“I see women in their 30s getting plastic surgery, pulling this up and tucking that back. Its like a slippery-slope, once you start you pull one thing one way and then you think ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to do the other side’.” – Halle Berry
The idea of being botched:
It is difficult to pinpoint a single reason why cosmetic surgeries are on the rise. Mimicking the barbie like figure comes with a handful of money. The dissatisfaction with one’s body image because women are expected to be naturally thin and appear effortlessly young is absurd yet the idea prevails. A good number of celebrities who women are trying to emulate have also incorporated cosmetic surgeries in an unperceivable and subtle way. Venessa Williams was quoted in an article,” I use it very sparingly….. I want to look natural.”
The increasing visibility of cosmetic surgeries is having a dramatic impact on one particular section of society- the young. The influence of social media is enormous and cannot be overstated. High profile social media personalities share their lives with people following them and showcase the surgeries they have undergone and normalizing it but the distressing part of all this is how young minds are plagued by the derogatorily fangled beauty.
The data has been collected to show the percentage rise in the two consecutive years, 2018 vs 2019. The data below shows how silicone implants were used in 85%, and saline implants in 15%, of all breast augmentation procedures in 2019.
Overall cosmetic procedures that were surgically done in 2018 were 1.8 million. The rise since then has been notable.
The sabotaged beauty and the evaluated transformation of one’s body is sedative to the young minds. “It’s unfortunate that we live in such a panicked, dysmorphic society where women don’t even give themselves a chance to see what they’ll look like as older persons,” Julia Roberts said during an interview with ELLE. “I want to have some idea of what I’ll look like before I start cleaning the slates. I want my kids to know when I’m pissed, when I’m happy, and when I’m confounded. Your face tells a story … and it shouldn’t be a story about your drive to the doctor’s office.” It is believed than women lose themselves in the rush to find the desire to be desired, the strangeness later becomes estranged and further divided into parts to lead the ideal figures. Cosmetic surgeries are subjecting women to leave the bodies of a woman made women into man-made women. It’s often a pool of genders emphasizing each other to enter the world of mythical beauty. Our society is much pleased with the outer beauty while being blind over the anguished health, both mental and physical. The actions lie in the gap between desire and gratification, both are lucrative yet in a confined way.
What may seem a nip and tuck to appear younger and beautiful may just be two selective words for harm and peril. Its certainly not a wave of perfection to be normalized. The gravity of risks it carries along must be fully grasped. The altered body may create room for new problems like,
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Hematoma or a large painful bruise occurred after breast augmentation.
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Seroma or sterile body serum beneath the surface of the skin. It is the most common complication that occurs after a tummy tuck.
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An uncontrolled blood loss can be fatal while undergoing any surgery.
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Infection is one of the most common complications of plastic surgery and may cause Cellulitis.
The race to achieve body positivity
“Since I don’t look like every other girl, it takes a while to be okay with that. To be different. But different is good.” – Serena Williams
Self-denial can lock women behind bars of confusion and thoughts of penalized beauty. it is misunderstood as some inevitable fact which falsely accuses woman of not being their perfect selves. As women, we are constantly told that we need to compare ourselves to others, to our co-workers, to the images of women in magazine. The life in a woman’s expression is deeply essential to feel her flesh unclassified. Serena Williams keeps it real when it comes to the struggle of accepting her body “You can be down in life, but you can overcome things based on the way you think and how you set your frame of mind,” she said. One must preach the importance of self-acceptance and recognize natural beauty despite certain disorientation. it is a long, rutted journey to unlearn the veritable cornucopia of beauty standards that are bickering. So continue assembling your dignity and morale because that is the most valuable tribute is self-acceptance.
A new crowd-sourced art project called the ‘Body of Stories’ looks at the numerous ways in which the human body is objectified. Mumbai-based artist Indu Harikumar started the project which gives the platform to south Asian men and women to start sharing their body image issues and to normalize them. This project started with hopes to make people aware of body image issues and to gather a crowd to fight against it. “These lived experiences of real people are so unique, it evokes a lot of emotion, the imperfection makes me feel at home with myself and opens up a well of ideas to create from. It also makes me feel connected with random strangers and gives me the courage to redraw masters in my unpolished, imperfect way.” Indu said.
Another Bengaluru-based comics maker and storyteller, Mounica Tata is fighting to normalize the word “fat”. “It obviously took me a lot of time to understand this and come to terms with the word ‘fat’ and accept it. Honestly, I don’t feel bad if people call me fat. I identify as a fat person. That is one thing I do through my work, which normalises the word ‘fat’. It is just another word.” – Mounica Tata
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