About six months ago, a woman appeared on my TikTok feed discussing her most recent surgery: an upper blepharoplasty. I still have no idea what exactly that procedure is (or what it’s for). A year ago, women were sprinting to their plastic surgeons’ offices to have buccal fat removed from their cheeks to achieve a gaunt, Tim Burton-esque look. In the mid-2010s, the BBL epidemic arose, and in the 90’s, boob jobs and rhinoplasty were all the rage. It seems as if the modern woman spends more and more time in their doctor’s office reconstructing their face and bodies. Ultimately, though, these procedures are antithetical to the feminist movement. How does this obsession with perfection help us abolish the patriarchy? But also, do all things women do have to aid in our progression?
According to a CNN article, the earliest documented cases of aesthetic procedures date way back to Ancient Egypt, where papyrus was used to “manipulat[e] the nose into [the] desired position before using wooden splints, lint, swabs and linen plugs to hold it in place” (Holland). Eventually, by 6th century India, people were undergoing rhinoplasty — quite similar to the procedure we have today. However, it wasn’t until centuries later, following the Second World War, that cosmetic surgery truly hit the mainstream. During and immediately after the war, soldiers were in dire need of plastic surgery to mend their various injuries. Yet, after the immediate postwar era, plastic surgeons had nothing to do, so they shifted their focus towards surgery for primarily aesthetic purposes. By the 1960s, surgeries such as breast augmentation, rhinoplasties, and other facial procedures were becoming increasingly more common. Now, in the 2020s, plastic surgery (and fillers) are as common as iPhones.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the desire for plastic surgery. As women, our worth is inherently tied to how beautiful we are — a pain that men don’t quite understand. If being beautiful is a societal privilege, then being deemed ugly can feel like a curse. In fact, it doesn’t just feel like a curse, many times, it genuinely is one. There was a time in history when the fate of a woman’s life depended upon how desirable she was to men. Women needed men with bank accounts, to own homes, all to survive. Even today, our survival is not dependent upon how sexy men find us, our societal treatment is. A recent study says, “[our] findings suggest that (un)attractiveness may place individuals at greater risk for environmental factors linked to aggression such as physical abuse among men, or pressure to maintain beauty-related social status among women”. Speaking from my personal experience, I understand the desperation that comes with chasing perfection. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve understood the urgency assigned to the pursuit of beauty. And I’m sure most women do… but what does this cost us?
Many believe that what a woman does with her face is her choice and the goal of feminism — in their view — is to uphold and defend a woman’s right to choose. I have to disagree with this stance. Feminism is not about choice; women choose to do abhorrent things all the time, and choice feminism affirms that every choice a woman makes is a feminist one, because she is a woman. “[C]hoice feminism has […] important features. First, it understands freedom as the capacity to make individual choices, and oppression as the inability to choose. Consequently, [if] a woman can say she has chosen to do something, it is considered by choice feminists to be an expression of her liberation. Second, since the only criterion for evaluating women’s freedom is individual choice, we should abstain from judging the content of the choices women make. It is impossible for a woman to choose her own oppression; all choices she makes are equally expressions of her freedom, and therefore equally supported” (Ferguson, 248). The true goal of feminism is to abolish the patriarchy, so it is delusional to pretend that plastic surgery is feminist just because women choose to do it. If anything, cosmetic surgery affirms patriarchal standards. As Kamala Harris once said, “you think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” In other words, your choices do not exist in a vacuum, they are directly the fault of the patriarchy that women believe they need to reconstruct their faces. If you were born on an island, away from misogynistic standards and unrealistic ideals of beauty, you would never even think about booking that surgery in Turkey. It’s society that makes you believe surgery is necessary; in a matriarchal world, you probably wouldn’t feel the same pressure to alter yourself. But digging deeper, it’s not just plastic surgery. Putting on makeup every day is also an example of the patriarchy bearing down on our everyday choices. Why do you “choose” to contour your nose and put blush on your cheeks? I find myself laughing when women insist they do these things for “themselves”. Yes, you may not be getting that BBL because you crave male validation, but you wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t bear the weight of these misogynistic markers of beauty. I am not immune to these decisions, but denying this reality does not serve us well.
Yet, another question arises: does everything women do have to serve the purpose of dismantling patriarchy? Does every decision I make have to be a feminist one? Truthfully, I do not know. I don’t think so. It may be asking too much of women to consciously ensure that everything we do opposes the patriarchy — in fact, it might be impossible.. I wear makeup whenever I go out because I honestly can’t imagine going clubbing without it. I choose to wear wigs and weaves, which don’t necessarily oppose the unique beauty standards that black women face. Sometimes I talk negatively about other women. I shave my legs and my armpits every Sunday — or at least, I try to. And even on the larger, global scale, the computer I’m typing this article on right now was mined by women in Congo. I think the most we can do is be cognizant of our choices and how they may contribute to larger systems. Choosing one problem at a time to tackle opposed to trying to fix everything, everywhere, all at once. Self-acceptance is resisting the patriarchy too. Every time you cancel that filler appointment, you encourage women around you to maybe do the same. Speaking up and speaking out about feminist issues — no matter how big or small — is also a good way to start. Campaign for women less privileged than you, donate to women living in developing countries and fight for change for women living under oppressive regimes. It’s a privilege to be so worried about our appearances. Women living in countries ravaged by war definitely have bigger fish to fry. And at the end of the day, you getting lip filler is not our biggest problem. It’s just… something to think about.
Works Cited:
Bobadilla, Leonardo, et al. “Physical Attractiveness and Its Relation to Unprovoked and Reactive Aggression.” Science Direct, 18 Sept. 2012, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092656612001390#section-cited-by.
Ferguson, Michaele L. “Choice Feminism and the Fear of Politics.” Perspectives on Politics, vol. 8, no. 1, 2010, pp. 247–53. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25698532. Accessed 11 Sept. 2025.
Holland, Oscar. “From Ancient Egypt to Beverly Hills: A Brief History of Plastic Surgery.” CNN, Cable News Network, 30 May 2021, edition.cnn.com/style/article/plastic-cosmetic-surgery-history-scn.