Normalizations of Cosmetic Surgeries: A Study of Body Alteration in Ellen Hopkin's Perfect Novel

Abstract

Over the last decades, cosmetic surgeries have grown in popularity. The majority of consumers in this lucrative industry are women. Normalizing cosmetic surgery and body alteration could lead to the homogenization of beauty and create a culture of people who look increasingly similar. Members of a society are particularly focusing on physical beauty and classifying people based on their physical features.The purpose of this research is to explore the reason behind normalizing cosmetic surgery and its psychological dimension and effects, and the concept of body image offered in Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies. The study investigates women's reactions to direct or indirect pressure of society on them to have cosmetic surgery and the ideology of the ideal beauty constructed by their culture. The concept of perfect beauty becomes interesting in this story because it can only be achieved by cosmetic surgery. Consequently, it will be appropriate to apply body image theory in studying this novel. It was found that society, media, family, school , and peers have an important role in creating the individual’s body image and ways of thinking; the society’s power to influence people makes it become the authorities that decide the “beautiful” and “ugly”.The hypothesis proposes that there is a link between body image and cosmetic surgery, people who have a poor body image are more likely want to  undergo cosmetic surgery than those who have a positive body image. The findings imply that an individual’s body image is shaped by their cultural and social environments in order not to revolt against the government and the prevailing system by altering individuals' brain lesions during cosmetic surgery.