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?
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