Recreating Whiteness and Hegemonies of Beauty Through Elective Cosmetic Surgery

This research attempts to explain the rise in elective cosmetic surgical procedures, women, and westernized expectations of beauty. The social lens through which these variables are viewed derive from hegemony, race, and media constructions of gender. Primarily: how do white women's decisions to proceed with elective cosmetic surgery construct their privileged position under hegemonic notions of beauty? Historically, through de jure social and public policies whites had been granted advantages over blacks via discriminatory practices, while invisible privileges based on skin tone presently exist de facto. This has resulted in whites capitalizing via opportunities, rewards, and other possessive investments, with blacks further marginalized, stigmatized, and lacking in advantages. From history and atrocities such as Jim Crow laws, white men are the patriarchal masters and white women follow suit. Thus, aesthetically speaking, white women are the token of beauty and desirability. While women of color are aware o