We live in a time where media influences the decisions of most people around the globe, people are becoming famous for having over 50,000 followers on social media and those who are already famous are growing their fan base through
Instagram,
Twitter and other social networking sites.
Social media is a great invention, people from other sides of the world can communicate and keep track of each others lives, but it also has its bad points, as I have explained in other blog posts. Sites like Instagram are full of 'selfies' and perfect, photo shopped images. These pictures are making men and women all over the world find flaws in their own looks, including myself. Children as young as eleven are growing up unhappy because they don't look like the next Kim Kardashian. Like social media isn't crazy enough, Kim K herself has brought out a book full of her selfies that she has taken over the years. I am eighteen years old, and in the past three/four years of my life I have wanted a nose job, a boob job, jaw fillers and fillers for my cheeks and lips, this has all come about in the recent years since I started using social media, using magazines and watching the world famous 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians'
With all these people growing up unsatisfied with their natural beauty, plastic surgery is becoming more of a common option for young men and women. In 2013 in the UK 50,122 cosmetic surgeries took place, a 17% rise from the previous year. People are having their plastic surgeries in other countries to avoid the huge costs but putting themselves at risk, often coming home with bad, infected and life threatening results.
Yesterday, for the first time I watched a television show called 'botched', A show where two doctors try and help people with "botched" plastic surgery or try to help those who have become addicted to it. On the show there was two women with two very different, situations;
One was a lady who when she was younger was accidentally struck in the nose by her mothers elbow, as a result she broke her nose (which they didn't realise at the time) this caused an overgrowth of scar tissue which causes breathing difficulties. When she was twenty one she had surgery on her nose to correct the breathing issue and the tissue overgrowth, but unfortunately the doctor did a bad job and left her with a nose that was caving in, enlarging her nostrils and giving her pain. The doctors had to take bone from her ribs, and cartilage from her ears to rebuild her nose, this nose job transformed her life, made her happier with her looks and she would be no longer in pain, and no longer have the breathing difficulties.
However, the second case was a lady who was addicted to surgery, she had over ten boob jobs in her life.She also had nose surgeries,lip fillers, her eyes enlarged and many other procedures. She had been through a sex change but went too far and couldn't stop changing her body. Her ideal look being that of a sex doll. This lady wanted a further boob job to correct the issue with her current breasts which had formed after her tenth surgery, called a 'double bubble' where you could see her first boob job on top of her second. She wanted her lips doing again that another doctor had previously refused as she wouldn't be able to close her mouth properly and wanted her nose making smaller, again. The doctors refused to give her another boob job as he said the skin was so thin that if he did another her skin may burst causing a serious and possibly fatal incident. He offered this lady an appointment for therapy as he felt she had a serious mental problem and a constant need to change her body. He was also worried that another doctor would give her what she wanted for the money and not putting her health first.
The first case was a correction reason, to help the patient with her breathing and give her a more positive life, the second was because the patient had a mental issue and longed for the plastic, sex doll look. She had also idolized barbie and unfortunately her obsession went dangerously far.
In some cases plastic surgery is a good thing, for people born with health issues and helps improve their quality of life. Angelina Jolie, the famous actress and icon being an example. She had a double mastectomy in 2013 due to carrying a cancer gene, she wanted to minimize the risks as much as she could. She then had breast implants after her mastectomy back to her breast size. In my opinion this form of plastic surgery is completely justifiable, including people who have surgery due to back pain because of large breasts, nose surgery because of bad breathing and other medical reasons.
It is important that we bring up the next generations into a world where their natural beauty is accepted and not told to hide it away, I would hate for my little sister to grow up and criticize every bit of herself. Our eyes, nose, lips are features that make us who we are, they make us different. If we all had our nose done like our favorite celebrity, and our lips the same as Kylie Jenner, wouldn't we all look the same? What is a world with no variety? A bleak one.
It is important to embrace your natural beauty, not to change it.
Just remember, you're beautiful,
Love Chloe xx
