Seeking inner beauty
September 25, 2007
Thousands have cosmetic surgery every year, from liposuction and tummy tucks to face lifts. Reality shows like Extreme Makeover, take “ugly” people and transform them: they have their bodies restored through surgeries that reshape their jaws, give them a chin, have their entire mouth gutted and replaced with porcelain veneers for teeth, and have their breasts augmented or reshaped. I also used to watch a show that focused on morbidly obese patients who had undergone bariatric surgery to decrease the size of their stomach and were then having cosmetic surgery to remove the excess skin caused in part by the rapid weight loss. This surgery is generally a tummy tuck with some liposuction for good measure.
Even more recently, I watched a show about a woman who gave birth to twins, then followed up that feat by giving birth to sextuplets! Yes, the skin is elastic but it’s no rubber band, and unlikely to ever go back to its pre-sextuplet glory. As a result, the woman had some excess skin that no amount of exercising could get rid of. She ended up having a tummy tuck and liposuction and the resulting stomach (after her 6-8 weeks of recovery, where couldn’t pick up any of her children) had me declaring that if I should ever lose the last 80-100 pounds plaguing me (you know, since I already lost my first 100lbs, *ahem*), one of my first gifts to myself would be a tummy tuck.
Then I heard of the death of a 37-year-old real estate agent from a heart attack following liposuction and I’m sobered.
Today’s paper has a picture of the woman and while I can’t see her midsection, I can’t help but notice that she doesn’t look like lipo should be on her to do list. That said, I know that just because others don’t see your imperfections doesn’t mean you haven’t catalogued them as if it’s important to know what you’ve got in your inventory: wide nose, large teeth, gap between front teeth, severe myopia, too small breasts, dimpled thighs (with cellulite), thick ankles, etc, etc, etc.
Hindsight is 20/20 and I’m sure had she known this would be the result of her decision to have this elective surgery, she would never have gone through it. Unfortunately we live in a world that prioritizes the quest for physical perfection far above the pursuit of inner beauty, and as the years go by, I do this more and more. Now I’m back to doing the best with what I’ve got, and spending my money on improving the part of me that matters most-my mind and heart.
I've definitely thought a lot about liposuction. I once saw one of those shows where the woman was a little shorter and about ten pounds heavier than me, and she was having her thighs and butt redone.
I have immense saddlebag thighs that I hate with a passion, and I've often considered doing that. My flat chest, my back fat, my big nose: These things I can deal with. The thighs? Kill me.
At the same time, though, I don't know that it would be worth sacrificing that much of any financial security I might have; not to mention the side effects.
Definite food for thought.
All surgery comes with risk. She also was using an unlicensed surgeon. Which, I think, is the bigger risk…
I'm debating the eventual tummy tuck if I ever lose the last 80 lbs or so… But who knows?
dont do it love muffins!
It's just crazy how this is even a consideration, really. Like media bombards society with messages saying that women, should look a particular way. (Sometimes men are targetted too – and you get the steroid look, but for the most part it's women. Like buy a women's magazine and what do you get? … pictures of thin (sometimes fit/healthy) women. Buy a men's magazine, and what do you get? …. lots of pictures of thin women, with one or two steroid guys thrown in for good measure.
Then the cosmetics department ($18 billion/year industry) steps up (stats show that 80% of what they do is nothing), and cashes in on this. grrrr Ah well, if it makes you feel better, I guess….
But you know… if they spend all this money advertising about you know… how to eat right, how every workplace should have a mandatory gym or fitness class, or messages to increase self-confidence (without ridiculous "cosmetic _____ ", or which restaurants have healthy foods/portions, etc. Even how sitting at the computer for 12 hours/day isn't good for your body… or how to decrease the consumption of processed foods, or how backyards should be bigger to allow you to play outside, or…. Then maybe just maybe we'd all be a little healthier; and this wouldn't even be an issue.
(I know there's the genetically prone obese, and skinny people, etc. But really it shouldn't be that (i) every (/i) woman (me included) contemplates liposuction or cosmetic surgery, for even just a day.