Cosmetic Surgery

Nowadays, cosmetic surgery has become more popular and normal for modern people. Some people say that it is a science to enhance the beauty of a person. The main aim of cosmetic surgery is to enhance the appearance of the individual by changing the parts of the body. On the other hand, some people disagree with it. They said that cosmetic surgery still consist risk which may cause serious diseases such as heart attack. We have no idea that if we really could rely on the surgeons, we could not estimate the risk. By doing cosmetic surgery, can we really change our appearance to whatever we want?

For guys, going gym has become the trend and for ladies cosmetic surgery has become a trend nowadays. Cosmetic surgery is an optional process that is performed on normal parts of the body with the only purpose of improving a person’s appearance or removing signs of aging. Appearance is very important in society; “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” is no more exists in the reality world. People judge by first sight impression. Based on news which I read from newspaper, a qualified hostess who is an Asian and she is having single eyelid and traditional Asian face, she couldn’t be promoted cause of her looking. When she is reporting news, she get complaint that her single eyelids shows that she is not concerning and not enthusiasm about the news. Then she went for cosmetic surgery and looks like an A.B.C (American Born Chinese), her nose becomes taller, eyes become bigger, and look more charming than before. She gets promotion after doing cosmetic surgery. This is cruel fact but in the reality, appearance does symbolize one’s personality and shows profession of job. While most people would agree that someone’s appearance is not as important as their character, the truth is that we live in a world where appearance is important. Although it isn’t fair, we as a society place a great deal of importance upon what someone looks like. In both your professional and private life being happy and confident in your appearance is important. Why should you live your life unhappy with the way you look?

For example, during car show, there must be a lot of perfect and body figure girls standing beside the super sport cars. There are always pretty sexy ladies in all kinds of events and activities as embellish.

We all can work out, diet and exercise in order to lose weight, but we can’t do anything ourselves to improve the size and shape of your eyes. If there is a part or parts of your body that you are unhappy with then plastic surgery can help you to overcome your concerns and get a body that you are happier with.

I agree that slightly plastic surgery does help boost up people’s confidence, but there are some examples that addicted to plastic surgery and ruin their entire life. Michael Jackson is one of the famous example, he bleached himself from Negro looking and become a White people and did more than 10 times nose surgery procedures in his life. At last his surgery failed and his normal and handsome looking face is never return.

Another of the most famous cases of failed plastic surgery is Hang Mioku, a 48 years old woman from South Korea, she was young and pretty at her young age.

She was obsessed to cosmetic surgery and at last she was left unrecognisable after several surgeries. She had her first plastic surgery procedure on her 28. Surgeons that she visited all rejected to undergo procedures for her anymore. They claimed that her obsession could be a sign of a psychological disorder. So she injected cooking into her face. It became so weird and large. Children of her neighbourhood call her “standing fan” cause of her large face and small body. It is a sad case.

Next example is Jocelyn Wildenstein who as known as “Cat Woman” and the “Lion Queen”. Jocelyn Wildenstein, a Swiss-born New York City socialite in her mid-60s or early 70s, is having a shocking catlike face. 

There is a sad love story behind Wildenstein’s multimillion-dollar plastic surgery habit. Wildenstein’s marriage to the late art collector and businessman Alec Wildenstein was unhappy. To keep the marriage in good condition and to keep her husband’s attention and love fixed on her and her only, Wildenstein took dramatically action.  Her husband was fond of large jungle cats which kept in his private reserve in Africa, Wildenstein did plastic surgery to look like a large jungle cat. After all, well… he still left her.

The availability of cosmetic surgery increases stress for women that they believe that they must be gorgeous and beautiful all the time. Women’s appearance is always judges more harshly than men’s. Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazine do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman’s body figure and appearance, by diet, eating less, exercise or cosmetic surgery. These views about appearance are damaging because it leads to seriously unhealthy lifestyles that women think they need to look beautiful. There are so many teenagers who are still on growth stage have been on at least one diet, and many of normal weight girls believe they are overweight. Cosmetic surgery sends the message that stunning appearance and perfect body figure are important.

Rich and poor people will never be equal. Cosmetic surgery is costly as everybody knows. Only those that can afford for it manage to get it. The most popular surgeries include breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, liposuction and so on. None of them is cheap. So if it has the advantages that studies claim, the rich will look good and younger forever, while the poor will not get the chance.

I believe that cosmetic surgery is a personal opinion but in some cases it becomes a bad addiction. In my personal opinion, I don’t think that cosmetic surgery is a bad thing. It is normal that human being have some sense of insecurity and appearance is cause of insecurity of some people. I think that plastic surgery is a self-esteem booster, which is not over is not a problem. In many cases, cosmetic surgery helps in saving people lives. For example, a burn victim needs new skin on face so that they will not have disfigured face for their entire life after a fire. Or a woman who has breast cancer and has to remove her breasts in order to survive, wants to pursue breast augmentation to build up her confidence. I believe that cosmetic surgery does not bring harm as long as it can make someone happy in moderate way instead of extreme way. If someone addicts to cosmetic surgery it is a bad situation then. Cosmetic surgery should have limitations. If someone wants to do cosmetic surgery procedure every month, there is a problem occurs. They take surgery as a part of their lifestyle which is abnormal to do so. Surgeons have responsibility to evaluate the mental state of patient before they undergo surgery. It is not difficult to see that who are in the obsession. In the conclusion, I think that everything has a limitation; I chose to argue the advantages and disadvantages of cosmetic surgery are all depends on how we do and how we look at it. Pursuing cosmetic surgery to change the appearance does not solve the problem at route and does not change the mental state. Inner mind and thought is what we emphasized on. So be good and be nice to people, having positive thinking is what makes you look beautiful ultimately. Always smile to people, be friendly and helpful, you do not necessarily have a stunning face to get new friends and date with you love ones.

Child marriage

In the word, "History", it is men' story instead of women' stories. From this, we can see that women have never been treated as same as men. From physiologic features, women were born to be weaker than men. Men couldn't bear children as women can do. In the traditional views, women are meant to be staying at home instead of working outside. Women couldn't have the equal chances as men in many aspects. Even though in this modern era, there are still a lot of tragedies happen in some underdeveloped country.

Children marriage is one of the issues that consist of sex discrimination. Girl children often face situations of bonded labour, enslavement, commercial sexual exploitation and violence as a result of child marriage. In India, girls are forced to married at young ages. Between 2010 and 2020 it is estimated that 142 million girls will marry as children. The highest percentages of children marriage before 15 years old are some African countries, followed by Bangladesh, Mali, Ethiopia and Guinea. There are a lot of children who were dead because of brutal sexual assault that their bodies could not withstand. How many children and teenage girls are ready for marriage? Children marriages are usually arranged by family members. I could not imagine that when all of my friends are still studying. They want normal lives. They supposed to be playing with their friends and they need education to know how wide the world is. These marriages rob many girls of their innocence and puberty of life. Actually the root of child marriage is poverty, disease, maternal mortality, infant mortality, violence against women. All of those are symptoms connected to the same problem. If the child marriage problem can be solved, other issues will be benefit as well.

Why do girls life are meant to be bear child and as a tool to continue our generation? This is unreasonable. Child-marriage devastates lives of little girls in many ways. Most importantly, marriage between two individuals of such unequal age and maturity can never develop in a loving and mutually respectful one, which should be central in marriage or between couples. It becomes a relationship between master and slave, to be more accurate, between master and sex-slave. There is another, rather cruel and tragic, aspect to it. It is the bodily torture, not only by beating as allowed by Allah, but also by forcing those little girls into sex, when she is not physically prepared, even if we ignore her mental unpreparedness. According to Majed- al-Madhaji, a spokesman for the Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights, he said a 13 years old girl was married ro a 23 years old man; she died 4 days after marriage, A medical report from al-Thawra hospital said she suffered a tear to her genitals, which caused severe bleeding, leading to her death. And honestly, an eight-year-old has sex with a 30-something-year-old unwillingly, that is called rape. It is rape to children. It is something we cannot tolerate with. A child bride is more likely to drop out of school and problems during pregnancy and childbirth. There are some lucky girls who managed to get divorced with the help of lawyers. They are able to have a second chance at life. We can only hope that other girls will the support they need as those are lucky ones.

There are some reasons based on this problem, poverty is the major reason. Poor families sell their children intro marriage either to settle debts or to make some money and escape the cycle of poverty. Child marriage fosters poverty as it ensures that girls who get married early will not be educated properly or take part in the workforce. This is very ridiculous reason that selling out daughters to gain money instead of raising them up properly by giving them all a normal child needs.

Next reason is “protecting” the girl’s sexuality, in certain cultures of some countries, marrying a girl young presumes that the girl’s sexuality, the family of the girl will be honoured by ensuring that the girl is married as a virgin. At the same time, those children have lost their freedom and lives have been ruined. The other reason is gender discrimination, child marriage is a product of cultures that devalue women and girls and discriminate against them. This causes that women lack of access to information, education, and healthcare. On the other hand, inadequate law is another reason that causes children marriage. Many countries such as Pakistan have laws against child marriage but the law are not forced. Trafficking is one of the reasons too. Poor families are tempted to sell their girls not just into marriage, but into prostitution, as the transaction enables large sums of money to change hands.

Why is virginity of girls is so important that everyone so emphasized on? Why there is no one cares about the virginity of men? Is it a must for girls to be obedient and just raising up children for all of their lives? Why can’t women choose their pathways of lives by themselves? I am just so frustrated to read all these articles still happened during this 21^st century. Women have the right to strive for their life. Polygamy is another thing I could not accept too. A relationship is about two people belong to each other and love each other. As a daughter my lovely parents, I could not imagine that my dad loves two women at the same time. I don’t think that a sibling of another mother is my truly genuine siblings. Maybe I am way too traditional but I still insist on one man and one woman is the best match to maintain a healthy relationship. In my opinion, polygamy is one of the gender discrimination too. It seems like a man needs many women to serve him and being his slaves to help him out in house works.

In the conclusion, I believe that all men are equal. Male chauvinism is always what I anti. Please don’t assume women are the weak and chances are needed for women to have more tries and explorations in every aspect.
 

Does technology build or destroy our social cultural?

The introduction and integration of technology into society has significantly influenced our lifestyle. Modern advancements have made life on earth much easier for the human kind. We all can easily recall the plots from watching movies and cartoons which pictured how easy life would be in the future. We don’t need use hand washing anymore. Washing machine can work automatically for us, washing, drying, and hanging up them for us. With a hand clap, we can easily turn on and turn off the light and fan. Meals can be cooked in the microwave at the press of a button within a few seconds. From sending letter to sending email, from calling phone to webcam via smart phone, from shopping at shop to shopping online, everything seems so easy to be done. We all could not imagine that there are a lot of things that seems impossible to do so but they are all working now. The invention of internet has shortened the progress of communication to each other. Internet makes the world becomes smaller. Advances in science and technology have been the major source of change in recent decades and this change has led to progress. In this new era, we all need inspiration; discovery and exploration, the latest generation are exposed with a lot of temptations and rumour and they have to identify whether it is true or false; correct or wrong. But still, a coin has two sides, does technology really help us or destroy us?

In socio-cultural aspect, people can connect to each other easily since the innovation of internet. By having smart phone, we can enjoy huge conveniences that we never had before.  By downloading chatting apps, we all can text and call each other free of charges. Using photo sharing apps or websites, such as instagram, flickr, tumblr, we can now upload photos or videos to share our latest life moments with our friends and families. Using foursquare app, we checked in the location wherever we at and to know where our friends at now. Through social website such as Facebook, Google+, we may know the latest news and trends of all over the world and get to know what happened lately around our friends. Don’t know the way to your friend’s place? Smartphone’s built-in GPS (Global Position System) can aid you by showing direction services. Every problem seems can be solved easily by having a single smart phone on your hand. But wait, is it true? People less talking face to face even though they are just sitting next to each other. Smartphone addiction has become a norm in modern society. When taking public transport, we can see that everyone is wearing earphones and playing theirs smartphone. People can increase their self-esteem and help them feel less isolated, as if they belong to a group. Facebook also allows those who are shy or have trouble making friends to socialize more easily. Social networking has been the major way for people to have discussions, expand business market, promoting the brand itself and so on. These are all the pros of Facebook. In virtue reality, we seem to be closer to each other. But in reality, we don’t even say hi to each other. This is really awkward. Relationship are meant to be built by meeting up in real often, showing cares by attentions and actions instead of liking and commenting on each other’s posts on website. People nowadays more likely to spend more time to online instead of exercising, As seen in TED talks, Turkle shares her thoughts on technology’s impacts. She says, “As we expect more from technology; we start to expect less from each other”. She suggests we often hide by sending messages electronically rather than discussing difficult issues in person. She points out that people are more electronically connected. She points out that we are not building relationships with each other, but building relationship with  technology as if it is a real thing. There is a balance. We must use technology to enhance, not to replace, our social interaction. We are still human and still have need for actual physical connection. The internet has been a miracle outlet for people from all over the world to share ideas and thoughts that are inspiring people. We do need time away from technology, just like we need time away from people at times.

 The news resourced from internet might be just a rumour as trick. Not all of them is true, people might believe it and spread the fake news out and misunderstood causes. The pranks of spreading death news of celebrity by hates are very common online. Online users have to be smart to identify the authenticity of news.

 Another problem caused by technology is privacy reveal, people always share out where is their current location and this may causes crime happens. Privacy is a major concern for most Facebook users, and it’s really important to understand the site’s privacy settings and set them accordingly. Even though site’s security has been improved a lot, it can still be easy-access for hackers to hack and misuse personal information. We all have to bear the risks of sharing our latest location, contact numbers or home address. Sharing out nude photos is what youth like to do so now. It is like a trend. The widespread use of the Internet, mobile phones and other digital communication means has brought with it a new type of building --- cyberbullying. Cyber bullying is the sending or posting of damaging or cruel text or images using the Internet or other digital communication devices such as webpages, Windows Live Messenger, social networking sites (Facebook, Google+), chat rooms, forums, e-mail, blogs, mobile phones, virtual worlds. Cyber bullying can have devastating consequences. Suicide is one. There many real cases happened. They have been committed suicide for several times after they have been cyber bullied for many times even though they have moved to a new place for a whole new life. They are being bullied like a recycle in life and they felt that they are meaning less to live in the world. We should have set online protect law with no leaking. Online safety is what we should concern on now.

The arts, artists, and culture do not seem as valued as in the past. No one cares the origins of the idea or artwork. How would the Beatles promote their music today? They will probably sell their songs on iTunes instead of selling Vinyl record. With a Creative Commons license, they would probably allow others to use but not modify their work. Artists have to change the way they promote their artworks and the way of making money. There are many singers or video producer promote themselves via Youtube, a free platform for them to increase publicity. Justin Bieber is a well-known example as a successful Youtube singer. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by American Talent manager Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber’s videos on Youtube and later became his manager. He was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 53^rd Grammy Awards. His fans came from all over the world and termed as “Beliebers”. Nowadays, everyone can have their own channel online easily, people can create a blog and share their thoughts on websites free of charges. We all have free platform to present our talents and thoughts to the world. Having advanced technology, video, audio, images, and words can be shared openly to worlds and cultures that we could never learn in a book. We can well save all the documents by uploading to skydrive, an online document saving system free of charges. We must use these tools smartly to reach the fullest potential. But for sure, we need to support the arts and artists and value each other’s culture. E-learning and home schooling are the new ways to study by self instead of attending traditional school classes. There are a lot of good tutorial videos have been shared out and we can learn a lot of things online such as baking a cheesecake, playing guitar, speaking French and so on. They are all free lessons provided online.

Globalisation which is a new term has pop out, with the well development of information technology, business expand to worldwide market and consumer are benefited by having imported products from international countries. People are exposed with the latest information from worldwide and we can share our knowledge and experiences to everyone who is online regardless of nationality, races, and gender. Everyone has the right to voice out their thoughts. To  be responsible, people should always use their real name and real display photos of themselves and responsible for what they have said. Leaving comments anonymously is a coward way to present themselves.

In conclusion, technology does benefit people by providing the conveniences to interact with people from international, expose latest news to people, providing free platform to sharing thoughts and works online and so on. Technology is great, it is up to humankind to misuse it or use it in the right way. This is the whole new era that we can explore freely, get inspiration and update ourselves freely. We must make sure that we have used technology tools and gadgets to the fullest potential, do not waste of the power of technology.

References

Turkle, S. (2012) Connected, but alone?. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html