2008 Woodie Awards
Artificial beauty taken to extreme and beyond
Laura Hickey
Issue date: 10/14/04 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
I was flipping through a women's magazine recently and could not believe just how vain women are becoming. It had an article on cosmetic surgery, which appears to have become the norm in today's society. One woman had undergone surgery eight times, including a facelift, breast enlargement, collagen lips and minoplast. Has our quest for beauty gone too far?
Women and their obsession with surgery and the price of beauty have definitely gone too far. But beauty magazines and celebrities have encouraged this trend. In the back of these magazines are advertisements for Botox, lipo-suction, breast enlargement, nose reduction ... the list goes on and on. Celebrities such as Pam Anderson, Tara Reid, Elizabeth Hurley, Catherine Zeta Jones, Halle Berry, Cher, Britney Spears, Melanie Griffiths, Madonna and many more have reportedly paid thousands to have varying bits of their near -perfect bodies improved. It is enough to make any woman insecure.
Then there is the question of whether there are going to be any naturallooking women left in this world if everyone is turning to surgery. Imagine how life would be if every woman had lipo-suction, nose jobs, boob jobs, collagen lips, a fake beauty spot, a fake tan and permanent makeup tattooed on? Very bizarre, unhealthy and extremely surreal, I think.
The latest focus of makeovers include reality television shows and documentaries such as "I Want a Famous Face," "The Swan" and "Extreme Makeover." The word "extreme" hardly justifies these shows. The person undergoing surgery looks nothing like what they did before. They are extremely different.
These shows are fueling a bonfire of vanities that already was burning hot. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures in the United States increased by 20 percent from 2002 to 2003.
Even teenagers have taken part in this trend. People under the age of 18 had 220,077 cosmetic procedures in 2002 and 223,594 in 2003.
Botox, derived from botulin, has become increasingly popular. Dubbed as "the poor man's facelift," it was originally developed to cure facial spasms and crossed eyes, but is now used in the fight against aging and wrinkles. This toxin, when injected into wrinkles, paralyzes the facial muscles and a few days later those frown lines are gone. Poisoning your muscles sounds like a great idea!
No matter how hard people try, nobody is perfect. Life is not about perfection; It is about being the best you can be. We all have faults and insecurities, but surgery is not the only solution.
Women and their obsession with surgery and the price of beauty have definitely gone too far. But beauty magazines and celebrities have encouraged this trend. In the back of these magazines are advertisements for Botox, lipo-suction, breast enlargement, nose reduction ... the list goes on and on. Celebrities such as Pam Anderson, Tara Reid, Elizabeth Hurley, Catherine Zeta Jones, Halle Berry, Cher, Britney Spears, Melanie Griffiths, Madonna and many more have reportedly paid thousands to have varying bits of their near -perfect bodies improved. It is enough to make any woman insecure.
Then there is the question of whether there are going to be any naturallooking women left in this world if everyone is turning to surgery. Imagine how life would be if every woman had lipo-suction, nose jobs, boob jobs, collagen lips, a fake beauty spot, a fake tan and permanent makeup tattooed on? Very bizarre, unhealthy and extremely surreal, I think.
The latest focus of makeovers include reality television shows and documentaries such as "I Want a Famous Face," "The Swan" and "Extreme Makeover." The word "extreme" hardly justifies these shows. The person undergoing surgery looks nothing like what they did before. They are extremely different.
These shows are fueling a bonfire of vanities that already was burning hot. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures in the United States increased by 20 percent from 2002 to 2003.
Even teenagers have taken part in this trend. People under the age of 18 had 220,077 cosmetic procedures in 2002 and 223,594 in 2003.
Botox, derived from botulin, has become increasingly popular. Dubbed as "the poor man's facelift," it was originally developed to cure facial spasms and crossed eyes, but is now used in the fight against aging and wrinkles. This toxin, when injected into wrinkles, paralyzes the facial muscles and a few days later those frown lines are gone. Poisoning your muscles sounds like a great idea!
No matter how hard people try, nobody is perfect. Life is not about perfection; It is about being the best you can be. We all have faults and insecurities, but surgery is not the only solution.