Beauty and Wealth: Cosmetics and Surgery

Beauty and make-up are firmly associated with gender in contemporary societies. On this basis, the majority of feminist thinkers have designated part of their rhetorical efforts to this issue. Given the significance of this issue, this article provides a brief investigation of the concept of beauty and then deals with plastic surgery and make-up and provides a history of these two in Iran and the world. Moreover, it proves that it is believed by the public that beauty can be achieved by money and individual effort. The article has investigated the role of the media and the press in Iran in allowing western culture of beauty to infiltrate while giving statistics on the consumption of cosmetics and on plastic surgeries in Iran and the globe.Three approaches with respect to the culture of consumption of cosmetics are also presented. The viewpoints of feminist opponents and proponents of the cosmetic surgery have been offered, too, together with a conclusion of the study.