Essay - The Concept of 'Beauty' is as Old as Humanity Itself....

The concept of "beauty" is as old as humanity itself. From earliest times, worldwide cultures altered their appearance b*****ed on what was desirable by that society's standards. Both female and male Egyptians wore makeup to enhance ***** shape their eyes. Small feet remained a standard of beauty in Ch*****a, even after footbinding ***** outlawed. Throughout parts ***** Africa, obesity of the buttocks was associated with erotic desirability and fertility. In the U.S., as with other Western nati*****s, consumer dem***** for cosmetic surgery goes back to WWI. Yet ***** when negative factors are associated ***** the procedure, most individuals still go ahead. For example, medical problems with breast implants may have motivated some women to defer this procedure, but on the whole ***** majority is willing ***** take the r*****k. Nearly 300,000 American women had breast augmentation solely ***** cosmetic (not for reconstructive) purposes last year. The answer is not to outlaw such cosmetic procedures—those who want to get them done will do so even in an unsound black market. Rather, physicians and mental healthcare providers need to become more aware of the overall psychological needs of the patients as well as better inform and educate them to make *****-thought-out decisions.

Cosmetic surgery is found very early in human history. ***** 600 B.C., a Hindu surgeon reconstructed a nose ***** using a piece of the cheek (Feldman 61). In ***** late 1900s, John Orlando Roe, a Rochester, New York, surgeon worked on *****s so individuals could "pass" for another culture or race. Although Victorian society stressed that beauty came solely from internal qualities of character and health, by 1921 most Americans saw physical beauty as an external, and thus alterable, quality (Haiken 3).

Pl*****tic ***** advancements in World War I soon impacted the society at large. In 19*****1, Dr. ***** Howard Crum performed the first recorded public face-lift. After WWII, doctors began to market the procedure. Husband-hunting girls, divorce-aversive wives, and ***** career women ***** ***** look their best to succeed; in the youth-oriented postwar culture, looking *****od meant ***** young. Affluent 50-year-olds were willing to spend their hard-earned money to change their appearance (Feldman 63).

***** then, cosmetic surgery has become highly desirable by men as well ***** women: For example, penal enlargement is now very common. "Penile enlargement, if ***** ***** a qualified and experienced surgeon and realistic expectations are stressed, is safe ***** effective," said Whitehead, an associate clinical professor of urology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New *****, and president of the American Academy of Phalloplasty Surgeons (Urology Times 35).

And as far as the 'cosmetic' issue goes, if a woman who feels her bre*****ts are unattractive can take advantage of the numerous options in cosmetic breast surgery from ***** to reduction to lifting, why can't a man ***** the same ***** options in terms of penile enhancement?" Enhancement phalloplasty and girth enhancement have been discussed in ***** literature for *****y years and ***** been in use for about a dec*****de (***** Times 36).

Over the