by Kat Stovall

Created on: January 02, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

The reasoning behind wanting to change your appearance is different for every female. I know that personally there are things I dislike about my appearance that I would change if I had the money and there are things I do change. Appearance is also not limited to body measurements. Some of the reasonings and examples of these desires to change I have listed below. Please note that as mentioned before that everyone has their own reasons for these desires. No one has the right to judge another human being based on their opinions of their own bodies.

1. Self expression.
This is usually done with the changing of haircolor, clothing style, make up choices, and hair styles. Though I always keep my hair length past my butt I change the color and the style fairly often. My makeup style and clothing change with my moods or my destination. Being an artist alot of my creativity spills over into this aspect of my life. Being a mother of three, though I do get criticized by the dreaded PTO moms, it keeps me feeling young. Not to mention I love the shock factor.

2. Self esteem.
This may or may not have anything to do with other people's opinion. In the world of women we are all critics and we are hardest on ourselves no matter how confident we may appear to be. Being happy with one's own phsyical appearance is linked to many psychological road blocks and accomplishments. It is proven that women, no matter what their appearance may be, succeed more in all areas of life if they are happy with the way they look. Some women may feel totally comfortable with small breast, large breast, extra pounds, or being rail thin. Other's may not. Myself, I have always been underweight even after having three kids. This does not effect my self esteem at all but my small breast size does.

3. The Media.
When every newspaper, t.v. show, movie, magazine, and web page is featuring some gorgeous model with the perfect everything it is hard to be happy with what God gave you. Though most of these photographs have been edited by programs like Photoshop and the attributes the women have are impossible to accomplish, we want them. We can not physically elongate our necks, separate our eyes further, make our eyes rounder, or lengthen the distance between our nose and mouth. Yet here we are saying if only I could look like her.

4. The ease and growing ability to change.
Everyday you see billboards, radio commercials, tv adds, and magazine pages filled with the names of plastic surgeons. Many of these adds are offering financing on hair removal, breast enlargement or reduction, over lunch stomach stapling (lap band) with no recovery time, or collagen implants for your lips. In today's society it is becoming the norm for teenage girls to receive breast implants and nose jobs as graduation presents before heading off to college. The availability of procedures, the financing, less recovery time and scarring, and the ever growing ease of getting these things done are making women more aware of the changes possible. This in itself can make a woman study her appearance more closely to see if she may need some "work".

There are many other reasons but I think these may be the most common. Whatever reason a woman has it is her own and should never be looked down on. We as women have always had to bear the burden of being beautiful in our society. I only hope that any woman considering surgery will consider the risk along with the benefits.

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