For this particular post I decided to do something a little bit different. With all the publicity Heidi Montag a.k.a. "Cat Lady #2" has been getting in the last week over her drastic change in looks as a result of ten (or more) plastic surgeries in one day. I wanted to talk about how women have become so focused on looking like this idealistic 'perfect woman' rather than themselves. Apparently, Heidi went under the knife to change her looks because she so desperately wants to become a pop-star and this is what she believes it takes. Although Hollywood is very focused on looks and is basically the whole reason women all over the world believe they are not beautiful enough, for Heidi to say that she needed DDD sized breasts and a totally new face is just ridiculous! If she actually had talent she would have made it in the music industry along time ago! I mean look at Susan Boyle, or even Lady Gaga (Gaga prides herself in not being a stereotypical beauty). What are Heidi's children going to think when they realize their Mommy has changed every one of her body parts that they have? My guess is that they will feel like ugly monsters and go under the knife as soon as their old enough, resulting in yet another generation of girls suffering from low self-esteem and everything that goes along with it such as eating disorders.Maybe I'm crazy but I want my children to have the same genes as me...flaws and all! So on my quest for juicy before-and-after plastic surgery pictures/jammers I came across this great website
www.about-face.org
"about-face" mission is to "Equip women and girls with tools to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect self-esteem and body image". This site is made by women for women and has become a huge success in empowering women for who we are and what we stand for rather than what society thinks we are. On a side note...Pleazzzzz forgive them for having Dove as one of their main sponsors, sisters need to eat y'all! LOL.
Please check out this inspiring and painfully truthful video; http://about-face.org/blog/archives/2058
Citing: About-Face. (1998) Retrieved January 24th 2010. From www.about-face.org, IBBB.(2008) Pre Fame, Post Fame. Retrieved January 24th 2010. from www.blogspot.com
*SILVER
What a great video and interesting topic! The desire to look "normal" has always baffled me. The fact that women who are beautiful (pre-fame) feel the need to improve themselves into what has now become a mass produced image (post fame) is disgusting....i think she looks much better in the first picture personally. If the post fame picture is an example of the ideal way for a woman to look what does that say about other cultures and races? Do little girls grow up hoping to look this way?......scary are we potentially facing a Barbie nation....where every woman looks the same, no matter what her race or cultural background....? I love the video linked to this blog.....it makes a valid point in saying it starts with us!
ReplyDeleteMiss Frizz
I think it's interesting that women feel the need to "become" something once they are in the spotlight; when who they are before surgery made them the 'famous' person they are today. It says a lot about the pressure that the public eye places on those whom many of us idolize. As if a new nose is going to make me think any more (or less) of you. I would like to say that these celebs need to give us 'regualar folk' a bit more credit...but I guess it is true that they exist within a culture that we allow....and so the vicious cycle continues...
ReplyDelete***Looie***
This crazy plastic surgery "fad" is completely disturbing. Who is telling Heidi Montag that she did not look normal prior to her surgeries? I thought she looked perfect, she did not need any work at all!!!! Seeing people trying to achieve "perfection" is just stupid. After all of this work they will never be perfect, why? They were created and born perfectly already. I am a firm believer that God created everyone perfectly...maybe not in everyone else's eyes, but surely you are PERFECT!
ReplyDeleteI have a friend that does not want to give birth to a child, because she does not want to gain a whole 10-15 pounds. Is this reality? I think this is just crazzzzzzzy! I think motherhood is just beautiful, that is not the argument here, but this is just disturbing. The images that teens and pre-teens are seeing today on television and else where are just disturbing. I see sixteen year olds having their noses done, because their profile (side-view) is not perfectly porportioned. I do not believe that plastic surgery should be used as self-esteem. I think that is exactly what is happening--so sad!
Aaliyah Jasmine
Susan Bordo wrote a very important article on plastic surgery and normalization. In a post-modern world, where people are taught to see ourselves as cyborgian and fragmented, 'fixing' particular parts of ourselves becomes completely 'normal'. As Bordo argues, because of cultural norms to do with race, class, gender, etc. which become internalized, that means that self-restructuring can be read as the desire on the part of the individual to 'move towards' one's true self. To 'reveal' one's 'inner' beauty [and we could all define what the latter word means in terms of cultural norms] is also to be meritocratically 'proactive' about oneself.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of pressures on women, and increasingly men - although the numbers are nowhere close to gender parity, to undergo surgery. Let's be careful not to blame the victim, here, and to think about thinks like audience expectation (which Looie raises), or how dominant discourses become internalized. Lady Gaga [who conforms to normative beauty at the same time she disrupts it] and Susan Boyle are the exceptions, not the rule, and one of the reasons that Susan Boyle first gained so much fame was not because she could sing incredibly well - lots of others on Britain's Got Talent did - it was her 'Ugly Duckling' story.
There's something bigger going on, and it has to do with dominant discourses, internalization, post-modern identity, patriarchy, etc. etc.
The Doctor
In response to The Doctors comment, I have to say that our culture seems to be obsessed with the ugly duckling turning into the swan. Reality TV is the greatest perpetuater of this story. Shows like What Not to Wear, Biggest Loser etc., sell this story to us with every episode....don't be yourself, be something better....be streamline....We are continuously trying to transform ourselves to this unattainable person, form, ideal.......
ReplyDeleteMiss Frizz
We look towards the media as the cause of so many of our insecuritie...and worse. It's difficult, with the media or without, to imagine a world that doesn't hold one ideal over all others. Maybe I'm feeling defeatist or can't provide myself with an adequate answer, but won't there always be unattainable ideals because none of us look completely the same?
ReplyDeleteAs an insight into plastic surgery, I can say from experience that it is very damaging if your mom decides to get something surgically changed for purely aesthetic reasons. For two reasons: the first, because she is your mom and for the most part she is usually one of your female role models and second because she's your MOM! You share similar attributes..it certainly can incite you to critically examine your own body...more so than you probably already do.
Gesundheit.
I love this topic! I was watching the t.v show the Doctors the other day, and I was shocked by the fact that they have a cosmetic doctor as one of the hosts. I mean, I'm all for being a healthier person, but seriously, why am I watching a show featuring a doctor who is an advocate for unnecessary and purely cosmetic plastic surgery? On the other hand, I am in LOVE with the show "How to look good naked" which teaches women how to love their bodies, helps them deal with uncomfortable situations and in the end helps them boost their self esteem. Check it out if you can, I really enjoy it.
ReplyDelete-- Keekers