The Fake Mistake
Posted on 26 July 2008 by Kaynath Parvez
Size Zero: the hottest new label in the Indian socialite’s wardrobe. Suddenly, fat isn’t so fetching anymore. Not that it ever really was, but I’m pretty sure I remember a time when it didn’t hold as much weight as it does now (no pun intended).
Take Bollywood’s darling Kareena Kapoor. You could say she is the new-age inspiration of excessive shrinking within a limited period of time. The hit number ‘It’s Rocking’ from Kya Love Story Hai was the first jhalak we had of her new physique; Jab We Met showed us the results of her further determination; yet it was the video of Challiya from Tashan, with an awkwardly disproportionate-looking Bebo, that finally sparked concern that she had, perhaps, gone that one step too far.
So what about the procedure of reinventing one’s look outside the natural course of change? If extreme weight-loss is seen as going too far, then what about medical surgery?
It used to be a privilege for those in the industry. Today, glamorous socialites to trendy teenagers are opting for surgery to give them the look they desire. It seems that everyone’s getting something “fixed-up”.
Plastic surgery came about sometime in 1964, when a surgeon’s assistant joked that a pouch of blood felt like a breast (?!), leading the surgeon himself to have a light-bulb moment.
Sushmita Sen denied it in 1997, Koena Mitra and Bipasha Basu are two of the accused, Shilpa Shetty’s rhinoplasty seems more and more undeniable, and the very brazen Rakhi Sawant openly declared mammoplasty on Koffee With Karan, arguing that if God forgot to give it, her doctors could damn-well fill in the gap.
The latest? Harman Baweja of Love Story 2050, has apparently had his facial contours reconstructed to look more like Hrithik Roshan. Really?
See, when we first hear ‘plastic surgery’, don’t we immediately scream ‘FAAAAAKE!!!!!’ in our heads? I guess the instant the two words ‘plastic’ and ‘surgery’ are taken in one breathe, we often imagine celebrities desperately trying to retain their youth. We assume they’re fake, materialistic, vain. Given that it’s perhaps just a natural reaction?
But what about the 6-year-old boy that got bitten on his chin by a dog? Or perhaps the young girl with a birth-mark covering half her face? Or the burn victim? Is surgery only respectable when something drastic is behind it?
The underlying factor may then be the difference between the two types of plastic surgery: reconstructive and cosmetic - where the latter is surgery such as rhinoplasty, mammoplasty, and liposuction, and reconstructive procedures are those which correct defects on the face and body, such as birth-marks, burns, and cleft lips.
But does it not spawn from the same root - rebuilding confidence? Whether it’s a girl with a horrific burn that is butchering her self-assurance, or an actress that feels she will not do justice to the Cavalli dresses she must carry off in her next movie, both stand-by the same reason: self-esteem.
Cosmetic surgery is not something I agree with, but reconstructive surgery I am supportive of. Then again, there’s no denying that post-cosmetic surgery, women express how their self-value has increased tenfold, and they are finally happily settled in their lives. Surely that’s a good thing?
When getting to the crux of the matter, it may be unfair to favour one type of surgery and slate the other. If both are life-changing and make a person confident, can we really judge or deny them that value of life? What do you think: is cosmetic surgery disrespectful to reconstructive? Does opting for the former immediately imply that the person is fake? Is self-esteem really the bottom line? And if surgery really has become just another option, will we ever be truly happy with the way we are?
  (16 votes. Average: 4.44 out of 5) |
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July 26th, 2008 at 10:39 am
I agree with a lot of the comments you make, and in agreement, that society and technology are part and parcel of the human race. As time goes on, we are becoming more and more technologically advanced, thereby becoming superior beings in every way. Change is inevitable, it will always be happening, and in response to change there are people that are not so used to it, it destroys their realm or reality or clashes against it.
in terms of plastic surgery its a new phenomena, no different than the car or the washing machine. It saves time and effort needed, to build self-esteem the “proper way”. Maybe those that need therapy, counselling and psychoanalysis dont want to dig into the root of the cause and happily change elements of the Material self for the Immaterial to gain value. Indeed it is a quick fix, a very dangerous one, But in a society where time has lost its meaning, where new fashion styles are sprouting quicker than someone who can say “that was SO 2008″ its already been forgotten. So will the fact that Plastic surgery is immoral be forgotten amidst the society as a whole, A surfer has a choice to ride the Big Wave or not, But the wave will do what it was meant to do. Nature stops for no one, and that is where the “Plastic Surgery” world is heading towards, an acceptance that it is “natural” to do so, if for medical reasons, the burns victim, the woman with scars from abuse etc needs it as part of “self-esteem and confidence” building, then surely so do Actresses and Actors to help them be “more” real in the role they play, and thereby making it an acceptance within the whole of society, as the fake becomes embedded within the real and vice versa. Can we honestly say, that in the future less people will have plastic surgery?
July 26th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I find it a little ironic that you somehow believe that plastic surgery “came about sometime in 1964.” In reality, plastic surgery is over 4,000 years old. The earliest human record of any plastic surgery ever being performed was in India around 600 BC by an famous Indian physician - he was able to reconstruct the nose for those who had lost theirs because of a public offense against a person of wealth and breeding using skin from the forehead.
The Romans also adopted the practice later. There is even record of the legendary Greek doctor, Galen performing non-reconstructive rhinoplasty on women of wealth in the Roman world.
Still plastic surgery was not common place until the end of the US Civil War, around the 1870’s, when anesthesia was discovered and put into wide use. For the first time in history, a doctor could operate on a patient that felt no pain and didn’t move to interfere with the surgery.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Ah, thanks for that Shaun - you’re right. I think what I meant to write was ‘breast implants’ in particular and not plastic surgery, and although even that dates back to around 1895, the silicone implant procedure is a modern one and apparently hit off sometime in the early 1960s.
Apologies for that though, both fault in expression and dispute of sources.
September 11th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
im sorry but i really dont agree with the size zero label there are hundreds of women out there in the world who are fat and happy and look good in what they wear, you do not have to be super skinny to show off how good you look and i think celebrities who do that and make young girls want to be like that should relly think again and see what they are doing. if a girl goes on a diet to loose weight and straves herself just to be like some actress and dies from it is that good thing what about the negative side to plastic surgery it doesnt always make you become perfect and fake to have confidence you need from the heart!
November 7th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
i 100% agree with you. plastic surgery will never be enough to make any living being on this earth happy.
we will always point out the next “fault” within us after we walk out of surgery.
we should be happy the way god has created us.
March 6th, 2009 at 5:05 am
just browsing when I came across this article, but I’d like to add that a new era is dawining my friends,
The National Post published an article March 2nd 2009 ‘Clininc will design babies to order’ Parents will now have the option of choosing physical features for their unborn child..
What do you think..good? bad? does it matter?