Continuing with the idea of plastic surgery from before...Anthony brought up a good point in his comment about the TV show dedicated to the idea: The Swan. And here are some photos from the show of people undergoing their treatments. I looked for before and after shots, but couldn't seem to find any on line. If you can find some, please leave everyone else the link.
The reason I put this topic up again but in this format is because this isn't just plastic surgery. This is plastic surgery on reality TV - where women try out to have a COMPLETE makeover that they cannot even see. That's right - when you're on The Swan, you don't see your own reflection (let alone your spouse or children or friends or anyone else at all from your past, ugly life) for three whole months. Meanwhile, doctors and other specialists poke and prod you and pull out fat and stuff in saline baggies. AND, you have the added benefit of millions of at-home viewers watching your transformation and talking about you over the water cooler the next day at work. It's not just plastic surgery, it's celebrity-fication: making yourself a star. On the show, women get to live out the dream so many other women have..."If only my nose looked like hers..." "I wish my thighs were smaller..." on a common television station with a big name.
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11 comments:
I tried to post on the other one and it won't let me. This is a response to one Susan posted on the other one.
Susan, your husband is correct. Look at http://www.nebrwesleyan.edu/depts/education/mcdonald/itq/jvanwinkle/TMPgzpuk1tryf.htm
The original was pieces only and you had to use a potato!
Pam
I was unaware of this television series The Swan, although my brief look on the internet reveals it's been around since 2004. I am obviously quite out of the loop.
The site and all its links, however, are nothing more than advertisements for plastic surgery. I found it difficult to find much about the TV series, but very easy to find more than I ever wanted to know about how to find a physician, what types of surgery are available, before and after photos (not from the series but of the various procedures that are available) and so forth.
There is an old Twilight Zone (or perhaps it is the Outer Limits) where there is a woman in the hospital for surgery to make her beautiful, and you do not see her, but you overhear everyone talking about how ugly she is and how the doctors are going to do everything they can for her. Of course the twist at the end is that she is revealed to us and is what we would consider drop-dead gorgeous. But in this sci fi world everyone was ugly--and that was considered the norm. Hence this gorgeous woman was considered different and ugly.
What is considered "beautiful" in terms of one's facial characteristics surely has to do with one's culture and ethnicity as well. Having never seen the Swan I can't say if they take that into account.
Heck, 50 years ago a gorgeous Hollywood bombshell was someone who by today's standards would be overweight and probably have breast reduction surgery.
Pam
From Susan Tyner
Thank you, Pam, for the link! Mr. Tyner is vindicated. I would have given more weight to his claim if he hadn't gone on to elaborate about how his mother had to wait for him to finish playing Mr. Potato Head before she could start cooking supper, which is pure invention on his part, although amusing!
As for "The Swan", I have never seen it. The enforced seclusion and isolation from family sounds pathological to me, however doing so increases the dramatic effect for the audience/voyeurs. The plastic surgery aspect doesn't bother me, really. I don't care if someone wants to have their face redesigned, etc., but I don't wish to see it on television. People must be watching it, tho, if this show is on the air.
Tony, stop encouraging them!
When the Swan was on last year I noticed some of the ladies at my gym would watch it while they were on the treadmill. I think humans have always had a certain ideal of what beauty is. I think plastic surgery is just a drastic way of acheiving that ideal.
I can't remember where I saw the article, but I read somewhere a while back that plastic surgery is starting to become a rite of passage in places like Brazil.
"Plastic surgery is becoming a rite of passage" in some countries!? Who even came up with the "Ideal" woman body? I think Michelangelo's David in the early 1500s was regarded as the symbol of stregth and youthful beauty of a man but maybe that ideal body image some how jumped from man to woman.
Its really kind of funny and sad at the same time. You got to admit it is pretty entertaining to watch someone transfer from one of the ugliest people you have ever seen into someone that society calls beautiful and all of the pain and suffering they had to go through to get that way.
I really don't understand the concept of plastic surgery and liposuction. Having to go through something so painful and treacherous just to impress the people around you. It makes me wonder if they really are happy with the outcome after doing it or if society makes them think that way. How can it possibly make you feel like a real person knowing that you have had something implanted inside of you, cut, or sucked out of you?
Personally, if it was done to me, I would be afraid to make any sort of quick movements, because it would probably be pretty easy to rupture or tear anything that had just been done to my body.
How do people live like that?!
Keri Jerome
(that was my last comment)
I think if you have the money for plastic surgery go for it. But if you start to look more like Michele Jackson and the Lady that wanted to look like Barbie thats a little too much. I also notice a lot of women at the gym on tredmills watching that Swan movie. I watched the Next Biggest Looser...lol
I think this hole thing is just a little sad or maybe ironic. I mean they spend all this effort, time,a nd money to make these women beautiful and give them self esteem right? Then why do they hold a pageant at the end so they can feel shitty about themselves when they lose the pageant. I think the entire things is kind of pointless because only you can make yourself feel beautiful. I think they should focus more on loving themselves for who they are rather then trying to change themselves. This entire show just sets a bad example for younger peoples eyes, There pretty much saying you are a nobody unless you are beautiful.
natasha stevens. forgot to put my name.
You know, Natasha, I agree.
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Angela
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