**A Plastic Surgeon's Perspective on Stereotyping and the Perception of Beauty the Perception of Beauty**

**A Plastic Surgeon's Perspective on Stereotyping and** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.69634

Johanna D'Agostino and Marek Dobke Johanna D'Agostino and Marek Dobke Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69634

#### **Abstract**

In the world of plastic surgery, misconceptions may lead to irrational requests or out‐ comes not appreciated by patients. Those who manage aesthetics should always listen and recognize the variability of cultural identities, desires, attitudes, anxieties and uncer‐ tainties of the patient. Emerging from a diversity of cultures and its transforming trends, the scope of cosmetic surgery and its practice reflect not only the individual's personality, but also the culture as a whole. When counseling an individual, one has to recognize that even in groups of seemingly identical social or cultural standards; there are subtle differ‐ ences in expectations. To illustrate the potential for inaccuracy of ethnic profiling in the field of plastic surgery authors quote their own work on Asian subjects and facial beauty and resort to experience of others. To reaffirm their opinion and to exemplify how some‐ times "fine" differences in the perception of beauty exist, an original study that evaluates the preferences among selected groups of Latina women in respect to buttock aesthetics has been included. This dissertation will focus on how cultural factors influence beauty perception; strengthen the fact that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and how variable differences exist even between small subgroups.

**Keywords:** perception, beauty, stereotyping, profiling, culture, diversity
