11/16/2007

BY THE SKIN OF MY TEETH

Fewsh - I'm going to make it before midnight.

As I sit here watching "The Soup" on E, I am delighted to see a commercial for the "Total Gym" featuring Chuck Norris and Christy Brinkley. Which brings up the obvious topic of bad plastic surgery.

Kanye West's mother's death makes me think about it. Plastic surgery is a choice commonly made by women of all ages. I know dozens of women from all different areas of my life who have told me that they have had work done. Smart women do it, beautiful women do it, kind and generous and well-grounded put-together women do it. And it makes me wonder.

Why?

I'm not picking a fight. I'm not standing on a soap box. I'm seriously wondering. What is it? Why do we do this? Put ourselves at risk. Literally risking life an limb.

I want good things for myself. I want better things for my daughter. I want to support her and help her to achieve what ever her dreams are. What if these beautiful (though distorted) images she has seen every day of her life affect the way she sees herself? What if she wants to change her body? Make it bigger, make it smaller. Make it different from the one I grew in my belly. Hugged with my arms.

What will I do?

I honestly have no idea. I will, of course, talk with her as honestly as I am able. I will encourage her to educate herself. But I am flummoxed by so much of the topic how could I be helpful? The one thing I am clear about is that my decisions will shape her opinions about acceptable behavior more than most others. In good ways and bad. If I smoke, she is much more likely to smoke. (I do, by the way. Secretly and ashamedly - Ugh!) If I volunteer she may be more inclined to spare her time for people in need (I do this one, too). I hold this belief to be true about plastic surgery.

And so I abstain. I do not participate in any way.

Do you? Let me know...

(PS - these are my exhausted ramblings. Ignore them if they enrage you. Or drop me a line. Cause I could use a little drama...)

5 comments:

Dapoppins said...

I don't smoke. My entire family did, however. But I had to wash dishes with cigarette's put out next to the over easy eggs and it disgusted me for life. That and the smell. And the stains. I am just saying.

I would have a few things done. I think the Lord put my boobs on upside down. I would have them put on correctly. I need a tummy tuck, but I would never have that done, because I earned my belly with four, beautiful children, and I am rather proud of every scar and stretch mark. I have wrinkles on my forehead that have been there since high school and I am curious what I would look like without them, but I wouldn't do anything permanent. I wouldn't mess with the other wrinkles around my eyes and mouth. I also have a couple of broken veins on my face that I would have removed....but I don't have the money for any of this, and it is not a priority at all.

And if my daughter wanted to...well, she would have to be done growning, and I would advise that she do everything she can with diet and exercise first. If her boobs turn out to be upside down, well, maybe we can make the appointment together.

Mother/daughter boob jobs. Now that is just silly.

Bruce Johnson said...

Plastic surgery has it place regarding 'reconstruction' of some body part, but to do it only as an 'enhancement' is crazy. It shows how low we have sunken as a society when image is more important than health, and the concept of growing old gracefully had gone out the window.

Candy said...

My daughter is 17, and has every intention of having her nose done when she's older. There is nothing wrong with her nose, and nothing I tell her will change her mind at this point. I'm just hoping she outgrows this. Not much else I can do.

Anonymous said...

I grew up in a home with a mother and three sisters who have all been hospitalized from years of anorexia/bulimea. The real thing, not excessive dieting but truly all consuming affecting every facet of our lives, nearly killed each of them and still may take the life of middle sister, anorexia/bulimea.

The word diet is never spoken in my home. My daughter and I talk about health and moderation. I lost a friend in college to an agonizing gastric bypass death. I tell everyone.

Anonymous said...

I type operative reports, and I have typed too many plastic surgery procedures that are done to fix things that went wrong with/after the first plastic surgeries.

Once cutting and tissue removal is involved, tissues that are meant to stay and heal do not always get enough blood flow, so there is more cutting involved to remove dead tissue. I'm not going to get into gross detail, but I would NEVER have a breast reduction after typing the next surgery when things have not gotten enough blood flow and have to be removed.

All the patients are given a long list of complications that can occur, which they need to sign off on (giving consent to proceed), and the above complication is part of that list, but I think people always think - won't happen to me, but it does, more frequently than I care to tempt fate with. My body is far from perfect, but I'll live with it as is thanks, much better than living without parts.