Short Post 10/19

I found Susan Douglas's chapter titled, "Lean and Mean," very enlightening and on-point. We are obsessed with appearance in our society, especially women's appearance. Why do we have to be stick thin and have big breasts to be considered beautiful or sexy? Our society's obsessions with big breasts is extremely apparent in the media. Take for example, Keira Knightley, who plays Elizabeth in "Pirates of the Caribbean." Keira Knightley is known for being extremely flat-chested, yet in the film, she has cleavage galore. Why did Elizabeth have to have huge breasts in the film? If the stunningly beautiful Keira Knightley needs big breasts to be what society wants her to be, then what message is this sending the rest of us women, who aren't exactly Keira Knightley beauties?



I also found Douglas's discussion of cosmetic surgery very interesting. Although I would never get plastic surgery, I think people have the right to do whatever they want with their body. However, I think one of the main problems that is created by the rise of plastic surgery is that people forget about the natural ways they can make themselves look better and, particularly younger. I think many women are so consumed by the idea of cosmetic surgery that they forget that they if they want to decrease wrinkling (and decrease the risk of skin cancer) as they get older, they could simply wear sunblock, instead of getting a face-lift, or that if they want to get liposuction to remove some fat from their body, they could exercise more or eat right. The practice plastic surgery can cause women to not take care of their bodies as they should because they think that they can "fix" any part of their body through surgery.