Conventional plastic surgery vs. 'alternative' body mods. Or: There's no winning,ever
 

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One thing ill touch on real quick. Ill come back later when i have time. And sorry if you pointed it out i didnt read the entire post.

Mainstream surgery often strives to meet artificial standards of beauty defined by society. It comes with a sort of prerequisite self perception of not being good enough. A lot of things plastic surgeons enhance can be achieved naturally with some work.


Edit: I see you touched on this in your second paragraph.. Sorry. More to come later.

And also, as I said, not everyone wants plastic surgery to necessarily fit into conventional beauty standards. (Personally I'd enjoy looking like a otherworldly demon but that's just me) There's so many deeply personal reasons one might want to change their appearance even if one lived in a cave and didn't have to live up to anyone's standards.

Edit: ..But yes, of course, the whole not feeling good enough thing is undoubtedly going to factor into letting a doctor cut up your face. Seeing as it's been drilled into all of us since childhood thanks to media and all the little nitpicky comments and backhanded compliments of friends, peers and relatives which eventually pile up and give us complexes about our appearance etc etc.

My daughter lived and worked in West Hollywood for five years. She's a hair stylest and got to work with a lot of celebrities. The amount of pressure involved in trying to hold back aging at any cost in that industry is ridiculous. Especially with women.

She'll turn 34 this year and I so hope she doesn't go down that path. She's the owner and face of a very high profile salon in one of the more affluent areas of San Diego.

Anyway, don't really have any answers.

She probably won't need it man.

As far as the OP goes I think that plastic surgery has a more negative connotation (aside from the bit about conventional/unique beauty that's already been brought up, which I think is a big part of it) because it's associated with out of touch elites in Hollywood who care more about being young than being an actual person. Also, there are people who need plastic surgery for medical reasons and the people who do it for looks are taking away doctors/raising the price of doctors for those people. I've heard one person be angry about that so idk if it's a big part of the public perception.

i want frownland to be my body mod

Chula-- yes, the youth obsession is profoundly depressing (and a bit creepy, honestly). The fact that your daughter is clearly a very beautiful lady yet still endures such pressures is quite saddening, but common. Actually, I can't think of a single woman (no matter how gorgeous) who has not been tortured by some imagined defect + aging panic at some point.

That's all absolutely true; maybe I've met an unusual amount of people who vilify those who get plastic surgery. My own reason for wanting plastic surgery is partly for a reason which hasn't been mentioned yet (not for vanity, but not for medical reasons either) but I can't really comment on it.

Obviously, the entire industry and greed behind it/plastic surgery is terrible, and will always exist (and nothing occurs within a vacuum) but at the same time I don't feel there's anything wrong with changing some small, simple thing-- providing that choice is not primarily driven by a frantic need to stave off aging/be more attractive to certain people etc. I also am curious as to what all of you think of those who completely transform their appearance via both plastic surgery and more extreme body mods-- like the lizard man and the cat lady, who look almost monstrous in a way. Yet clearly it makes them happy.

Also, I acknowledge that Body Dysmorphic Disorder is an enormous problem. There are surgeons who order psychological screenings to look for that sort of thing but I'm sure they're not the majority. The studies I've read are conflicting; I've read some that found that plastic surgery eased their torment and obsession, and some that said otherwise. (If I'm remembering correctly) The disorder has many, many similarities neurologically to OCD, too. There's a lot of misunderstanding regarding BDD-- it is far more than mere vanity or obsession-- people who have it actually visually process things differently. When most people look at a person, or image, they tend to view it as a whole. Those who have BDD tend to see things as a disjointed assemblage of parts-- they automatically zoom in on these tiny parts rather than viewing it as a whole. And so they do the same to their bodies/faces, to their reflections. As a result they have no true concept of what they objectively look like-- they may be aware that they're objectively, generally okay-looking, but their inner self-image is extremely inconsistent and nebulous, with certain features blown up to monstrous proportions that they are constantly hyper-aware of.

Well, a lot of people (who can't exactly afford it) just use medical credit cards to do it. Both my sister and my aunt managed to get breast implants that way despite already being in debt (and not having much leisure time) etc.