The other day, my mom and I were driving somewhere when an interesting story came on the radio [FYI: my mom only plays NPR and Christian music when she's driving us kids somewhere, because she wants to balance out all that "stuff" me and my sister's listen to---funny, right?]. The creator of Nip/Tuck, Ryan Murphy, was talking about his newest show, Glee, and even though I ardently admire all things show choir related [I kind of wish Georgetown had a show choir...that would be awesome], his aside on Nip/Tuck and plastic surgery's decreased popularity caught my attention.
Murphy claimed that he created Nip/Tuck to present the ugly reality of plastic surgery through brutally realistic recreations of surgeries; he wanted to demonstrate that artificial physical alterations only speak to deeper psychological problems that only proper counseling can fix. The show first aired at the boom of plastic surgery in 2003 and is closing at what Murphy argues is a time when plastic surgery is not nearly as popular. He contributes this demise of sorts to the rise of less invasive procedures [botox, lipodissolve, and other nonsurgical alternatives]. While Murphy applauds this shift [after all, it's just stupidSTUPIDstupid to go under the knife for an unnecessary surgery], I don't know if I am quite as thrilled.
While plastic surgery is admittedly stupid, it at least requires people to think about their physical alterations significantly more than a botox injection or lipodissolve requires. I mean, getting any kind of invasive surgery like liposuction or a face lift requires multiple doctors' appointments, consultations, and overall health evaluations; any kind of non-invasive procedure doesn't require this. Rather, such procedures simply allow people to immediately satiate frivolous desires, thus exemplifying society's general problem of focusing too much on temporal pleasures that never lead to true happiness--it's just an easier way of doing something relatively bad.
Of course, women are the most frequent culprits of using medical procedures to alter their physical appearance. Most women want to present themselves as the best people they can be [I, of course, have no problem with this desire; women should want to be proud], whether it be in clothing, makeup, physical fitness, etc. However, plastic surgery, or any kind of surgical physical alteration, in my opinion, is a show of weakness. It's just a way of avoiding dealing with your truest person and openly admits that you are not happy with who you are; rather than demonstrating a lady's pride in herself, it discloses disappointment.
These procedures serve as ways of avoiding dealing with the deepest sense of self by becoming, physically, something you truly aren't. It is admittedly easier to go into a doctor's office for a 10 minute botox appointment or a one hour lipo-dissolve session than it is to face your innermost concerns. So, these noninvasive procedures simply encourage continued ignorance of the real problems at hand; they make it easier to be something you're not. And for this, I almost hate botox more than breast augmentations.
Women are better than these procedures. Women have the self-control and ability to improve themselves without any kind of medical method. Supermodels and movie stars should no longer serve as standards of beauty [Come on, we all know about how stupid those people are thanks to the tabloids]. By turning to medical physical alterations, ladies are just selling themselves short and admitting to stereotyped weakness; it shows an inability to fully embrace and love being the woman you are lucky to be.
Now I'm not saying women should lay around and not do anything to deal with any perceived physical shortcoming. I just think individual women should utilize their personal strengths to improve themselves, whether it be through going to counseling, surrounding themselves with people who help them feel as beautiful as they truly are, or even new workout regimens. Injections and surgeries will never make you feel truly beautiful, only life filled with appreciation and gratefulness can do so.
Yes, it is understandable for every person to express some kind of unhappiness with regards to physical appearance. Yes, it is understandable to want to "fix" whatever you deem wrong. This being said, it is not understandable to put yourself at risk for "fixing" things that need not be fixed [under normal circumstances, no one needs a butt implant, no one needs a breast augmentation, no one needs rhinoplasty]. Doctored physical alterations, whether invasive or not, simply fail at trying to resolve deeper unhappiness. After all, I personally think that women should be proud that they are aging, women should be proud to physically show all that they have overcome whether young or old. Why on earth would you want to pretend that your life has been less than it is? Why would you want to ignore symbols of hardships you've overcome? Why would you want to eliminate physical manifestations of memories? Why would you want to hide wrinkles that represent a lifetime leading to greater wisdom? In my opinion, it is these physical markings that make a woman most beautifully feminine [plus, you just look silly (and somewhat unattractive) when you try to be something you're not].
Women are not barbie dolls--we are human. We get scars, we get wrinkles, things sag...we get old. That's life. Ladies just need to accept the reality of things and stop trying to turn themselves into seemingly everlasting beings.
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