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Driver's Seat
A shrinking sisterhood
By BOB DRIVER, columnist
Article published on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006 |
As the cult of youth worship expands, a distinctive sorority grows smaller. Its members are women who have never resorted to cosmetic surgery. An even smaller segment of womanhood consists of those who have vowed never to do so.
No one knows how many persons (much of what I say here applies to men as well as women) walking the globe today have undergone one or more of the varied surgical methods available for prettifying the surfaces of the human body. However, statistics indicate that in the USA, the past decade has brought a 500 percent increase in the number of cosmetic procedures performed each year.
With it has come an informal but popular sport. It’s a guessing game. Anyone can play. All you do is look at people’s faces and figures. Then you place a bet on who has (or has not) indulged in a nip, tuck, slice, peel, liposuction, lift, abrasion or injection aimed at making the recipient look younger and/or more desirable.
Often, it’s not hard to tell. A successful procedure can give an obviously-60 person (if in doubt, check the person’s hands) the face of a 40 year old. It’s especially rewarding if the post-op patient can still smile, frown or blink without causing her ears to wiggle. In a sad number of cases, however, the patient becomes Cher-ilized. She winds up with scary, stary, immobilized features reminiscent of a department store mannequin.
The bad news (for the patient) and good news (for the surgeon’s bank account) is that no matter how successful the operation, odds are strong it will have to be repeated a year or two later, or less.
A new book, “Beauty Junkies: Our $15 Billion Obsession with Cosmetic Surgery” gives a detailed rundown on our anti-wrinkle, anti-bulge industry. Its author, N.Y. Times writer Alex Kuczynski, has herself undergone numerous cosmetic surgery interludes. I found her book fascinating. I learned that the need to be perfect, the desire never to grow old, and self-mutilation in the name of happiness (all of these phrases are from the book) are by no means confined to the USA.
In China, for instance, throngs of women enter the annual Miss Plastic Surgery competition. Is there a morality to what we’re talking about here? What does the Bible or Koran say to a person considering a face lift or a tummy-tuck? Would $50,000 paid to a cosmetic surgeon be better spent in the office of a psychiatrist?
Is it possible to predict the point at which a woman will decide that lipstick, paint and powder are not good enough, and that a needle or a knife must be resorted to? What are the qualities that make a “refusenik” (a person unalterably unwilling to undergo cosmetic surgery) different from those persons who seek it as the balm of Gilead or the holy grail?
Or, in the scope of what’s really important in life, does the topic of cosmetic surgery simply shrink to the inconsequentiality of a vanquished laugh line?
In years to come, we can expect to hear much more about our epidermal aristocracy – persons (mostly women) past 50 who have never submitted to any form of cosmetic surgery. How we will regard and treat this sisterhood is uncertain. Perhaps we’ll idolize them. Or view them as pitiful throwbacks.
One difficulty will be to clearly identify them. As surgical techniques and outcomes improve, how can we be sure whether a trim, youthful-appearing woman is a genuine refusenik or just someone who goes to a top-notch nip-and-tucker?
Send Bob Driver an e-mail at tralee71@comcast.net.
Correction: In the sentence that begins "In China, for instance...." the rest of the sentence had been left out it should have read, "In China, for instance, throngs of women enter the annual Miss Plastic Surgery competition."
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Article published on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006
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