Plastic Surgery

I recently watched a documentary about models on HBO, and it had me thinking about plastic surgery (which was discussed a lot in the doc). Some of the models felt that plastic surgery was okay if you were doing it for you, and if it made you feel better about yourself and enjoy life more. However, one of the models said that she sometimes feels like "Oh look! A new surgery to fix [whatever]! Maybe I should check that out" but then she thinks to herself "Is this just a fad? Is this really something that I want to do, or do I think it sounds interesting because I have grown up in a society that is all about looks?"

I have to agree with this model that it is hard sometimes to really look and evaluate why you want to do something? Is it just a new fad that will die out soon, or do you want to fix a problem that you feel is weighing you down and making you unhappy? It is also hard at times to understand what is the male gaze pressuring us to do and what is it not? This same model said that she sometimes thinks of new procedures in a questionable way, like "Is this the new foot-binding? Why is this procedure so popular? Is it something else that society is pressuring women to do that they don't really need to do?"

I think that if you have some sort of issue with something about your body, and it is making you depressed/anxious/unhappy, then by all means get it fixed if you want. But I also feel that we should look at these procedures that we are getting done to ourselves and REALLY think about why we are getting them done. Is it for us? Is it because we want to look like [insert celebrity name here]? Is it because society tells us that we need to look a certain way, and so we feel inadequate if we do not?

If we take the time to really think about what we are doing, then we might actually stop (if we are doing something for society) and begin to look at ourselves in a more accepting light.