Plastic Surgeries: The Thin Red Line to Stop

“Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time,” says Albert Camus, the legendary French philosopher and author.

The modern days where everything is effortlessly changed and replaced… A gift and a nemesis at the same time! Our physical features are indeed not an exception. The more superficial we got as humans, the more we wanted to become the “perfect human” physically.

With the assistance of contemporary advancements in medicine and science, it is now possible to reconstruct not only our faces but also our bodies. Everyone seems to devote plastic surgeries, from Hollywood stars to your next-door neighbour. But what is plastic surgery, and why is it vital to comprehend when to stop acquiring it?

We all heard the saying, “She has become entirely plastic,” about someone who had many plastic surgeries. An actuality about plastic surgeries is that the name does not come from surgeons’ use of synthetic or anything artificial in operations. The word plastic is derived from the Greek word “plastikos”, which means to mould or something to give form. 

Even though the real origin of the word plastic does not come from the material, foreign objects are quite often inserted or injected into specific areas during the operations. Let’s dive in and learn more about different kinds of plastic surgeries.

Are they really necessary?

Plastic surgeries are not always operated on people who want their self-esteem boosted. There are also reconstructive surgeries for people with deformities that come from birth or occur due to a casualty or a malady. These reconstructive surgeries drastically improve the way the patient looks and their quality of life. 

Reconstructive surgeries are often regarded as medically necessary and are covered by most health insurance plans. Some examples might be breast reconstruction surgeries for breast cancer patients or cleft lip and palate repair for children born with this deformity. This surgery corrects their appearance and improves how the children breath and swallow. 

Plastic surgeries, on the other hand, are done primarily due to preference. Although they may have substantial positive effects on people’s psychologies and well-being, they are not compulsory or crucial for the continuity of life. We can count breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, hair transplant, face implants and the recent trend, the Brazilian lift. These are prevalent surgeries, and in the United States alone, more than 1.5 million plastic operations are performed yearly. 

This plastic surgery mania is more prominent in some countries than others. In countries with better economies and living standards, there is an increase in the number of people getting plastic surgery, such as the United Kingdom. 

Furthermore, several countries, such as South Korea, have cultural motivations for aesthetic operations to go up. South Korean beauty standards are stringent. This leads parents to grant their children plastic surgeries once they reach the minimum age, which is sometimes not older than 15. While it is perilous for their developing characters, Korean people proclaim it is adequate to change them in their youth rather than live with their “hideous features” since this might generate bullying and other self-love issues. 

Temptation to be more and more…

Everyone wants to look the best version of themselves. Who would say no to a more symmetrical face or better-defined lips? Some aesthetic procedures of “here and there” seem no big deal for people with disposable income. At the end of the day, everyone gets them, right? But the real issue starts when the person needs help knowing where to stop. It sure looked pleasing when they got 2ml injected into their lips. It may look less satisfactory if they get two more. 

The main underlying reason for excessive plastic surgery is low self-esteem and popular trends. The latest crazes are highly significant to observe for those with low self-worth and who depend on other people’s consent. By watching the Kardashian family, millions of young women got Brazilian lifts, considered one of the most destructive plastic surgeries with many side effects. Unfortunately, numerous women paid for it with their health or their lives. Such a tragic world to live in! And once the Kardashians started going for a more petite figure and less dominant glutes, the word “beauty standards” started shifting towards it. Snip, snap! There is no end to this madness. 

With each operation, it is expected to get more praise from others. Better glutes, breasts, more oversized lips, no wrinkles on the face and then what? Are you still looking for parts to rectify? This might be the wake-up call to get aid from a professional. The problem is not your appearance anymore. It is the way you think and see yourself. Body dysmorphia is accurate and, indeed, not a topic to joke around. 

Is it you, or Hell is other people?

Is Paul Sartre right? As Aristotle, the prominent Greek philosopher, once said, “Man is by nature a social animal”. It is how we are wired to have the desire to get welcomed and admired by other people. Who wouldn’t prefer a flawless face and figure like Edgar Degas’s The Ballet Class painting that makes heads turn around? However, we must remember that there is no one standard to fit in. What makes us valuable is our individualism. It is really easy to overlook this when we glimpse more and more “perfect people” online with each scroll. Getting some plastic operations or fillers should be fine as long as we persist in looking like ourselves. The key here is not to lose our essence while trying to turn into someone else. To know the thin red line to stop.

No matter what the reason is, we are blessed to live in a time where we have time and resources to play with our appearance instead of living in endless survival mode. Sadly, due to social media and perfect-looking celebrities, we tend to compare ourselves to others and think that having their figure must be superior to ours. 

All in all, we humans have individual features, and as long as we are happy to look at ourselves in the mirror, there should be no need to adjust. What is the point of entirely turning into another human being? Though this is a billions-dollar industry bombarding us constantly with new trends. Let’s not turn our uniqueness into these cookie-cutter standards because beauty is about being comfortable in your skin. It’s about knowing and accepting who you are!