the skin after it is injected, present swelling,
due to the blocking of the nerves it can cause drooping eyelids or eyebrows. Botox usually hurts
only while the needle is being injected and even that is jus a small pinch, but there are some
cases of continuing pain in the injected area due to it being infected. And the remaining side
effects would be other types of skin discolorations.
Majority od these side effects were mild and temporary. Botox is considered safe overall.
However, you should always go to a board certified dermatologist or plastic surgeon for botox
injections. You’re more likely to experience adverse side effects if your injections aren’t
prepared or injected by an inexperienced health care professional.
1.3.Liposuction
Liposuction is a technique in cosmetic surgery for removing excess fat from under the skin. It
uses suction to remove fat from specific areas of the body, such as the stomach, hips, thighs,
buttocks, arms or neck. This procedure is performed under general, regional or local anesthesia.
There are two types of liposuction surgery, cosmetic and reconstructive. Cosmetic liposuction
shouldn’t be used as a weight-loss plan but to aesthetically improve the appearance of body
parts and contour. Reconstructive liposuction is performed when medically necessary.
Like all surgeries, liposuction carries both benefits and risks. Complications don’t occur all that
often and when they do they are usually minor complications. The most common complications
include skin irregularity which is a common side effect for most of plastic surgeries, other side
effects include lumpiness, dimpling, loose skin, numbness, infections and scarring. If these

complications do occur, they can be easily corrected in most cases.

Picture 3. Injection of botox
 Picture 4. Liposuction being performed

2. Origins of plastic surgery

Today, plastic has become normalised and accepted unlike in previous century. In the early
20th century, plastic surgery was very secretive and frowned upon by the general society.
Surgeons who did offer aesthetic surgery procedures at the time had their own clinics and they
didn't document their procedures because, once again, it was frowned upon.

Eugene von Hollander is often credited as performing the first face-lift in 1901, but he didn't
publicly say that he did it until 1932.

Word War One was the big game changer in the plastic surgery industry. A lot of soldiers who
were lucky enough to come home sustained major facial injuries. As The New York Times
observed "no wounds of the European war have been quite so shocking as those to the human
face". Thus surgeons were now tasked with reconstructive surgery to give economic
independence back to the veterans. As one surgeon puts it: "What is the use of life if he is not
in a condition to seek and earn a livelihood?"

Unfortunately, we live in a society that has always prioritised beauty. There is a major beauty
bias : Physical ugliness has been considered a marker for evilness, and beauty has been
considered a marker for morality and goodness. Think about how the evil stepsisters in
"Cinderella" were purposely depicted to be uglier, while Cinderella, the good innocent
character, was portrayed as beautiful.

Italian criminologist, Ceasare Lombroso, even said that you could detect a criminal by his
physique. "Someone with prehensite feet, left-handedness, hernias, outstanding ears, broad
cheekbones, a low and retreating forehead, oblique eyes, a small skull and, in women, a
masculine face, was probably an evil doer". So given our society's beauty ideology, the wartime
deformities were off-putting to the average American eye. So there was a real concern that
these young men who were drafted into the war at age 19, who were forced to put their lives
on the line, would have trouble finding a job and being able to make money when they come
back.

Sander Gilman says in his book "Making the Body Beautiful: A cultural History of Aesthetic
Surgery", that "the growth of cosmetic surgery coincided with the spread of so - called 'race
science', that linked one's physical appearance to one's character and intelligence".

3.Social media
One of the main reasons why people in today’s society view plastic surgery the way they do is
because of the influence of social media. While scrolling through social media, it is clearly
noticeable that majority of influencers and celebrities look oddly similar. When looking at their
pictures from youth, they all looked unique, but now, as they are influential and rich they all
developed similar facial features. Whether it’s their slim nose, large eyes, or plump lips, many
of them have probably undergone some form of cosmetic procedure.

3.1.Instagram face

Today we have a phenomenon called “The Instagram face”.

The face is distinctly white but ambiguously ethnic. A South Asian influence with the brows and
eye shape, an African American influence with the lips, a Caucasian influence with the nose, a
cheek structure that is predominantly Native American and Middle Eastern.

People who belong in those ethnic groups, who have these features naturally are still
ostracised. They are completely excluded because they’re not white enough to make the ideal.
Or if they are included, they are fetishized for having these features.

The Kardashians created this face. It is no surprise that celebrity plastic surgeon said: “I’d say
that 30% of people come in bringing a photo of Kim Kardashian, or someone like Kim. There’s a
handful of people, but she’s at he very top of the list, and understandably so, it’s one of the
biggest challenges I have, educating the person about whether it’s reasonable to try to move
along that path towards Kim’s face, or towards whoever”.

In addition, a good cosmetic surgeon will not allow patients to “order” new looks based on their
preferences for “Angelina lips” or “Jennifer cheekbones” the surgeon must guide patients and
educate them about what is possible. It’s important to consider how the new feature will “fit
in” with the rest of the patient’s face. Will the proportions be right? Will the new shape of the
nose, cheekbones, chin or eyes flatter the patient’s other features? Just because someone
wants “Angelina lips” does not mean those lips will look good in the end – the shape has to be
tailored to the individual.
Picture 5. Kim Kardashian
3.2.Body Image
Social media has had a major impact on how we view our own bodies. Especially for teenagers
and young adults, it is impossible to ignore all of the perfect looking faces and bodies across
every social media platform potraying it as a "right" way of looking, often using filters and
photos editing tools to enhance their appearance, while at the same time dealing with tons of
insecurities about their own appearance. They just can't help themselves but wish to look like
that and even attempt it. This can create unrealistic beauty standards, leading to body
dissatisfaction and low self-esteem in both women and men. The beauty industry benefits from
your Insecurities. A lot of doctors have a tendency of offering multiple procedures, even if you
had already come in for one treatment. They point out more features that can be "improved"
to a person with already low self-image.

Social media doesn't help with our insecurities, although it promotes body positivity, it makes
our insecurities worse.
“In a larger context, body positivity is a social movement that advocates for the acceptance of
all bodies, regardless of size, shape, skin tone, gender or physical abilities” says Dr Albers. She
adds that this movement challenges unrealistic beauty standards and ideas.
Body positivity has its roots in radical fat activism that began in the late 1960s.
Body positivity movement originally meant accepting of our body and improving it in healthy,
natural ways. Staying away from plastic surgery and perfect looking faces and bodies. The body
positivity movement on social media has mainly focused on plus sized body types, advocating
that it should be normalised but fails to make it body positive. They are still looking for
symmetrical facial features, typical plastic surgery face with big lips and small noses, and they
are hiding stretch marks which are there because of the amount of weight present. That means
that the standard beauty standards are still there and that people are still changing themselves
surgically to fit that standards. The body positivity movement just ended up increasing the use
of plastic surgery. Social media is still one of the main reasons why people feels so insecure
about their body. Body positivity failed at it's primary goal, which is to make us feel better
about our body.
Speaking of weight, plus sized individuals aren’t the only ones affected by today’s normalisation
of plastic surgery. Skinny people, despite already fitting the beauty standard when it comes to
their body sizes, still undergo massive amounts of treatments to “perfect” themselves. Plastic
surgeons are publishing documents of a growing number of young female patients undergoing
surgeries to slim down their stomach by removing lower ribs in their body or readjusting their
hip bones. To readjust hip bones they need to be broken and then put back in shape and angle
desired by the patient. For people who don’t have enough money to have this procedures
done, being influential by this unrealistic bodies, a lot of people develop eating disorders
because they drastically minimalize their food income in order to lose weight quicker. However
all of that still isn’t enough to fit the beauty standard. It is desired to have a small waist while
still having large breasts and buttocks. Which is naturally not possible for our bodies to be like
that. This leads to many undergoing breast implants and many illegal buttocks treatments. The
buttocks treatments are specifically dangerous already on their own, but on a smaller body type
with naturally smaller body parts such as the buttocks, drastic increase of them is a massive
shock to our body.
Desire for beauty perfection will never stop, so neither will plastic surgery. We live in a time
where plastic surgery, whether we like it or not, is normalised to a certain extent. One of the
main characteristics of plastic surgery is looking younger. The obsession with getting work done
in order to look young is closely tied to the desire to look perfect, forever. Humans age. It's a
natural part of life and not something that we can prevent in itself. No one should be made to
feel ashamed of the natural way their body changes, but as fewer and fewer people are
allowing their bodies to age naturally it becomes a lot harder to accept this progression. And
when young people are seeking out "preventive" procedures like botox more than ever before,
it's clear we need to take a serious collective look at our relationship to aging.
Although some people tend to look older with plastic surgery. Young people want to have more
pronounced cheekbones and putting filler in them isn’t enough. They undergo buccal fat
removal. This is a surgery that removes a piece of buccal fat tissue from each side od the face in
order to reduce the appearance of cheek puffiness. It is a strictly cosmetic procedure. This
creates hollowing in the face and takes away the youthful softness of the face.
 Picture 6. Examples of buccal fat removal

4.Gender affirming surgery

Today social media is promoting something extremely problematic which is this new way of
viewing our gender. With many young people, especially children, they are included by social
media and currently a lot of people have platforms explaining how they feel as if they are a
different gender just born in a wrong body. And when they want to transition to femenise or
masculinese their appearance they have to undergo many extremely complicating surgeries.
Gender affirming surgery refers to all the procedures that help people transition to their self-
identified gender. Gender affirming options can include a vary of facial surgeries, a top surgery
or a bottom surgery.
People may chose to have this surgery so that their physical body matches their gender
identity. People who chose gender affirmation surgery do so because they experience gender
dysphoria, which is the distress that occurs when a persons sex assigned at birth does not
match their gender identity. This surgery gives transgender people a body that aligns with their
gender. Common transgender surgery options may include facial reconstructive surgery so it
makes facial features more masculine or feminine. For example for a more feminine face chin
and jaw are readjusted so the face has a gentle and soft look to it. And for a more masculine
appearance implants and filler are inserted alongside jaw bones. Other surgery options are
chest or otherwise known as a “Top” surgery to remove breast tissue for a more masculine
appearance or to enhance breast size and shape for a more feminine appearance. And lastly, a
genital or a “Bottom” surgery to transform and reconstruct the genitalia.
This is something that has vastly blown up in popularity in the last years. Surgeries like this have
existed before and a handful of people would have them performed but it was all secretive and
people were very careful with who they go to. But still it was not enough for it to be considered
and discussed about, where as today it is safe to say that it is a serious topic that needs further
exploring as to what’s happening.
This generation is the first one to be in such a contact where a lot is available but not enough
knowledge is presented. These surgeries are relatively new and surgeons in this field aren’t as
experienced as other plastic surgeons. Because the surgeries are right now taking place we still
haven’t seen the long term side effects and how will people grow in these changes.
The worst part is that in some states in the United States gender affirming surgeries and other
procedures such as injections of hormones is available for children. Something that we always
agreed on as a society is that minors can’t make rational decisions for themselves and they are
easily influential. Surgeries that are as dangerous and complicated as gender affirming ones are
especially suppose to be away from a child’s reach. Now all of that is being neglected we have
undeveloped teenagers transitioning their bodies and we can’t even begin to imagine what kind
of consequences and other complications this will have on them in the future.

4.1.Health risks and side effects

Transgender people may be at a greater risk for health problems because they may not always
see a healthcare provider when they need to. It may be that they feel embarrassed, have had a
bad experience, fear judgment, or have a healthcare provider who is uninformed.
Certain cancer cases are more common amongst transgender people that are tied to hormone
use. Depending on the stage of transition, the breasts, uterus, ovaries, prostate, or liver can be
affected. These body parts require regular screenings. Not getting preventive screening could
result in a delay in the diagnosis and treatment of any cancer.
Sometimes a transgender person buys hormones from a nonmedical provider. This may be
because the therapy isn't covered by insurance. Or it could be because the person doesn't want
to get medical care. This can result in taking the wrong hormone or the wrong dosage, which
may increase the chance for serious side effects. To limit the risks, a healthcare provider should
closely monitor hormone therapy with blood levels.
Obesity is a common side effect present when a person is transitioning. Cigarettes and use of
alcohol are also common among transgender people. These factors put a person at risk for
heart disease, heart attack and stroke. You should get regular checkups to help prevent heart
disease. Also control health conditions like high blood pressure and obesity, and live a healthy
lifestyle.
4.2.Regret
Twenty seven studies have been made were almost 8,000 teens and adults who had
transgender surgeries were involved. After it was reviewed, mostly in Europe, the United States
and Canada, 1% on average expressed regret. For some, regret was temporary, but a small
number went on to have detransitioning or reversal surgeries, the 2021 review said.

5.Plastic surgery fails

People rush and do things without thinking twice about it. Having a false sense of confidence
and thinking they figured it all out and they can decide on their own and when people warn
them, they jus brush it off because they’ve been convincing themselves for a long time that
they are choosing the right decision.
With plastic surgery being easily accessible people can’t help themselves and they just rush in
and just want to get it done as fast as possible. That makes them not contact a proper surgeon
with a lot of experience, instead they put their trust in someone who is either unexperienced or
unprofessional, meaning they will just take money from them and convince them to undergo
more surgeries. They are cases where surgery may not fails because it simply doesn’t fit the
remainder of the face. They will then need to change the rest of their face to fix the appearance
which can have higher risks of more failed surgery.
Patients ignore their other health issues just so they can have a procedure done. That is
extremely dangerous because in order to have a surgery performed a person needs to be in a
completely healthy state so further complications don’t occur.
Once plastic surgery becomes addictive it is almost inevitable for there not to be a fail.
Searching for that unexciting perfection and always wanting to fix every detail is what results in
extreme plastic surgery cases.
There are a lot of famous examples of plastic surgery fails where the addiction happened and
that is what lead to the fail happening. Michael Jackson being on of the most known example.
There was a visible change to his face every year and that is across a period of fifteen years and
possible even more. He ended up admitting to only a few procedures and claiming that
everything else is just aging. But it is clearly obvious that a number of operations took place.
One of the recent examples is Madonna. She may not be as drastically different as Michael
Jackson but she most definitely does not look natural. She looks alienated and extremely
botched. This is what plastic surgeons call a “pillow face” where to much of botox and other
fillers have been injected.

Picture 7.Michael Jackson before and after plastic surgery

 Picture 8. Madonna in 2023

6.Conclusion
Now to answer the question. Should plastic surgery be normalised or is this a negative thing
and we should be strongly against it . I believe the answer to be a combination of both. We
always wanted to fix our appearance whether it be in a natural and healthy way or taking risks
to achieve that goal. Saying plastic surgery shouldn’t be in use and ending the debate there is
pointless because it will continue to happen no matter how hard we try and prevent it.
Plastic surgery should be normalised to a certain extent. It does not affect anyone because
someone chose to undergo plastic surgery. It is not illegal. A consenting and of age adult should
be able to do what they want with their life and that includes having changes done to their
bodies. It is such a personal choice to have and no one has the right to disallow them that.
Plastic surgery can make a lot of people happy. It boosts their confidence and they more
comfortable with themselves.
But we should be aware of all the negatives of plastic surgery. Ignoring problems just makes
matters worse. Plastic surgery shouldn’t be such a taboo topic in this day and age. We should
be able to discuss about it and provide more knowledge to public so that people who decide to
go under the knife do it safely and for some people it will lead them to deciding not to.
 7.Literature
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery#:~:text=Plastic%20surgery%20is%20a
%20surgical,and%20the%20treatment%20of%20burns.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21526-gender-affirmation-confirmation-or-
sex-reassignment-surgery
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Body-Beautiful-Sander-Gilman/dp/0691070539
https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/social-media-
influence#:~:text=Social%20media%20influence%20is%20a,idea%20or%20sell%20a%20product
https://indepest.com/2021/02/20/botox-art/
https://www.nakedlydressed.com/beauty-standards/
https://time.com/magazine/us/3926026/june-29th-2015-vol-185-no-24-u-s/
 8.Illustrations

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