BITCHIN' PLASTIC SURGERY

Often it seems like every time I turn around I’m hearing yet another story of some Hollywood superstar getting plumper lips or losing part of her plump rump. For some celebrity magazines, the before and after stories questioning if plastic surgery has occurred have become regular fare. We see yet another version every few weeks it seems. I call this game “Where’s the Woman,” a distinctly adult version of Where’s Waldo? When we play Where’s the Woman we scrutinize her entire body and try to figure out which parts are real and which are not so real – enhanced in one form or another.

Over the years as I’ve interviewed hundreds of women, I’ve heard of various versions of this game. I think that at some level we’ve all played it in one form or another. I know for a fact that I’ve spent a fortune buying those same celebrity magazines that start this stuff. Of course, it’s all part of the sacrifices I make in the name of good research…
Frankly, I don’t have a particular problem with the media obsession with stars’ plastic surgery habits. Stars make their money, in part, off their looks and celebrity magazines make their money off the stars. It’s all just part of that weird symbiotic relationship we call the Hollywood media machine.

What bothers me, though, is the way that this media obsession with plastic surgery has normalized the process of having plastic surgery, not just for Hollywood stars but for everyone. It seems that somewhere along the line the surgery part of the procedure has been lost. Plastic surgery, in many of its forms, is now just considered another type of cosmetic application. The thing is, though, it’s not the same thing. Nowhere near it. The slight tingle I feel when I go to pluck my eyebrows is annoying but not potentially life threatening. The slight tingle I feel when a needle filled with the latest miracle injectable material is more than just annoying. It can cause permanent damage in any number of ways. Even more potentially dangerous are the full blown surgical procedures requiring general anesthetic. Every time you go under anesthesia you run the risk of not coming back up. Clearly, for medically necessary procedures, this is a fair trade off. But is dying for the sake of looking thinner, younger, or whatever “er” you’re seeking worth it? Even if you don’t die, there are any number of other risks that you face – permanent disfiguration, loss of feeling, scarring, and many others.

What got me started on this latest bitchin’ rant was an article in Sunday’s New York Times about the increase in plastic surgery centers within shopping centers. (Click here to read the article.) I’ve seen a few of these things and they are downright scary. The fact that I can pop in for a quick application of acid to remove wrinkles or to have a dose of poison injected into them to soften them at the same time I’m shopping for the latest shoes of the season strikes me as beyond ridiculous. It moves us even further from the reality that we’re undergoing a surgical procedure. It obscures the fact that we may be receiving that procedure from someone with less than stellar medical qualifications. It creates a presumption that ideal beauty is just a few hundred dollars out of reach. If we only have enough money and get the right procedures then we too can look ideal. Am I the only person bothered by this?

BITCHIN' AND WRITIN'

Working at a college means that I don’t make anywhere near as much money as my similarly educated peers. However, while they toil away at 60-70 hour work weeks waiting for their two week vacation respite, I pretty much set my own work weeks and get regular breaks. Right now we’re in the midst of a one month winter/holiday break. While most of my current co-workers are spending the time chilaxin’ in front of the television, I’m spending my time writing and working on other creative projects.

Ever since I was a young child I’ve turned to writing as a creative outlet. I regularly have multiple journals in the process of being filled with thoughts, observations, research, character studies, snippets of dialogue, and anything else that seems potentially relevant or useful. In fact right now, I have a total of 8 active journals, not including the 4 that are dedicated to my artistic endeavors. It’s a lot, but I’ve found that dedicating a specific journal to each project is a fantastic way to keep all my thoughts organized. Too many times in the early phases of a project I’ve dismissed a thought as a merely trivial diversion, only to realize later that the diversion was actually a pivotal piece of the project. I also maintain two personal journals, one for the regular minutiae of daily life that I find necessary to record and one for the more negative, potentially destructive rants that must occasionally find an outlet. I think it’s best to confine all that negativity into one spot so that it doesn’t contaminate my daily existence. Negative thoughts can too easily multiply and become a soft addiction.

Writing in a journal is a good outlet and a fine way to start writing; however, if you want to be a writer and live the writer’s life you need to do more. You need to move past the navel gazing endemic to much journal writing and actually start to put together a coherent project, whatever that may be. Making this transition and committing to not just starting but actually finishing a project is the step that trips up many potential writers. The beginning conceptual phase of a project is wonderful – it’s all potentialities and possibilities. This is the fun, honeymoon phase of writing. Every day is sunny, every night is balmy, and everything imaginable is possible. However, just like a honeymoon must end, so too must the conceptual phase turn to the real work of writing. Potentialities will only remain a possibility unless and until you take the step of making them happen.

One of the most frequent questions that I am asked is how to take a project from this initial stage to completion. How do you actually finish the book that you’ve been thinking about for years? While I don’t have a magic panacea that will instantly make a thought into a book, I have figured out a few things that have worked for me.

• Make writing a priority in your life. Make a promise to write for a certain amount of time each and hold yourself accountable.
• On those days that you don’t feel like writing, force yourself. I’ve found that those days tend to be my most productive once I force myself to sit down and start working.
• Find a writing system that works for you. I do all of my original writing on yellow legal pads with black pens. When I see these things, I automatically move into writing mode.
• If you must write on a computer, turn off the spell and grammar checks. All of those green and red squiggly lines are just another distraction.
• Write every day, even if it’s only 15 minutes. You have to do something approximately 30 times before it becomes a habit. Once you develop a writing habit, you’ll find that it’s an addiction like any other, meaning that you’ll feel the need to write daily and will feel a big hole on days that you don’t write.

I could keep going indefinitely, but I’ll leave you with these for now. If you’ve been thinking about starting a project, do it. New year’s is the time to regroup and reposition ourselves for the next year, so what better time to develop a writing practice. Drop me a line and let me know what you’re working on!