Plastic Surgery: Is It Worth It?There was a time when whatever else transpired, humanity could rest assured the passing years would mete out justice to those folks who, conferred with great beauty, assumed that such conveyance was accompanied by a dispensation entitling them to all sorts of misbehavior.
“She’s living proof that sooner or later you get the face you deserve,” my mother once remarked of a particularly ill-tempered, self-infatuated aunt who had been what was known as a “Great Beauty” in her youth.
What mattered was her aunt had become as ugly on the outside as she was on the inside.
Presumably, the reverse could also occur: Given sufficient time, grace of character could straighten teeth, construct cheekbones where there were none, and clear the skin of all blemishes-or at least make all such flaws invisible.
It would then follow that when it comes to one’s breasts, saggy=evil and pert=good?
Factoid: Top 5 Surgical Procedures
- Liposuction (455,489) down 5%
- Breast augmentation (364,610) up 9%
- Eyelid surgery (231,467) down 20%
- Nose reshaping (200,924) up 21%
- Tummy tuck (169,314) up 12%
But this is Hollywood-no, make that America, baby-and why waste precious years on random acts of kindness (and a less-than-perfect face) when a cut, stitch, peel, fill or burn can accomplish in seconds what used to require a lifetime of forbearance and good works?
And why pretend that nature or character had anything to do with that infant-like visage, when money (or its implied abundance) says something so much more compelling?
After decades of assuring patients that, oh yes, after a reasonable period of recuperation (preferably safe from prying eyes in a cave in Katmandu), they would emerge looking incredibly well-rested, doctors now find their best efforts at subtlety openly disdained by a growing group of, let’s call them, Beauty Abusers.
Factoid: Top 5 Non-Surgical Procedures
- Botox injections (3,294,782) up 16%
- Laser hair removal (1,566,909) up 11%
- Hyaluronic acids: Hylaform, Restylance (1,194,222) up 35%
- Microdermabrasion (1,023,931) down 7%
- Chemical peel (556,172) down 50%
You see them everywhere now, not just in L.A. Women and increasingly, men, who, by human standards, have gone way too far.
Expressionless, with no lines, creases or even folds of skin, they walk amongst us, exulting in their appearance, pitying those who must suffer the humiliation of looking human.
Heather John, former style editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine who lives in L.A., grew up in Napa and watched the influx of dot-com millionaires and vanity wineries in her hometown and tells of an old-line Napa doyenne remarking of a trophy newcomer, “We don’t do cleavage in the Napa Valley.”
Maybe they didn’t, John reports, but they do now. “It’s a badge,” she observes. “They want you to know ‘I have a three-karat ring and $20,000 tits.’ They want it to look fake.”
“Better to rent than to own,” counsels L.A. dermatologist Dr. Jessica Wu. She reports seeing “a backlash against perfection.
People, even patients who used to want to be completely smooth are asking for more subtlety-less Botox, less filler.” [source: California Style] Note: To be continued…