Dissertation Proposal Part 1

Dissertation Proposal Part 1

Student Name
Laura Hall
Course
Graphic Design
Supervisor name
Hamid Van Koten
Email address
L.Y.Hall@dundee.ac.uk
Date
30th November 2010


Working title (max 25 words)
The effects of celebrity culture and its influences on cosmetic surgery, and people’s drive towards the desire of perfection particularly in the youth of today.
Summary (max 250 words)
I have looked briefly into the history of cosmetic surgery and it first origins appear to be from as early as the WW1 when ‘artistic’ repairs were used to save soldiers fighting in the war. Cosmetic surgery also goes as far back as 800B.C in India when people who has their noses cut off as punishment had them restored. However, it all became much more common in the 20th century and the present day. Celebrity influence is a big part of the cosmetic surgery industry and it is all over the press and media and is brainwashing youths of today into thinking the only way to look good is to go under the knife. Although a lot of this is negative, cosmetic surgery is good for loads of people, and has its benefits in health and fitness for patients being recommended for surgery in aid to save their lives or for reconstructive reasons. However it can be a very dangerous tool if used incorrectly. Celebrity culture is a key area in the field of cosmetic surgery and it is responsible for the attitudes of woman and men of all ages about undergoing surgery all in the name of vanity. We as a economy are becoming ever more dependent on the media and this leaves us putting our own bodies and identities under scrutiny and we start to think of the possibilities of surgery to enhance our appearances.
Aims: Why are you doing this? (max 100 words)
My main reason for choosing this topic is because of a personal experience. I had a Facial Reconstruction Operation and although it wasn’t through vanity it was medically recommended I came through the operation with strong thoughts and feelings as to why people consider going through such agony purely for looks. Bad press, media and celebrity influence has alot to do with this idea of the ‘perfect body’ and as a graphic designer I would hope to help young people to understand that there is no need to go to such extremities, and make people aware of all the negatives of cosmetic surgery and how it is a life changing experience and not something to be taken lightly. 

Objectives: What will you produce? (max 100 words)
My main objective in my dissertation is to produce a thorough explanation and analysis of the direct and indirect influences of celebrity culture on our youths. Another objective is to collect information about people’s own personal experiences of surgery, and their reasonings behind it. I would also like to collect, from people who haven’t undergone surgery, opinions and point’s of view towards it and if they would ever consider going through with surgery. Finally an overview of a small experiment hopefully with children and young adults, in interviewing and asking them to complete a questionnaire, and an experiment asking them to identify which out of a select number of celebrities would they says are ‘perfect’ or the best looking. 
Keywords (min 5 and max 10)
Surgery, confidence, perfection, deformities, NHS, body image, influences, celebrity, media.
Annotated Bibliography (min of 12 books, articles, websites)
Blum, V. L., 2003. Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery. California: University of California Press.
In this book, Blum looks into and studies all aspects of our lives and culture to see how we have turned our economy into a culture of cosmetic surgery. She also looks into what drives people into cosmetic surgery in the first place and what keeps people so fixated with celebrity aspirations. 
Brooks, K. D., Henderson-King, D., 2009. Materialism, Sociocultural Appearance Messages, and Paternal Attitudes Predict College Women’s Attitudes About Cosmetic Surgery. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33, pp.133-142.
This article shows the relationship between cosmetic surgery being a very female orientated industry, woman’s attitudes towards surgery and the pressures woman are under to achieve such desired attractiveness.
Elliott, A., 2008. Making the Cut How Cosmetic Surgery is Transforming our Lives. London: Reaktion Books Ltd.
The main purpose of this book is to allow us to understand some of the main driving forces behind our cosmetic surgical culture, and how we are on the ever increase of cosmetic surgery on our country and all around the world. 
Find a Surgeon, 2010. History of Cosmetic Surgery. [online] Available at: [Accessed 30 October 2010]
This is just a brief outline of the history of cosmetic surgery, how it originated in India, then it goes on to explain its significance in World War 1.
Fraser, S., 2003. Cosmetic Surgery, Gender and Culture. Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan. 
This book looks at how gender and cosmetic surgery are related and how they form part of our everyday lives and not only for people who have already undergone surgery. Throughout the book Fraser has focused on 3 themes for cosmetic surgery discourse - nature, agency and vanity.
Haiken, E., 1997. Venus Envy A History of Cosmetic Surgery. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.
This book focuses primarily on the history of cosmetic surgery and how it all came about. Haiken looks into the American culture in particular and how this gave rise to the growth of cosmetic surgery. 
Jones, M., 2008. Skintight: An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery. New York: Berg Publishers.
This book looks into the areas of celebrity, media and reality television shows and their influences of cosmetic surgery on our world. 
Plastic Surgery Axis, 2007. How Does Celebrity Plastic Surgery Influence Us. [online] Available at: < http://www.plasticsurgeryaxis.com/articles/celebrity_plastic_surgery.html> [Accessed 27 November 2010] 
This website links our obsession with celebrities to cosmetic surgery and how certain people are influenced so much that they undergo surgery in order to look like their desired celebrity.
Reuters, 2008. Celebrity obsession harming British students. [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 November 2010]
This is an online article detailing an harmful obsession British students have with celebrity culture and who and why they are aspiring to be like when they grow up. Believing they can achieve this celebrity status easily through a reality TV show.
Slevec, J., Tiggemann, M., 2010. Attitudes Toward Cosmetic Surgery in Middle-Aged Women: Body Image, Aging Anxiety, and the Media. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 34, pp. 65-74.
This article looks into the attitudes of middle-aged woman in particular and what factors these women consider to be important in the decision making of undergoing surgery and improving their appearances. Particular focus is given the to ‘anti-aging’ cosmetic industry as this effects woman in this age group most.
The Celebrity Cafe, 2009. Is Celebrity Obsession Destroying our Society? [online] Available at: [Accessed 26 November 2010]
This website looks into how we have idolized ‘celebrities’ in today’s culture and how we have such a obsession with the famous we often have headlines containing celebrities above world events. 
The Rutherford Institute, 2003. Celebrity Culture in America Has personality finally replaced reality? [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 November 2010]
This website looks into one of our biggest countries in the world and the contribution they have made to our fascination with celebrity status. Reality TV shows are very big in America and we find out here the reasons why and how it is affecting the rest of the world.

Book and Journal Summaries

MATERIALISM, SOCIOCULTURAL APPEARANCE MESSAGES, AND PATERNAL ATTITUDES PREDICT COLLEGE WOMEN’S ATTITUDES ABOUT COSMETIC SURGERY By Donna Henderson-King, Grand Valley State University and Kelly D. Brooks George Washington University

The main purpose of this article is to show the relationship between cosmetic surgery being a very female orientated industry, woman’s attitudes towards surgery and the pressures woman are under to achieve such desired attractiveness. I believe that the key question being asked by the author’s of this journal would be ‘What specific factor’s cause woman to consider undergoing cosmetic surgery?’ and ‘What factor’s in particular effect woman most and how?’ 

Social pressures is a key area of study within this article, K.Brooks and D.Henderson-King have studied the work of feminist social scientists, philosophers, and social critics Adams & Crossman, 1978, Bartky, 1990 and Wolf, 1991, to name a few in helping to support their argument that “woman and girls are socialized to attend to and enhance their physical appearance and are evaluated by others on the basis of their attractiveness.” Woman are seen here to be “relating to their bodies as objects,” and indulging in “self-objectification” through angst over their body image, and influences and interaction with the media and others. A quote from Brumberg, 1997 “The female body becomes not only an object, but also a project, an object to be worked upon,” shows how woman are in the frame of mind of needing regular alterations, through the effects of celebrity, media and the so-called principles set for feminine beauty.

Attitudes of friends and families is another key area brought up in this article through secondary research from the author’s showing that “Negative body evaluations and attempts to lose weight to better conform to societal standards of thinness have been linked to the attitudes and actions of parents and peers in girls as young as elementary school age.” (Leung, Schwartzman, & Steiger, 1996; Smolak, Levine, & Schermer, 1999, Dohnt & Tiggeman, 2006; Jones, 2004; Jones, Vigfusdottir, & Lee, 2004). The author’s argue here that although no research has been done specifically into the area of cosmetic surgery attitudes, the attitudes of weight loss and thinness are “activities aimed at improving physical appearance” which in a nut shell is the basis of the whole cosmetic surgery industry. Media representations and information on woman and appearances is another big factor of influence on woman shown here through research obtained by the author’s, “Previous research has provided evidence that being exposed to messages emphasizing female attractiveness can result, at least for some girls and women, in lower levels of body-esteem and body satisfaction” (Clark & Tiggeman, 2006; Henderson-King, Henderson-King, & Hoffman, 2001; Henderson-King & Henderson-King, 1997; Jones et al., 2004; Morry & Saska, 2001). And finally materialism and consumer culture particularly in Western countries, is shown to be an underlying aspect of the world of cosmetic surgery. With the media advertising the body as an ‘object,’ consumer culture and capitalism have encouraged woman to view their bodies as merchandise’s giving the desire to constantly alter and change their appearance through cosmetic surgery.

In order to obtain some primary research K.Brooks and D.Henderson-King surveyed and examined undergraduate woman and their attitudes towards cosmetic surgery. Not only where they focusing on inclinations towards having surgery they also wanted to focus on general acceptance based on social and intrapersonal motives. Their aim was to collate and review the combined effects of - “appearance-related attitudes of close others, sociocultural messages about appearance, and materialist aspirations.” - through questionnaires given to a group of young woman, aged 17-26, ranging from lists of available choice answers and question and answer sections including all of the above mentioned areas of particular interest.



Making the Cut How Cosmetic Surgery is Transforming our LIves By Anthony Elliott

The main purpose of this book is to allow us to understand some of the main driving forces behind our cosmetic surgical culture, and how we are on the ever increase of cosmetic surgery in our country and all around the world. The key question Anthony Elliott is addressing in his novel I believe is given to us in the title, ‘How Cosmetic Surgery is Transforming our Lives?’ and it is his objective to go through each of the main areas individually to understand how it is affecting our attitudes and behaviours towards cosmetic surgery. Going through each chapter in order I found each to be vital in understanding the purpose of demonstrating that there is not one single cause for our development into a cosmetic surgical culture. Elliott conduced very little primary research in this novel, he spoke with a few people asking of their experiences of surgery and some surgeons but most information was gathered from secondary sources.

Chapter one in particular focuses on ‘The Rise of Cosmetic Surgical Culture,’ and how Cosmetic Surgery is now seen as the “fastest growing beauty business in the world today.” Elliott had retrieved some secondary research sources for the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) reporting a increase of 50 per cent in 2005 and 35 per cent increase in 2006 of cosmetic surgery operations in Britain, and that in the UK the cosmetic surgery industry is estimated at being worth more than £528 million annually. The second chapter is called ‘Celebrity Obsession: Fame, Fortune and Faking It,” and a crucial quote to sum up this idea of our changing culture is “As the economy becomes cultural, ever more dependent on media, image and public relations, so personal identity comes under the spotlight and open to revision.” Today people in our world have such a desire of celebrity bodies and are prepared to go under the knife to say “Make me look like her.” And Elliott explains “Celebrity is part cultural and part devine, and to this extent a pure image of creativity.” Chapter 3. ‘Want-Now Consumerism: Immediate Transformation, Instant Obsolescence’ focuses primarily on the consumer society and what keeps people hooked especially in the industry of cosmetic surgery. Elliott quotes ‘Liquid Life’ by Zygmunt Bauman ‘‘The promise to satisfy human desires in a way no other society in the past could do or dream of doing,” whilst commenting on the excessive nature of consumer society. Elliott goes into some depth in this chapter to try and come to terms with what keeps this consumerism evolving and what has people ‘anchored’ in consumer culture. Marketing and advertising of beauty products and surgery is another dominant area of discussion allowing us to see the direct influence this has on peoples attitudes and choices. The final chapter, ‘Making the Cut: Cosmetic Surgical Culture in the Global Electronic Economy,’ centralizes around the whole idea of cosmetic surgery being an effective tool, if you like, in getting ahead in your work, getting promotions or a new job. A quote from The New York Times (2006) “Sometimes nips and tucks can be career moves” pretty much sums up Elliott’s argument of “It’s better to promote your own assets than rely on your track record, since the latter is already yesterday’s news.” This fear of disposability in our global culture is also another area Elliott looks into as he feels this is linked with people’s need to turn to cosmetic surgery as they are unhappy about their own appearance.