In an effort to perhaps explain the boom in plastic surgeries such as breast implants, nose jobs, liposuction and facial restructuring in general, there has been a lot of attention focused on the socioeconomic and happiness factors associated with the way one looks.
Personal appearance has long been hailed as something that can help you feel good about yourself, but many people will tell you that they know a beautiful person or two who is totally unhappy with their life. So, it doesn’t necessarily always equate that beauty equals endless supplies of happiness and contentedness.
However, there has been a scientific correlation made between one’s personal attractiveness and a higher level of reported happiness. In general, studies have found pretty consistently that pretty people are more likely to be happy, as well as successful, well respected, and financially more successful as well.
I think that there is an innate sense built into all of us to strive for physical perfections, such as bigger pecks and wider shoulders for men, and larger breasts and smaller waists for women, because we have that instinctive sense that being more beautiful will help us get the things in life that we want.
And our instincts rarely fail us, so that is why plastic surgery is so popular these days. We have simply become more self aware of beauty because we are confronted with ideals of physical beauty every day on the big screen, the small screen, and all other forms of media.
My personal feeling is that with the popularity of all kinds of media now, that is what has really propelled personal appearance to the forefront of desire in our society. I think that personal beauty was revered back before major media was such an influence in our every day lives, but it was just not as recognized or desired simply because people were not bombarded with it every day hundreds of times.
It seems like the beauty ideals shift too, into “more is better”. We’ve seen that evidenced in the growth of breast augmentation surgery, and the surge in lip injections to make the lips larger and poofier. Also, the quest for the best breast implants is really taking off as well, with women demanding more natural looking and feeling implants.
However, there is also placed on being thin and making things proportional. It’s all about proportion, and those ideal proportions change with time as well. For example, Marilyn Monroe would be considered “larger” by some standards today!
