The ideal body shape has changed many times in the history of mankind. At some points, the desired shape of the female form was the flat chested boyish look, whereas at others, a voluptuous woman was deemed to be beautiful. This changing ideal of beauty has led to many cultures adopting varying degrees of body altering rituals, which would seem to be barbaric to many people today.

For example, in China, a girl child used to have her feet tightly bound so that they would not grow properly and this would give her a dainty walk. The truth was that the feet would be so misshaped that the poor girl would spend her life with pain when she walked.

Then there was the custom of wearing corsets. These were restricting undergarments which contained bits whale bone or ivory to make the wearer stand straight and the whole thing was bound so tightly that the women could not eat properly and so remained slim. This practice was carried out till only about a hundred years ago and if you look at the old pictures, or museum pieces, you will notice that all the women were stick thin and standing ramrod straight. In reality, they could hardly breathe and their organs could not develop fully. This is why they were famous for fainting; it was not a lack of strength, but a lack of air!

Even these days there are practices where young girls in particular are forced to be restricted in their deportment and development, in order to be more feminine. Women still go out of their way to conform to the body type which the media and advertising have declared to be the norm, whether or not this fits in with their natural body type.

These days’ women do not wear corsets to appear or stay slim, but instead they turn to the medical profession. They will either start to take diet pills or resort to cosmetic surgery in order to achieve the body that they want. There are all sorts of procedures which come under the heading of body contouring, and what they basically do, is re-shape your body to fit the image that you want to see when you look in the mirror. None only women, but many men are also guilty of going under the knife to try and look better in their own and in the eyes of a society which is obsessed with body image.

One of the most popular cosmetic surgery procedures is the breast reduction, and increasingly, the male breast reduction. This is not a joke, because many men have a lot of excess weight on their chests and this can affect not only their self esteem, but also their health. Having a large chest size will affect your balance and more importantly, it will lead to back pain. This is due to bad posture and the way that you will sit and slouch, in order to hide your chest.

It may be an old cliché, but nonetheless it is such a true thing to say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is true both for the female form, the male form or even the way that a baby looks. This may be offensive to some people but I do not believe that all children, or even all babies are beautiful. There is a reason why an ugly person is said to have the kind of looks that only a mother could love.

It is a fact of life that everybody wants to be considered beautiful and it is also a fact of life that everyone is not beautiful. The interesting thing though is that what is considered to be beautiful by one person, will be not be the same for another person. This is a good thing and the reason why there is a match for everyone, since we all have different tastes.

In some cultures, a woman with an ample rear end is considered to be attractive, whereas in the western world, any woman with a behind which is more than a size 12 is considered to be too fat. It seems that it is not possible to achieve the perfect shape to please everyone, so you need to be able to feel comfortable with the shape that you are happy with. This could be a size zero or a size 16, as long as you feel that you are happy and healthy.

This is where the main problem arises. The word healthy is the key word to looking beautiful. If you are a size zero, and look as though you would blow over in a strong wind, you are probably not getting all the nutrients and vitamins that your body needs. On the other hand, if you are a size 20, you may feel happy, but all the extra weight is not good for your heart and other organs, so this is not a satisfactory situation either.

When it comes to female beauty, there are a few things which are universally considered to be attractive and one of these is being buxom. There are very few cultures which consider a flat chested woman to be attractive, but even here, it seems that you can have too much of a good thing. There has been a rise in the number of women seeking the aid of cosmetic surgery to feel better about themselves and one of the most popular procedures is the breast reduction and the breast lift for the older woman.

This is opposed to the earlier popularity of the breast augmentation which seemed to be the most requested and talked about cosmetic surgery procedure for many years. These days there are even men who are now choosing to undergo surgery and the male breast reduction procedure is something which is becoming less of a taboo subject. Whatever you think is beautiful, remember that someone will always disagree with you.

How many times have you looked in the mirror and thought that you would like to change some aspect of your appearance? I am guessing that the answer most people would give is “countless.” It seems that every single person in the world would like to change at least one thing about the way they look. This could be a small a change as losing a couple of pounds, or a major change such as altering your appearance all together with surgery.

No matter whom you talk to about looking good, everyone will say that they are not happy. The one in a hundred, who will actually say that they are happy with everything about the way they look, is probably thinking something different inside. The most common thing which people wish to change about themselves is the amount that they weigh. We all think that we should lose some weight and there are even some people who wish that they could gain weight.

Then then are other things which people are not happy with, for example, the way that their ears stick out, or the size of their lips or nose. There was a time when these things would have to be accepted as they were and there was nothing which you could do about them. You could alter the colour and style of your hair, gain or lose weight and use make up artfully to change the way that you looked, but apart from these (and clever dressing), there was not a lot that you could alter.

Things have changed in the past few years considerably and now there are so many different types of treatments and procedures available which you can select to change the way you look. Some procedures are very common and some not so much. The most common ones are those which are now easily available and are now relatively cheap. They also have minimum side effects and quick recovery times.

The procedures which are the most popular are those involving weight losses, such as liposuction and tummy tuck. These are quick fixes for removing excess weight from targeted areas and are often offered as quick in and out jobs which can be done in a person’s lunch break. Another type of this same procedure is the breast reduction and these days, the growingly common male breast reduction.

Apart from weight loss procedures, the next most popular surgery for changing your appearance is to have nose surgery. This is a procedure which takes longer to both perform and to recover from. Nose surgery is such a routine operation in this day and age that it is considered quite normal for anyone to have it. There are certain age limits but you will see teenagers saving money to have nose surgery because they are unhappy with the shape or the size of the nose that they have been given by nature or by their genes if you wish to get technical.