Eye of the Beholder: Society Under the Knife and Needle
What's behind the American obsession with aesthetics?
Dec. 4, 2007 — -- Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?
From fairytales to prepubescent beauty pageants, we are a society obsessed with looks and today's youth are becoming more and more fixated on celebrity and life in the fab lane.
As tabloids are continually scoring actresses on "who wore it best," their covers are constantly heralding the newest celeb diets. At the same time, television has lowered its standards to make the plastic surgery phenomenon prime-time programming's biggest new star, with reality shows like "Dr. 90210" and "Extreme Makeover." Even the scripted drama "Nip/Tuck" is sweeping into the American subconscious via TV.
So where are we going from here? How do we ever content ourselves with just being Plain Jane? Will any of us ever be happy with our God-given looks? Or must we all have Jennifer Garner's nose, Angelina Jolie's or Scarlett Johansson's lips, Halle Berry's or Beyonce's bootylicious bodies? (By the way, these were the lades with the most requested and sought after body parts according to a recent poll of plastic surgeons.) Will we never be happy again with dear old Dad's nose or Nana's eyes? Isn't it part of our uniqueness, our own personal style, isn't beauty just part of the genetic rolling of the dice? If we all want to look the same, what becomes special for us?
Why do we hold celebs in such high esteem when obviously their self-esteem is waning? Why else would so many of them constantly choose to put themselves in such dangerous situations?
Whether it be drugs, the law, or under a surgeon's knife, they obviously cannot believe their own hype about who really is the fairest of them all. Why would someone who is as super successful and publicly recognizable as Ashley Simpson choose to so blatantly alter her looks at such a young age?
Several years ago the sultry songstress Toni Braxton had to redo her boob job after it imploded on a plane. In 2001, poor Meg Ryan looked as if she had transplanted her private parts onto her face with her overplumped collagen lips.
