When we look at ourselves, we see a human shell that we had zero influence on prior to creation. Since we had no design input, we do our best with what we have. We can dress a certain way, wear certain colours, styles, and textures. We can also exercise, or control our diet to affect our looks a little bit further, but for many people this is still not enough.
At the point when you feel you cannot do any more with your garments and makeup, Plastic Surgery is the next step. Personally, I have no problem with the idea of aesthetic surgery, what I do have a problem with is the sheer unapologetic butchery and eventual deformity that these so-called Plastic Surgeons have unleashed on the world.
These days, thanks to Celebrity endorsements and mass-marketing, Plastic Surgery has become as commonplace as Dentistry. The strange thing is that almost every case of Plastic Surgery is noticeable. From Botox injections to Breast Implants, it is usually the first thing someone will notice about someone else, not because we have some sort of sixth-sense bullshit detector; but because almost every case of Plastic Surgery, botched or successful, is obviously fake. This is due, for the most part, to the Medical Professionals who undertake these physical transformations. Medicine is a science and not an art, and because of this we see mass cases of misshapen, asymmetrical appendages with obvious creases, bumps, lumps and scars. If a Painter & Decorator kept on painting over light switches, or created bubbles behind wallpaper; word would soon spread and they would be out of a job. But for some reason, if a Plastic Surgeon completely ruins the façade of someone’s face; they keep on working, and their inept corrections keep on spreading. Just take a walk in any Western Metropolis (especially in the summer), and you will witness some of the worst man-made creations ever to be seen stuck to, or hanging off a body. This just goes to prove how many Surgeons are totally unqualified for the position they hold.
Even though we all assume Medicine has come a long way, from Nurses, GP’s, Registrars, Surgeons, to Professors; the basic principle of “poison it” or “cut it out” are the two main solutions to every disease and ailment. When we are ill, we are fine with these options, but when it comes to corrective surgery, people should be offered more than a just a caring soul with a knowledge of Biology and Chemistry. Plastic Surgeons usually possess neither. More often than not, they are sharp-suit wearing, money-hungry forgetters of the Hippocratic Oath. After all, giving someone a glute implant does not really require a Medical Degree, and aside from the few who chose to fix deformities, scars or wounds, the rest are happy earning masses of money from customers suffering from vanity or self-loathing.
Aside from Psychology, Plastic Surgery is the branch of medicine that attracts the very basest of all who qualify. Plastic Surgery hides behind the promise of beautification; they offer everything and then deliver almost nothing.
A self-satisfied toff from Plastics is the last person who should be wielding a scalpel. If tissue is to be sliced, diced, and relocated, surely the talents of an Artist, Sculptor, or Tailor is needed rather than those of a scientific underachiever? Maybe it’s time for Plastic Surgeons to become proficient at a few artistic or design based disciplines, before they are unleashed on an unwitting public.
Otherwise, these hacks will continue earning millions and even billions for doing just that… hacking.
WHAT WENT WRONG WITH...? 
Great article mate, whatever happened to just being happy with the way you look? Plastic surgery is endorsed and marketed so much it makes people so unhappy with themselves, and they desperately seek “perfection” which does not exist at all.
I’ve heard many girls say they want it to make men look at them and be more attractive, but if the men aren’t paying you attention what does it matter? I think the show “The Hills” with Heidi Montag who went plastic surgery crazy is a good example how it can totally destroy your body. Before she had plastic surgery, there was nothing wrong with her, she looked good before.
What’s really strange is that celebrities keep using Plastic Surgery even though 9 times out of 10 it makes them look worse. If Nike kept on making sneakers with bad stitching, people would stop buying them, but nobody stops using surgery even though it clearly destroys people’s looks.
Totally and the funniest thing of it all is, you can make your body look 10 times better by eating healthy and exercising, but in general your body is going to age, that’s just life in general.
Have you ever seen Jack Lelanne? All the way up to his death, his body was in great shape and his face looked wonderful, without plastic surgery. He used something called face exercises, which were muscle work outs for the face, and it kept his face looking 20 years younger even though he was 94 or 95 years old when he passed away.
Also I think people who decide to change themselves physically have deep rooted self esteem issues that surgery doesn’t resolve. It’s like putting a band aid on a bullet. And standardized looks- it’s akin to the manufacturing plant of society.
Attraction in my opinion is pretty a individual experience and there are so many factors that go in. If I am attracted to a person it’s always atypical, I can’t seem to find correlations between why I am attracted to them and other versions of them since I don’t believe that exists. You’re attracted to that persons idiosyncrasies, uniqueness, the persons inability of being replaced. If you’re attracted to a standard image of what someone should look like you are attracted to just that, an image, a simulated version of an individual.
It’s quite depressing. We live in a time where love is impossible under the Empire of imagery. We “love” what someone consumes, whether it be media or goods, we desire desire, which in a way always destroys the object it desires once that desire has been fulfilled. I truly believe capitalism is a war against love more than anything, against basic human bonding. The world of manufactured needs and manufactured desires. Desire is blown up our ass so often and at such a rate that we no longer have a palate for what’s ripe fruit and what’s rotten.
Interested to know what you think went wrong with psychiatry. I personally think psychiatrists are mind butchers in a sense. Great blog and great writing- interested to hear your opinion on a broader spectrum of matters.
I agree with you, the whole idea of Capitalism is that it has to control everything in our lives in order to function. So from birth through to the education system, through to work, the Hospitals, the Prisons, all the way to the Government is either blatantly or subtly a for-profit organisation. Everything that surrounds us is “advertised” in the same way any item on the shelf is; “wants” and “needs” are sold to the people so that they disconnect with the individual and respect the State and its “products”. This leaves the people with not only a distorted self-image, but with all the other contemporary distortions: look “pretty”, be “clever”, be “popular”, be “cool”, be “successful” etc. These are all ideals which we now perceive can only be attained by spending money, and yet if we buy into anything from an item of food all the way to a lifestyle, we only add to the never-ending cycle of Capitalism and fuel an atmosphere of False Needs.
On your other point, I think every Industry is corrupt at some level, so someone could mention something which is perceived to be doing “good” such as Charities or Medicine; but in reality even they are not exempt from corruption and wrong-doing. Psychiatry, especially when in league with the Government is one of the most abhorrent branches of Medicine. For years Psychiatry has only come up with one solution; to “dope-up” anybody whose illness we don’t understand or don’t want to deal with. At the very extreme, they have admittedly tested horrid drugs or “therapy” on unwitting subjects from minorities, soldiers, to orphan children, then after years of abuse they publicly admit to their historical “wrong-doing” and disclose some of the most horrible experiments at a point when there is nobody left accountable. Even a mainstream show such as Discovery’s “Dark Matters” showed that almost every Scientific or Medical profession has served at some point or another as a clandestine “tester” for the Government or Military.
This is a really sad documentary about plastic surgery in South Korea.
It just reaffirms my belief that it’s pointless to have your face or body features carved for perfection… Our bodies are already meant to be perfect since birth…