We all have every right to do what we want to our bodies. If that involves you getting plastic surgery, hey, go for it. Good on ya.
But when you do it to the extent you no longer look like ... you, that's a problem. Getting hacked and slashed to the point you look more like a doll and less like a human, that's a problem.
Why would anyone do that to themselves? It's mind boggling. I've seen beautiful people, particularly females, get dozens of unnecessary "corrective surgeries" and forfeit not only their natural beauty but, I'd argue, beauty in general.
Maybe this doesn't mean much coming from me, a male. That's not to say us men don't have our own societal pressures and expectations four our bodies placed on us. A cursory glance at Men's Health Magazine will confirm that. But the plight of men's aesthetic worth pales in comparisons to what women have to deal with. That much I do get and readily admit.
But one going under the knife and borderline surrendering their humanity makes me profoundly sad.
In 2007 I was taking a solo road trip through the American West. One April day I was in Los Angeles cruising around Hollywood Boulevard. I came to an intersection to see none other than Paris Hilton herself crossing the road, her tiny vanity pet in tow and all. This was near her peak in fame. I couldn't believe I happened upon her, and I cursed my luck because I had zero respect for her as a... whatever they call talentless hacks who make millions off unjustifiable fame.
But upon closer inspection I realized something didn't add up. She had no entourage. Why would Paris Hilton be in a tourist Mecca all by herself? Then I noticed the gate of her walk. It was off, unbalanced, painful and awkward. Then it dawned on me that it wasn't Paris Hilton. It was some poor young women who had gone through every surgery imaginable to look from head to toe like the America's perpetually fleeting flavor of the week.
I saw faint lines of surgical cars on her legs.The sun's ray reflected, bounced unnaturally off her more silicon than flesh face. She had herself carved up to the point she no longer moved with the spryness and grace of a 20 something. She traded in youth and vitality to look like the human equivalent of a greyhound. How many tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars she blew to erase all trace vestiges of what was once her true physical self must be as astounding as it is depressing.
It was the first time I realized and recognized my Midwest sensibilities. It's just not right. I would never advocate to make such extensive plastic surgery illegal, but it's just not right, not wholesome.
So little girls growing up to be insecure women is fucked up. It's that simple. No one should have such lofty expectations of beauty forced upon them. No one should feel a compulsion to hack their faces and bodies to look like another person, or barely look like a person at all. More importantly though, men and especially women, have to work hard to find the self love to never mutilate themselves to the point of erasing their actual physical -- and perhaps emotional -- selves.
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