Thread: Plastic Surgery

What are your thoughts on plastic surgery and its increasing popularity and acceptance in western society?

This thread is about invasive plastic surgery such as facial reconstruction, breast augmentation, etc, which are all carried through due to aesthetic purposes only. It also excludes surgery carried out to correct injuries (burns, nose being chopped off, etc.)

I'm pretty split on this issue. One one hand, plastic surgery gives people who are otherwise labeled as "unattractive" a chance at increased confidence and happiness. On the other hand, a society in which it is accepted that beauty can be bought and sold like a common commodity, doesn't plastic surgery become a necessity? When ugly people are paying money to become even more attractive than naturals who are already highly attractive, isn't it necessary for those naturals to adopt a similar strategy to court high-quality mates they are then beginning to lose to the now even more attractive unnaturals?

It seems to me that, as plastic surgery becomes more and more rampant, the beauty standards will eventually be pushed so high that plastic surgery cannot possibly allow people to reach those standards of beauty. We'll be back at square one, except then everybody will have to get plastic surgery or be labeled ugly.

Is plastic surgery a symptom of a greater issue? People are less happy with their appearances because beauty standards are becoming higher and higher. Beauty standards are becoming higher and higher due directly to the influence of marketers using sex to sell their product. What do we do about this? Do we ban the use of sexual suggestion in marketing?