Cosmetic Surgery/ Is 14 to many?

Artifact: Joan Rivers on The Drs

http://youtu.be/5w7JHd4lE6w


14 Surgeries and Counting
Cosmetic surgery has played a key role in women’s lives in the last few years. Women have been manipulated by factors that allow them to look at themselves and brand themselves as “ugly”. In “Designing Women” by Patricia Gagné and Deanna McGaughey, the two authors talk about cosmetic surgery and women, “Cosmetic surgery is an expression of women’s agency” Women express themselves through cosmetic surgery because they want to be “beautiful” in the eyes of society, especially men.
The artifact that I’ve chosen to represent cosmetic surgery is a panel of people talking with Joan Rivers and her surgeries. This is a great artifact because it shows a public figure and her child/daughter discussing important questions when thinking about cosmetic surgery. The discussions that occur between Melissa and Joan in this artifact portray a concerned daughter talking to her mother. The video starts off with an explanation about why Melissa and Joan Rivers are both on the show, “The Drs” by talking about Joan and Melissa’s new television show, “Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best”. In the video, Melissa expresses her unhappiness with all of her mother’s cosmetic surgeries. She expresses to her mother that 14 surgeries are enough and that she should not get any more.
The artifact and cosmetic surgery are nicely related to each other. Joan Rivers has been an American icon for approximately 30 years. She is the face of cosmetic surgery, having 14 different procedures performed on her. An important moment shown in the clip of the panel is when Joan Rivers says, “I’d rather die having cosmetic surgery than knee surgery”. This was important because it shows the amount of surgeries women can consider to make them perceive themselves as “beautiful”. “surgical procedures, anesthetic, post-operative drugs, predicted and lengthy pain, and possible side effects, that include death is that her access to other forms of power and empowerment are or appear to be limited that cosmetic is the primary domain in which she can experience some semblance of self-determination” (177). All of these risks are situations that women are subjecting themselves to, in order to obtain society’s standards. Women have not educated enough to understand these risks and therefore are exposing themselves to danger. Melissa Rivers said, “You’re also a woman who had a hysterectomy and tummy tuck at the same time” Melissa Rivers’ quote is showing that her mother takes full advantage of every chance she gets to get cosmetic surgery. Melissa says Joan takes the opportunity to get a tummy tuck when undergoing critical surgery. In Kathryn Pauly Morgan’s “Women and the Knife”, Morgan explains the problems the patients may have towards cosmetic surgery, and “Patients sometimes misunderstand the nature of cosmetic surgery. It’s not a shortcut for diet and exercise.” These two quotes display how women go about changing their bodies to fit the standards of society.

Discussion Questions:
1. What factors contribute to women considering to cosmetic surgery and subjecting themselves to factors like Morgan describes in Women and the Knife, “surgical procedures, anesthetic, post-operative drugs, predicted and lengthy pain, and possible side effects, that include death.” Do you think that women educate themselves enough prior to receiving surgery?
2. How do lower and middle class women afford these procedures that they believe are necessary to make them self’s “beautiful”?
3. The media has a huge impact on women in our society with the bombardment of society standards to be beautiful and desirable. Why do you think women are drawn to meet these standards the cosmetic surgery?  As stated in Patrica Gagne and Deanna McGaughey in a statement from a woman “I remember seeing a model in Cosmopolitan, and her breast weren’t very big, but at least she had some. And I thought that’s what I want mine to look like.”
4. What do you think are the cultural norms that “Designing Women” talks about and what controls these norms?