Elements of Argument in My Research Paper for scholarship
Claim:
The thesis of my paper is that plastic surgery is currently being used as a tool for personal disfigurement. It has been classically conditioned into us humans as a method that ensures happiness provided its efficiency in fulfilling our inherent need for change. (This classical conditioning was established through constant association of beauty with happiness; which led us to believe that beauty modification procedures are the ultimate happiness to a morose soul.)
Grounds:
Several factors support the fact that we have become brainwashed into seeking plastic surgery. Such factors include the widespread use of the media and the unethical path taken up by plastic surgeons nowadays. In addition to the far-reaching exploits of the media (magazines, TV shows, Internet) the high demand on this field of medicine has transformed its specialists into salespersons. This has led to the consequent use of this field as a tool of personal disfigurement, where the patient is left to translate his drives, urges, and desires into body modifications. People, both consciously and unconsciously, have started to evaluate external appearances based on the standards set by the media. Britney Spears’ nose, Ashley Simpson’s lips, Madonna’s body… people are no longer concerned with just looking good; rather they obsessively lust after imitating a certain beauty role model. This desire can be explained by the need to attain perfection. Although such a desire is inherent in us humans, however perfection to the public nowadays is no longer ultimate harmony; rather it is living up to the figures broadcasted in such an outrageous manner through the media. Such psychological drives have become so amplified that they have become extreme psychological disorders better termed as symptoms.
Rebuttals:
And to those that equate happiness with beauty, how can they solve the issue of aging and its effect on the physique? Beauty is not permanent and withers over time no matter the amount of face-lifting procedures that attempt to keep those wrinkles as discrete as possible. It is the inner soul that forges on unaffected by age; but if that soul is punctured by unhealthy doses of low self-esteem how much can it endure?
A top model with no topic on her mind but her exquisite physique is analogous to a mute statue. She is bound to become a social recluse as is the isolated “ugly” individual!
Moreover, advocates who preach the necessity to conform to certain social standards just as one tidies up his appearance every morning must recall the fact that having uniform noses and perfect cheekbones is not a matter of “tidying up” but of reproducing a society of clones where the individual is lost in a sea of clones! In addition to that, such beauty modification procedures do not come at a cheap expense: even the simplest of such procedures requires a payment in high figures, a matter that is rather burdensome to a vast majority of our society. However, brainwashed as we currently are, people are ready to sacrifice primary necessities such as education and food in order to acquire a certain appearance that is deemed to fall apart in only as much as a couple of years.
Warrants:
Beauty is subjective: no magazine or TV show is qualified to set certain beauty standards in a society and encourage people to abide willingly by such standards. The effect of the media in publicizing this trend is apparent: beauty models that fill up the magazine pages, tips on how to decide what aspect of your body should be modified first, reality TV shows that encourage viewers to sympathize with the patients and the use of the Internet as a widespread tool that advertizes such procedures and facilitate methods for the patients to plunge into the plastic surgery domain (bank loans, free online consultation,…)
Although new technological advances such as “virtual plastic surgery” allow patients to have a realistic picture of the outcome of the surgery, actual results are never compatible. So patients remain at a high-risk of falling into depression due to their unmet expectations.
Instead of abstractly equating beauty with happiness, we are facing a harsher reality. Such beauty standards are not uplifting people’s spirits but are driving them over the edge trying to conform. Bank loans and multiple surgeries are only primary consequences of this beauty = happiness theory. More amplified consequences are observable at the psychiatrists’ clinics, where patients have developed major psychological disorders as a result of trying to conform with societies’ beauty standards.
Furthermore, beauty in the Far East cannot be equated to that of Western standards. This further supports the point that the widespread media effects are rather harmful to the different cultures of the world. Not only are beauty standards being set for a certain society but these standards have become cross-cultural.
Qualifiers
Although I am steadfast in my opinion that beauty is not the only tool to keep people in relatively high spirits, I must admit that our external physique is reflected in our mood, self-confidence and is therefore rooted in our psychological system. A young teenager lights up when she learns to use make-up; such a step though a minor form of beautification in comparison with the current status of body modification, is translated into happiness on the part of that adolescent. Similarly dressing up for an occasion or even combing one’s hair in the morning and tidying oneself up in the morning for work not only brings self-satisfaction to the person himself; it also gains him the respect of his fellow peers. Furthermore, although true to the statement that “beauty lies within”, first impressions are always present and such impressions are greatly dominated by one’s external physique. A girl catches a guy’s eye at first by her external physique…. The personality would soon shine through and enable either communication or not, but the first step seems to always boil down to the external appearance.
Beauty does play a role in controlling what each individual thinks of himself and what he views his potential in dealing with others. This matter has been a predecessor to the influence of the media on our forms of beauty standards. Beauty has long been a determinant of self-confidence and therefore happiness; however it is subjective and therefore cannot be determined by a certain party such as the media.
Source:
https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-Ugly-Truth-of-Plastic-Surgery-F3JG7VGZVC
https://jitterymonks.com/jittery-monks-blog/
https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/beautiful-and-metaphysics-beauty