The purpose of this thesis is to identify practices that constitute plastic surgery in current Republic of Korea with emphasis put on relationships between participating human beings, materials and technologies. It focuses on practices proceeding inside and outside the clinic of plastic surgery. In accordance with M. Lock's concept of local biology this thesis introduces Korean plastic surgery as a set of practices shaped by mutual interaction of local technologies and Korean bodies. The actor network theory approach (ANT), which emphasizes relational open-ended forming of entities, is applied to examining various aspects of plastic surgery. This approach also provides new ways of exploring how the entities and practices described in the medical anthropology as medicalization, medical tourism or local biology are produced. Key words plastic surgery; Republic of Korea; Actor - Network Theory (ANT); bodily practices; local biology; beauty ideal; medicalization.

In today's society a beauty ideal exists in America, which attempts to define female beauty as fitting into a certain mold. Certain characteristics have been deemed the most attractive when it comes to female physical attractiveness, and an ideal image of beauty has been presented by the media. This research focuses on whether or not everyone buys into that beauty ideal, and examines the impact that a person's sex and race has on the physical characteristics which that individual defines as the most appealing. Surveys were administered to 300 UCF students age 18-35. Participants were asked about ten different physical characteristics relating to women, and were asked to choose the characteristic among each group that they found the most physically attractive or beautiful. The study showed that both sex and racial differences do exist, and that there are variations in what different people consider beautiful. Not everyone has the same opinion on what is attractive in regards to the physical appearance of women.

The thesis has both a theoretical and a practical part. Within the theoretical part it deals with problems and the characteristics of food intake failures, especially with the perception of her/his body during maturation, pubescence, adolescence, early adulthood and middle adulthood and the impact of psychological and social factors and risk factors. It points out the possibilities of a probable occurrence of a food intake failures, the attitude of the society and parents. It deals with different attitudes to slenderness, self-esteem, eating habits of girls and how present-day girls are informed about food intake failures. The diploma thesis main aim within a practical part is the illustration of a theoretical part and the description of subjectively sensed possible causes from women who suffered from food intake failures. There are 6 casuistries described here which are subsequently summarized in the results. Possible comments and ideas are mentioned in the discussion.

Diploma thesis "Cellulite as a social phenomenon: Analysis of Czech Press" deals with the topic of origination and development of a conception of cellulite as an illness and defect to the beauty in Czech press and also deals with constructing of this phenomenon in present time. The aim of the study was to analyze and show how the conception of cellulite, thanks to which a normal physiological fact changed into a defect to the beauty and to an illness, was developed and medialized, by using a brief quantitative analysis of Czech press as a whole, a brief quantitative analysis of the research sample and consequently a qualitative analysis of this research sample. Hereafter the aim of the diploma thesis was also seeking of an answer to a question to what extent cellulite is an construct created by advertising industry and manufacturers of cosmetic devices and products, which is abusing and supporting normative imaginings of ideal female body and beauty.

Listan över influerare som har gjort skönhetsingrepp kan göras lång. För att nämna ett exempel har Bianca Ingrosso med ett följarantal på 343 000 på Youtube talat öppet om att hon gjort lipfillers (Ingrosso, 2020). Dessa inlägg där influerare talar om hur de korrigerar sin kropp i kombination med att de unga är i majoritet på internet och sociala medier (Svenskarna och internet 2019) ligger till grund för vår vilja att genomföra denna undersökning. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur influerares reklam och framställning av skönhetsingrepp kan skapa betydelse för hur unga kvinnor ser på den egna kroppen. För att genomföra studien har vi använt oss av sex stycken kvalitativa intervjuer med kvinnor i åldrarna 15–17 år. Intervjuerna har spelats in och transkriberats och materialet har sedan analyserats för att besvara våra frågeställningar. Utifrån våra intervjuer kan vi se att influerares sätt att tala om och göra reklam för skönhetsingrepp har betydelse för unga kvinnors attityder till den egna kroppen. Några av respondenterna har även uttryckt att de blivit osäkra gällande sin egen kropp efter att ha sett inlägg gällande skönhetsingrepp från en influerare. Vi kan tydligt se att respondenterna tror att unga kvinnor är den grupp som påverkas mest av influerares framställning av skönhetsingrepp. Intervjuerna visar att respondenterna tar del av ett dominerande skönhetsideal på sociala medier och de beskriver idealet som att man ska vara smal, lång och vacker. Vi kan tydligt se, genom de analyserade intervjuerna, att de unga kvinnorna som deltog i denna studie är kritiska till influerare som talar om och gör reklam för skönhetsingrepp, då de tycker att det uppmanar andra till att korrigera sin kropp. Trots kritiken så spelar influerare en stor roll i de unga kvinnornas liv och de uttrycker att de får inspiration av influerare gällande var och vad man äter, hur man klär sig och hur man tränar. Vi kan därmed se en viss ambivalens i respondenternas svar då de följer specifika influerare samtidigt som de riktar kritik gentemot dessa. / The list of influencers who has had cosmetic procedures done can be made long. To mention one example, Bianca Ingrosso with 343 000 followers on Youtube, has spoken openly about her lip fillers (Ingrosso 2020). These types of posts, where influencers talk about how they correct their body, in combination with the fact that young people are a majority of the internet and social media users (Svenskarna och internet 2019) forms the basis of our motivation to conduct this study. This study aims to analyze whether, and if so, how influencers advertising and speech about cosmetic procedures contribute in creating meaning regarding how young women view their own body. This study was conducted with six qualitative interviews, with women in age 15-17. The interviews have been recorded and transcribed and the material has been analyzed to answer our research questions. Throughout our analyzed interviews can we see that influencers' speech and advertising about cosmetic procedures are meaningful regarding young women's attitudes to their own body. Some of the respondents expressed that they felt insecure about their own body after seeing an influencer talk about cosmetic procedures. We can also see that the respondents think that young women as a group of people are affected by influencers' opinions about cosmetic procedures. In the interviews, we can also see that the respondents take part in constructing a dominating beauty ideal on social media and they define the ideal as being skinny, tall and beautiful. Clearly the young women who took part in this study are critical of how influencers talk and do commercials about cosmetic procedures, they think influencers tell others to correct their body. Despite the criticism, the young women in this study are still inspired by influencers, regarding where and what they eat, how they dress and how they work out. We can clearly see some ambivalence in the way the respondents answer as they follow specific influencers while they also are criticizing them.