SOAPSTone for “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery”
Speaker
Response:
Evidence:
Occasion
Response:
Evidence:
Audience
Response:
The speaker addresses two intended audiences: one is aging women like herself, who
are facing the same difficult choice of remaining attractive within a society that requires
them to become artificial. The other intended audience are the plastic surgeons.
Evidence:
By the speaker identifying herself as a member of society who is affected by this issue,
she not only shows an occasion for writing this essay but also creates a connection with
part of her intended audience, other aging women. She traces the history of the
standard for female beauty in America, specifically focusing on how Hollywood has
changed their basis for beauty. “In the great era of the Hollywood studio system, from
the 1920s to the early ‘60s, pioneering makeup techniques achieved what plastic
surgery does now to remold the appearance of both male and female stars. …But
Hollywood’s grounding in great art has vanished. In this blockbuster era of
computerized special effects and slam-bang action adventure films, few producers and
directors root their genre in the ancestry of the fine arts.” The speaker wants her
audience to how this image of beauty has changed and the change in requirements for
achieving the image. “In the post-1960s culture of easy divorce on demand, middleaged women have found themselves competing with nubile women in their 20s, who
are being scooped up as trophy second wives by ambitious men having a midlife crisis.
Cosmetic surgery seems to level the playing field.” Contemporary aging women are
facing situations that require a level of competitive attractiveness like no other time
period before.
The speaker does not only target women as her audience. She specifically addresses the
plastic surgeons throughout the essay. In the opening lines of the essay, she makes her
opinion of plastic surgery clear: “Plastic surgery is living sculpture: a triumph of
modern medicine.” This glowing review of the practice disarms plastic surgeons from
feeling attacked for their work. It’s important for the speaker to establish this positive
relationship with the plastic surgeons before she criticizes the industry in order for them
to be open to her pointed attacks. She reiterates her positive views of the practice in
penultimate (second to last) paragraph. Again this is important, following her criticisms
and recommendations for the plastic surgery industry, to remind the plastic surgeons of
these positive views and potential for the practice. “Plastic surgery is an art form.”
Purpose
Response:
The purpose has to be addressed for each intended audience. The speaker wants aging
women to stop seeking to attain an image of youthful beauty that is artificial to the
point of diminishing their cultural value. The speaker wants the plastic surgeons to
broaden their source material for images of female beauty, to train in art as much as in
medicine.
Evidence:
The speaker clearly states her purpose for both intended audiences in the final
paragraph of the essay. “For cosmetic surgery to maintain or regain subtlety and
nuance, surgeons should meditate on great painting and sculpture. And women
themselves must draw the line against seeking and perpetuating an artificial juvenility
that obliterates their own cultural value.” The speaker makes it clear she does not want
or expect women to quit getting plastic surgery or surgeons to quit offering it. “But
nothing, I submit, will stop the drive of the human species toward beauty and the
shimmering illusion of perfection. It is one of our deepest and finest instincts.
…Maximizing one’s attractiveness and desirability is a justifiable aim in any society….”
She only wants the plastic surgeons performing the surgeries and the women receiving
them to do so under different conditions.
Subject
Response:
The contemporary images of female beauty that inform plastic surgery and the women
who receive it are unrealistic and unfair images, which diminish the cultural value of
aging women in American society.
Evidence:
After establishing the occasion in the first few paragraphs, the speaker introduces her
subject. “Though cosmetic surgery is undoubtedly an unstoppable movement, we may
still ask whether its current application can be improved.” Through this statement, she
alludes to her ultimate answer: yes, it can be improved. Near the end of the essay, she
states this clearly. “Good surgery discovers and reveals personality; bad surgery
obscures and distorts it.” As mentioned in the analysis of purpose, her aim is not to rid
the world of plastic surgery, but she believes some drastic changes to current practices
are required, and, without them, the risk of physical and psychological damage to
women is too high. “The urgent problem is that today’s surgeons are drawing from too
limited a repertoire of images. …Therefore, surgeons need training in art as well as
medicine. Without a broader visual vocabulary, too many surgeons will continue to
homogenize women, divesting them of authority and reducing them to a generic cookiecutter sameness. And without a gift for psychology, surgeons cannot intuit and
reinforce a woman’s unique personality.”
Tone
Response:
The speaker’s tone towards the current popular images of female beauty (and, thereby,
the goal of women seeking plastic surgery) is slightly bitter, condescending, and
highly critical. Her tone towards plastic surgery in general and the plastic surgeons is
hopeful. She has an empathetic and supportive tone towards the audience of aging
women.
Evidence:
The speaker begins by describing a current “diminished and even demeaning view of
woman.” Her descriptions include “a perky figure of ingratiating girliness” and “a cutesy
sex kitten without claws.” She continues her critique in the next paragraph. “The ideal
has become the bouncy Barbie doll or simpering nymphet, not a sophisticated women
of the world.” Ingratiating, cutesy, bouncy, and simpering are all condescending
adjectives meant to belittle the image many aging women are trying to achieve. The
speaker is careful to criticize the image rather than the women seeking the surgery. She
even notes the desire to meet the standards of beauty is perfectly natural. “But
nothing, I submit, will stop the drive of the human species toward beauty and the
shimmering illusion of perfection. It is one of our deepest and finest instincts.” The
speaker is empathetic to women who have had or are thinking of having plastic surgery
to improve their appearances. She acknowledges, as the speaker, that she personally
has had no alterations, but she describes her efforts as “…try[ing] to hold out,”
suggesting that the urge to improve her attractiveness is within herself, as well. Just as
with her audience of women, the speaker is careful not to criticize the field of plastic
surgery or its surgeons as a whole. She opens and closes the essay by praising the ideal
plastic surgery as art. “Plastic surgery is living sculpture: a triumph of modern
medicine. …Plastic surgery is an art form.” By framing her argument with this tone
about the field, she can more easily target the specific problems she feels are possible
to fix without being dismissed by her overall intended audiences. She attributes much
of the misguided plastic surgery to “unskilled practitioners” and claims the good
surgeons simply need outside training to broaden their palette and source material.
With this tone, she avoids blaming plastic surgeons, suggests they haven’t had the
materials or training they need, places a large blame on Hollywood and video games,
and thereby strengthens her chances of convincing her intended audiences.