A Growing Culture of Comestic Surgery(by Chloe C.)

               

“You can be as beautiful as her if you experienced a cosmetic surgery,” my sister joked to me while reading news about a female artist. The female artist called Natalie Ng having cosmetic surgery; she is the first endorser of having cosmetic surgery who shows a great confidence on the newspaper. Ten years earlier, I think that she probably denied having face-lift. In Hong Kong, though cosmetic surgery has not been popular, people are much more be accepted to this gradually.   

I was fond of watching “Don’t be shy”(變靚D特約：唔使怕醜)which was broadcasted on TVB Pearl during last summer. The programme sponsored by Be A Lady Limited is telling the cases about five face-lifted people. The five people interested me in why they decided to have cosmetic surgeries and how their lives changed after this. Most of them had imputed their poor lives to their appearances. After having cosmetic surgeries, all of them are more confidence of themselves and also hopeful of their futures.    

Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority is received more than 130 complaints about “Don’t be shy”. Most of the complainers think that the programme implies a wrong value that belittles the female’s identity and mislead the teenagers. I also agree with this because the programme is sending a message that appearance is likely the only way to change our lives. How about our diligence? The five face-lifted people in “Don’t be shy” all felt hopeless due to their unsatisfied appearance. How the handicapped people should face their lives too?  

Some companies such as Be A Lady Limited have been trying to make a market for cosmetic surgery. In order to draw more potential customers, they use different strategies to increase people’s recognition to the need of cosmetic surgery. For example, they always send a message in their propaganda that beauty is a core value in life and cosmetic surgery is the only way to achieve the goal. Besides, they always show that having cosmetic surgery can rebuild people’s confidence. In their propaganda, it is not difficult to find that endorsers claim that they are more confident after cosmetic surgery due to improvement in their beauty.   

In order to maximize the effect of this message, these propagandas are always in the form of reality TV show shown in everywhere, especially in buses. Audiences can easily imagine themselves are one of the participants in the TV shows and get “experience” from them. Moreover, they always find celebrities to advertise these services as they are opinion leaders to the potential customers.   

Besides, these propagandas always show that they are informative so that potential customers may regard them as primary information source of cosmetic surgery. However, successful cases are usually emphasized. Interestingly, these propagandas do not only influence potential customers, but also influences others that will indirectly influence the potential customers. For example, a child will request his mother to receive cosmetic surgery because he thinks that he will be superior if his mother is more beautiful.  

I am pleased to see that the culture of cosmetic surgery has not become popular as slimming culture. However, people are more interested of cosmetic surgery. Be A Lady Limited and Hong Thai Travel Services Ltd collaboratively held a “Become beauty in Korea Trip” (韓國變靚遊). The participants visited Korea Plastic Surgery Specialist Centers. The participants can have cosmetic surgery if they need. It is predicted that  Hong Kong people would be more interested of cosmetic surgery due to  the effect of propaganda.