April 01, 2005
03 PM
I can't wait until I have my back surgery, and then my tummy tuck. I'm not fat by any means, but after 10 years, time can take it's toll, ya know? The back surgery is necessary, and of course the tummy thing is purely cosmetic.
[backing slowly away from my computer]
Can this be? Can I really know someone who is actually considering really truly having a 'tummy tuck'? And, on top of that, admitting they are having a tummy tuck (as opposed to having one quietly and then saying you've been working out)? I don't even know what a tummy tuck is. Hang on....let me consult www.plasticsurgery.org (I have it in my bookmarks, of course)...
Abdominoplasty, known more commonly as a "tummy tuck," is a major surgical procedure to remove excess skin and fat from the middle and lower abdomen and to tighten the muscles of the abdominal wall. The procedure can dramatically reduce the appearance of a protruding abdomen. But bear in mind, it does produce a permanent scar, which, depending on the extent of the original problem and the surgery required to correct it, can extend from hip to hip.
Let me just read that again: IT DOES PRODUCE A PERMANENT FUCKING SCAR!!! Reading down through the description:
It may take you weeks or months to feel like your old self again [...] Exercise will help you heal better. Even people who have never exercised before should begin an exercise program to reduce swelling, lower the chance of blood clots [!], and tone muscles.
Yeees, exercise will help you heal better. OR, alternatively, exercise will reduce the need for a tummy tuck at all, surely? I don't know. Maybe I'm being harsh (am I being harsh?) Maybe there's some kinds of tummy fatness that exercise just can't help.
I just...people are free to do what they like with their bodies, y'know, go crazy, but I hate the idea that on the one side you've got an entire cos(mopolitan)-industry devoted to making people feel shitty about themselves, and on the other side you've got this cos(metic) surgery industry saying: "We can fix you! Just give us your money and we'll chop you up and if you avoid the blood clots you'll be left with a scar." Great, where do I sign up?
There's been a recent, or at least it seems quite recent to me, there's been a recent sort of acceptance, or popularization, of the idea of cosmetic surgery. When I was a kid it was like smoking is now- a few people did it, but pretty much everyone knew it was a bad idea, and not something you'd readily, or proudly, admit to. But now, you can't turn on your TV without seeing Xtreme Makeova, or Ten Years Younger, in which a poor bloke had his NOSE cut up to make him look ten years younger. Because your nose really shows the signs of aging. (note: he didn't look ten years younger at the end, because you can't really tell how old guys are, anyway)
Sigh. Maybe I'm being paranoid ("Paranoids are just people with all the facts.", as Spider Jerusalem noted), but I get the sneaky suspicion that the latter cos-industry said to the former: "Nobody likes us. They think cosmetic surgery is indicative of incredibly low self-esteem and no-one in their right mind should hate themselves so much as to go under the knife. Can you maybe, I don't know, run some articles and do some shows, showing how normal and cool cosmetic surgery is, so we can get some clients? Oh, and find better looking models so people feel even worse about themselves. Thanks!"
and now the beasts are feeding off each other.
Sigh, I need a drink. Have a good weekend, folks.
d
You need to watch Nip Tuck
Posted by: Adrian at April 1, 2005 04:02 PMNo you REALLY need to watch 'The Swan'. Nip Tuck is fictional. The Swan is real, but it seems like it couldn't possibly be.
Posted by: Matthew at April 1, 2005 08:17 PMYou know, I've been to The Swan in Brixton, and thought very much the same thing.
I have seem Nip/Tuck, and while the writers do make the occasional cursory nod towards the downsides of cosmetic surgery (Sean's guilt towards taking any client, his insistence of psychologically assessing them before they go under the knife), I actually believe it to be part of the general push/trend towards the normalization of beauty obsession (although then you get into the issue of should art imitate life or vice versa, which the best minds can discuss for many hours without a great deal of conclusion). The show is even shot in the same glossy, super-saturated colours that Cosmo uses for its models.
Television is like morphine- it's a drug taken in order to go mentally numb, and most people are hopelessly addicted.
d
Posted by: Destructor at April 4, 2005 09:48 AMSo you wont be needed my TV to watch Enterprise then?
Posted by: Adrian at April 4, 2005 10:05 AMStar Trek isn't just TV.
Posted by: Destructor at April 4, 2005 11:20 AMAnd Enterprise just isn't STAR TREK.
Posted by: Matthew at April 4, 2005 01:24 PMI was going to say that you can have Star Trek surgically removed from your brain but that'd be an oxymoron.
A really really bad oxymoron which probably isn't even an oxymoron and probably requires me to clarify that I'm meaning to suggest that anyone who watches Star Trek can't have a part of their brain removed because, by virtue of the fact they watch Star Trek, the don't have a brain in the first place, but then if I had to explain it it wouldn't be funny. To me, that is. I realise this has long since stopped to be funny to anyone else and is probably just annoying now. So I'll stop.
Honest.
And yeah, you know, exercise is hard work. Surgery is dead easy. YOU do maths (ohh but you don't have a brain.. I forgot...)
Posted by: Gordon at April 4, 2005 01:29 PMWas that post a loving tribute to classic episode Spock's Brain, in which Spock has his brain removed?
Posted by: Destructor at April 4, 2005 01:44 PMAnd the point I was trying to make wasn't that cosmetic surgery as a concept doesn't make sense to me- it does! I'd love to be rid of my belly, that'd be neat. And I probably pay enough in gym fees that I could elect to pay for surgery as an alternative, if I chose.
But I wouldn't scar myself and risk death via blood clot (also: going under anaesthetic is, in and of itself, incredibly traumatic and to be avoided) simply in order to achieve some body ideal that society is thrusting apon me.
The friend who wrote the e-mail that prompted this post is a beautiful young woman who probably could do with a more active lifestyle or altered diet, but does not need to pay someone to cut her up.
Posted by: Destructor at April 4, 2005 02:16 PMAm I the only person who misread ‘beasts’ as ‘breasts’? I mean, breasts feeding off each other. That’s just taking body modification to a whole new disturbing extreme. Isn’t it? Oh god, now I can’t stop thinking about them . . . I mean about it . . .
So putting sentient cleavage aside for a minute, the whole body fascism industry is at its extremes just plain evil. While I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically wrong with wanting to alter your body by whatever means available to you, having your body hacked-up because you fear not conforming to some unobtainable ideal is quite frankly, fucked-up.
As for Star Trek. There’s nothing wrong with Star Trek. Or the brain functions of normal Trekkies (now there’s an unequivocal oxymoron for you). Enterprise, however, is an entirely different kettle of fish. And fairly rancid fish at best.
Posted by: adhoc at April 4, 2005 05:03 PMYou are the only person who misread beasts as breasts. This may indicate an unhealthy obsession with them. Do you find yourself seeing them almost everywhere?
Well, the body ideal has existed in culture for as long as culture has existed. People exercise and force their feet into uncomfortable shoes to appear more attractive, is it really so odd or different that they'd want to go under the cut to do so? Not really. I mean, I get the motivator, I just didn't think I'd meet someone who really thought it necessary.
Is the ultimate goal of being more attractive to find a partner who's more attractive? To 'switch leagues', as it were. If so, it will probably be ultimately self-defeating.
Although, I DO have this wierd cyst under my ear that I'm thinking of getting removed, that's purely cosmetic.
As for Star Trek and the relative merits of Enterprise, that's a whole `nother post (a whole `nother BBS, in fact).
Posted by: Destructor at April 4, 2005 05:14 PMThere are also many aspects of comsmetic surgery that are postive, above and beyond pure vanity.
Posted by: Adrian at April 5, 2005 10:56 AMI remember a post on the sdc about breasts entitled 'bouncy bouncy' in which cosmetic surgery (esp. boob jobs), body image, etc. were discussed in intimate detail (I believe that post still holds the record on the sdc for most comments). Has everyone read it? The post, and the comments, vary between interesting and hilarious at times.
As for Trekkers' brains, err...hmmm. Star Trek. Ok. "Spocks' Brain" is regarded some (and me) as being the worst episode of TOS. And "Sub Rosa" is defo the worst ep of TNG. My fave TOS episode is "The Menagerie (parts I and II!)" and fave TNG episode has to be "Best of Both Worlds (parts I and II). Any other Trekkers/Trakkies/geeks/nerds have any opinions (which are as off-topic as this)?
Posted by: Matthew at April 5, 2005 12:21 PMI think there are certain surgical cases or examples of gross deformation that cosmetic surgery can definitely help correct. I don't see a bit of a tum as one of these.
Spock's Brain is so bad, it's actually good.
Posted by: Destructor at April 5, 2005 01:14 PM