The Hills Have Eyelifts

Under what conditions would you get plastic surgery? Severe burns? Scarring? Or do you just want sexy ducklips?

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Heidi Montag has become the poster child for elective cosmetic surgery. MTV's The Hills is watched by an average of 2.5 million viewers on initial airing of each episode. The target audience is teen to early twenties, mostly girls. Reality TV is a huge market and shows like The Hills lead the ranks. Girls watch Heidi, some in horror, some in awe, some in a neutral state-passing time, absorbing the "real lives" of "real people".
 
The advent of reality TV has changed the face of American culture. Literally. Statistics show that plastic surgery has been on the rise in recent years; a study from ASAPS (American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, yes there is such a thing) shows a massive surge in plastic surgery over the last 13 years. Breast augmentations alone have gone from 101,176 a year in 1997 to 311,957 in 2009, nearly tripling in size, so to speak.
 
 The statistics on the number of reality TV programs are almost in direct proportion. While these may be separate reflections of a changing culture some experts say there is a correlation. In fact, a recent study by Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal (yes, there is such a thing as that too) says that 79 per cent of new patients say their choice to have plastic surgery was directly influenced by reality TV. That's 4 out of 5 patients citing reality TV as the deciding factor to change their appearance.
 
So, if reality TV is depicting "reality" and people are getting their faces reconstructed because reality TV helped them make the decision to do it, then who is depicting whom? Is the media simply reflecting a dissatisfaction within ourselves that is increasing daily, or is it feeding the insecurities we all face and expounding them in a hall of mirrors? If we change our faces in order to be more "real, our "authentic selves" or "who we feel we really are", then who the hell are we in the first place? For an increasing number of people the answer is "not enough"… an answer that commercial media is only too happy to reply to with a wide array of products that can help.
 
For many, though, cosmetic surgery is a way to solve some of life's most nagging frustrations. Science has advanced so far as to make it a possibilty to change physical aspects of ourselves that we aren't satisfied with...science has cured many diseases we aren't satisfied with either. And in some extreme cases (burn victims, deformities) reconstructive surgery is nothing short of a life changing miracle. So where is the line drawn? In a world of increasing options the decision lies more and more with the individual. 
 
One can scarcely doubt, however, that those decisions are being influenced directly by the media.  So what do you think it means and where is it heading? Can science alter us into self acceptance? Can it be a useful tool to be embraced and improved upon? Or is it just insanely creepy?