There used to be a time that when a girl wanted a new look, she would go to the beauty salon and get her hair done.
With today’s advanced technology and the pressures of being beautiful, however, girls are turning to plastic surgery to change their looks.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, plastic surgery was first brought into prominence at the end of World War I, when it was used primarily to treat soldiers’ injuries, such as shattered jaws, blown-off noses and lips and major skull wounds.
With the ‘60s came about the widespread use of silicone — an invention which was originally used to treat skin imperfections — as a substance for breast implants.
Today, plastic surgery is no longer reserved solely for the reconstructive surgery of an injury or medical defect.
It has been taken to extremes to satisfy the desires of self-centered individuals; it has become one of America’s obsessions.
No longer is it enough for a person to have the best clothes or the latest iPhone; many people are now concerned with having the prettiest nose, the smallest body, and breasts the size of watermelons.
This behavior is primarily brought about through the influence Hollywood stars have on the country.
Being in the spotlight makes celebrities feel as though they should always look their best, and when age starts taking a toll on their bodies, many decide to get plastic surgery.
It wasn’t much of a scandal for a celebrity to go under the knife; it even seemed like a trend was unfolding.
Younger generations soon followed their older peers, subjecting themselves to these procedures.
Plastic surgery became part of a drive toward perfection that many stars felt necessary to their flashy lifestyle.
Hollywood hit a new peak when reality star Heidi Pratt (formerly Heidi Montag) went through ten plastic surgeries in one day at the age of 23.
According to an interview Pratt did with People magazine, she had a miniature brow lift; Botox injected into her forehead; a nose job revision; fat injections in her cheeks, nasolabial folds and lips; her ears pinned back; a breast augmentation revision; liposuction on her neck, waist, hips and inner and outer thigh; a buttock augmentation and a chin reduction.
That sounds painful, but Pratt came closer to dying after all of the work had been done when she took too much Demerol to deal with the pain.
Situations such as Pratt’s, or Kanye West’s mother, Donda, who died while receiving cosmetic surgery, ought to discourage people from seeking unnecessary procedures.
But people’s decisions are not usually swayed by the dangers and complications involved with such surgeries.
This obsession with perfection is getting out of hand and it gives younger generations an artificial representation of how a person should look.
It is unfortunate how youth audiences look to celebrities as role models instead of more realistic, mature figures.
These children are being taught to be unhappy with themselves because they do not look as perfect as a Barbie doll.
Pratt raised the bar for her peers or for anyone who wants to look like her.
It is unfortunate that the diversity this country is known for is moving toward a lifeless, generic look.
Karen Ramirez is a psychology junior and may be reached at [email protected]
