Ugly Into Beautiful Through Plastic Surgery example essay topic

Mind Diminishing Reality TV seems to have taken over television in America today. Shows such as The Real World, Eliminate, American Idol, and Extreme Makeover are just a few of these reality TV shows that are being watched in our living rooms today. While many of these shows display the reality of day-to-day life of certain people, various reality television shows effect American society as many become idealistic to the people on the shows. Shows such as, The Swan and Extreme Make Over are shows that completely remake and rebuild one's outer image. Episode after episode women change their weight, nose, lips, etc. by plastic surgery hoping to become "beautiful". Unfortunately, The Swan and Extreme Make Over make transform the meaning of beauty on the show and hypnotize many into believing that beauty comes in a certain shape and form of skinny and thin.

Skinny and thin may seem to be "reality" on television, where in actuality; the average American woman is about a size 8 and is going to grow as obesity has spread throughout the U.S. The Swan and Extreme Make Over are shows that are far from reality and diminish the minds of young women in America as they brainwash these teens to completely change whom they are just to be accepted and acknowledged in a society based on looks and outer beauty. The Swan and Extreme Make Over are similar reality TV shows that turn the" ugly' into 'beautiful' through plastic surgery. Both reality television shows begin with women who have self-issues on how they look as well as issues with their self-confidence. The people in these shows have no physical features wrong with them what so ever, they unfortunately are just not content with themselves. They begin on these shows hoping to change one or two body parts, yet, undergo whole head to toe transformations. From liposuction, tummy tucks, lip and breast enhancement, the women end up looking completely different.

The participants on The Swan and Extreme Make Over are mainly women who do not fit society's norm of what we call beautiful, as society has a certain form of beauty. Beauty is tall, skinny, and long legged. Women appear on The Swan and Extreme Make Over hoping to completely change their outer looks as well as gain self-confidence and self worth within themselves. While the makeovers only change their outer looks, they cannot change deep feelings that are really going on in ones head. The shows like The Swan and Extreme Make Over have a large effect on young girls and adolescents as they look up to these women on the shows.

Young women at ages 16 for example, have large issues on fitting in, worry about being popular and how they dress, and are unsure of whom they truly are. The Swan and Extreme Make Over brainwash these inexperienced and adolescent minds in believing that beautiful is having large breast, and a thin body and you will be well liked and popular if you are this way. So many teens have weight issues and eating disorders because they want to be as the beautiful and thin person displayed on the television screen. These "reality" television shows are only truthfully displaying the easy way out of sadness, depression, and unhappiness with oneself. The Swan and Extreme Make Over exhibit to young women that anything you dislike about your body can be changed and you do not have to be comfortable with who you are. Sadly, these shows are teaching young women that our definition of beauty as well as acceptance can be achieved through plastic surgery.

These shows like The Swan and Extreme Make Over reveal that our culture is acceptable to 'Fake' bodies and beauty begins on what is physically there. These bodies are fake and unreal in the sense that these outer looks were not achieved through human nature but by a surgeon with a knife. Our American culture has made young women as young as 16 want to get plastic surgery to look like famous Hollywood's J Lo and Beyonce. America has accepted the work that the Hollywood stars get done to their bodies and faces as if it is a part of human nature. I have witnessed my own friends comment things such as "I wish I was pretty like Beyonce" or "I wonder how much I'd have to pay to get a tummy tuck". It is depressing that average weighted beautiful women would feel this way.

We have come to be an idealistic world of perfection, when in reality we are not making ourselves perfect but destroying our self worth and are changing who we truly are. Genetics are there so we can look like our mothers and fathers but plastic surgery is bringing society farther away from ones true self. One day on an episode on Oprah, a hit talk show, I saw a regretful woman who had more than 22 plastic surgeries performed on herself and was saddened because her daughter questioned why she didn't look like mommy. Of course, it was startling and sickening to know that one would get plastic surgery 22 times, but what appalled me the most about this woman was; she wanted more plastic surgery. Every time plastic surgery was performed on one of her body parts, she felt she was falling farther away from perfection. Plastic surgery was no longer needed on this beautiful women, it was counseling that she desperately deprived as she hoped to become perfect.

The Swan and Extreme Make Over are not actually reality TV as they fail to display much of the reality that goes on behind the scenes. The only reality in The Swan and Extreme Make Over Make over is that these women are real women who hope to change their outer looks. The reality of the fact is that these "reality" television shows fail to display the healing process of the women, as our bodies must go through much healing and bruising after surgery. Editors make the process of plastic surgery look so easy, first the woman is "ugly", and then she becomes "beautiful". The healing process is not overnight, for it takes weeks. The Swan and Extreme Make Over also do not display the actual price of these surgeries.

I doubt that the average American can afford the price cost of plastic surgery. The fact of the matter is that this is not reality. Women do not just change with the snap of a finger without any emotion and problem as these deeper feelings are not shown nor displayed to the American viewers. We the viewers of The Swan and Extreme Make Over are being deprived of watching the true reality on what goes on in these woman's' lives because of the editing that goes on in television today. In conclusion, as long as thin and beautiful women remain in the media, young women will hope to look like them and will do all they can to achieve it. The plastic surgery, dieting, and eating disorder epidemic will continue in America.

Many must realize that plastic surgery cannot completely change a person both inside and out as the mind is the strongest parts in our human bodies. Plastic surgery, the "quick fix", is not a way to go unless one really does his / her homework as a lot of the mind and emotion is involved with plastic surgery. Plastic surgery may fix physical body parts and make them look "perfect", in reality all plastic surgery is just a way for people hope to fix inner emotions. As the saying goes "don't judge a book by its cover", America is teaching us to do just that.