I feel the same way as Denise - we should grow old gracefully and accept ourselves the way we are born. I think its every ones right to have a tattoo or modify their body as they wish, but i personally draw the line at plastic surgery.The statistics for plastic surgery in the UK show that despite our countries economic downturn, the number of people choosing to go under the knife has increased, especially for men. I find it amazing that even though people are hard up for money, they still feel that getting surgically altered is an important thing to do. I'd have thought that surgery would have been the last thing on my shopping list around now, but obviously not.
The increase has got to be partly down to the higher number of plastic surgery shows that appear on our TV's each week. The Mail online said in one of its articles that "programmes such as MTV's I Want a Famous Face and Channel Five's Plastic Surgery Live sent out a dangerous message to viewers. The BAAPS (British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons) said the popular shows preyed on the vulnerabilities of a society increasingly obsessed with physical perfection and encouraged people to seek surgery for the wrong reasons."
I believe another reason, especially for men, is that the stigma surrounding plastic surgery has decreased due to the above mentioned types of TV shows. Its no longer seen as a big deal for men to have aesthetic surgery, and this has been proved by the large number of male celebrities that have recently gone under the knife. There is an interesting survey (if you are into that kind of thing) on this website that was carried out to judge the amount of influence celebrities have on peoples' decisions to go under the knife. I think a very good quote from the survey was :
" There were numerous mentions by doctors who noted that patients expressed personal concerns that any procedure would not leave them looking like Michael Jackson."
I personally do not believe that one tummy tuck would make you end up looking like MJ, but as we all know Michael has an addiction to surgery that has progressed over the years and probably involved hundreds of operations.
So, is Michael Jackson an example of surgery gone bad? I cannot believe that over the years there have not been plastic surgeons who have refused to operate on Michael Jackson, surely there has got to be a few? He started looking strange years ago and i remember at one time he was on the front pages of the newspapers (trashy ones like the Sun) at least once a week wearing bandages or leaving some top London surgery-for-the-stars hideaway. So why have surgeons continued to operate on Jackson, well that's easy, he's got loads of dosh (well, he did ha
ve, but not any more) and a strange imagination. I wonder who Michael Jackson told his very first plastic surgeon he would like to look like? Arnie Schwarzenegger? I can't work it out, Jackson does not look like anyone anymore, hes 'unique', maybe that's what he wanted all along. On the right is a picture i found of what Jacko would look like today if he had never had plastic surgery.
I'm afraid i do draw the line at parents buying plastic surgery for their very young children. In America there are loads of surgeries that cater just for kids, such as http://www.stjohnsmercy.org/services/kidsplasticsurgery/default.asp. Is this the way Britain is headed?
Surely it is wrong to encourage girls of age 15 and 16 to get breast enlargement? Besides the health risks, is it right for surgeons to operate on children just for aesthetic reasons? I believe not, and maybe there should be a minimum age of 18 for plastic surgery (at the moment there is no limit on how young a child can be for surgery, as long as they have their parents permission). The Daily Mail (28.08.2008) said girls as young as 14 are having breast enlargements and other treatments to avoid being bullied at school, but surely its better to tackle the bullies than allow your child to have life altering surgery. Stopping the bullies would also halt them from carrying on and making other kids lives hell. If i was a parent i just would not allow my child to have surgery at such a young age, i don't know what other people from uni think. Another thing i was thinking of is 14 year olds haven't even stopped growing yet, so surely having implants can't be very good for the their bodies. I don't know, may be I'm wrong.
I very much doubt that it will be parents from the lower classes who will pay £3,500 for their 14 year old daughter to have a nose job. If I'd have said to my parents i want a tummy tuck aged 13 i know very well what they would have said, but its a sign of changing times. Is it me or is surgery just not seen as being that drastic anymore?
I can understand surgery for real medical problems, but breast enlargements? I can't decide if its morally wrong, after all, who wouldn't want their kids to be happy, and if there's a short cut to beauty, then why not take it? If you have got that amount of money, then its an option, but i suppose it never crosses the mind of most normal parents.
Boring stuff - and Hello Denise! http://www.stjohnsmercy.org/services/kidsplasticsurgery/default.asp
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1049624/Children-having-cosmetic-surgery-escape-school-bullies-surgeon-reveals.html
http://www.cosmeticsurgeon.co.uk/blog/tag/otoplasty/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-317344/Plastic-surgery-TV-shows-dangerous.html
http://ginavivinetto.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/michael-jackson-minus-plastic-surgery/ http://images.google.co.uk/imghp
No comments:
Post a Comment