Cosmetic surgery DOES affect others

[EmmaDilemma5]

I'm sick of reading people who defend others cosmetic surgery/procedures with;

"it's their body, they can do as they please"

"Each to their own"

"If it makes them feel happier then what's the harm?"

The harm is, that it sets a ridiculous standard that most (usually young women) can't meet naturally and therefore feel pressured to undergo changes to their body to look "good".

It's not a personal decision, because collectively, it's impacting society norms and pressures on people.

I'm not talking about those that truly help people with abnormally different features. I totally get why someone with ears that grow out at 90° may want them pinned back. Or someone with a huge nose may want to reduce it to a more "normal" size. I still hope they'd feel fine in their own skin but get why the majority of people may struggle with largely unusual features.

But I am actually angry sometimes at those that "enhance" normal looks. Lip fillers, tattoo makeup on eyebrows, lips, boob jobs. It seems to me that the majority of women who have these procedures have very normal features before having them and it's just really sad that they feel they need to undergo them to feel ok.

Lip fillers are the worst for me. It's affordable and easy to arrange. I fear my daughter will grow up thinking her lips aren't big enough (if her parents' are anything to go by anyway) because every other person seems to have massive lips and to look beautiful she'll need to pump her face with crap.

When do we say, enough is enough, we don't want the next generation living like this?!

I am always surprised when people cannot reflect on individual choice (eg cosmetic surgery, being a sahm) which is seemingly great, autonomy etc, and its wider impact in society on the status and equality of women. That’s a clumsy and grammatically awful sentence; hope it makes sense!

‘I also very much like my face and body and am more attractive now than I was when younger by some margin….

I don't think they don't make me look younger or more beautiful.

So you are more attractive now but not more beautiful?

@NoNewsIsGoodNews , read her post again. You come across as a judgemental cow to be honest.

If it happens so often, perhaps you should stop being surprised by it.

It makes no difference to my Wider Impact On Society that I looked permanently sad and angry a few years ago and no longer do. Actually, I think my Wider Impact On Society has probably benefited from no longer having me appearing to scowl at everyone I see. If that's the worst of my Wider Impact On Society, I think I'll get to heaven.

If you wish to make a Wider Impact On Society, perhaps you can start by not assuming that everyone who disagrees with you just hasn't reflected enough.

I do reflect on that actually. However, I'm fairly confident that a bunch of 50+ something women having discrete botox is not the cause of young women's desire to inflate their lips.
Anyone who thinks that young women who go in for more extreme procedures look at middle aged women as role models where their appearance is concerned is deluded. Therefore I see my contribution to that issue as neutral.
Where aging is concerned, I concede there is a point. If the ideal is for aging bodies and faces to be valued, even considered beautiful, that cause is not helped by the more appearance conscious amongst us minimising the signs of aging.
But this is also true for dying away grey, or dieting and exercising so our menopausal bodies retain a shape, strength and firmness better associated with youth. Few women do none of these things.

I’ve had cosmetic surgery to change something I didn’t like about myself and it made such a difference to my mental well being and confidence. It was the best money I’ve ever spent!

I think cosmetic surgery is amazing but there is a balance and without being too judgemental I do tend to agree that lip fillers / cheek fillers are just really awful looking. I intend do grow old gracefulIy. I might consider a bit of Botox but I think going down the filler route just leaves a lot of older women looking absolutely terrifying! Doesn’t look good on young women either.

I’m not at all worried about my daughter having fillers because she agrees about how silly they look.

I would like to know where my wrinkly, jowly 50 something role model is please.

Everything in moderation.

🙋‍♀️

I looks like beauty standards are changing again. At least BOTOX and fillers wear off. According to the media the new fashion is to have the pad of fat between the cheekbone and jaw removed as it makes your cheeks sunken and your cheekbones more prominent. It's non reversible but as far as plastic surgery goes it's supposed to be cheap and easy. However many reputable cosmetic and plastic surgeons are against it. One side effect that they think will happen is that people who have it done will have accelerated signs of aging.

In some industries, men get procedures done just as women do. Not necessarily in the celeb world, but just in industries where appearance matters.

Politics and news media are two industries where men get cosmetic procedures done as a matter of course (it can get a bit ridiculous when someone comes in after holiday with obvious — but well done — hair plugs and you are not to say anything about it 😆) and as I said, top CEOs like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have obviously all had cosmetic procedures.

I won’t apologise for getting work that fits my budget and lifestyle done, and I frankly don’t care what you or anyone else thinks about it. Thankfully we don’t have to accept ageing gracefully — there’s very little grace in it.

Smooth foreheads look odd because, normally, human foreheads move and express emotions - unless they are foreheads in still photos, or foreheads on marble statues. Perhaps when you look admiringly at your smooth forehead in the mirror it looks very nice to you and perhaps to others who admire Botox. But when you start speaking and the parts of your face that are designed to move, don't move, it can look odd. Hence the expression "uncanny valley".

I have Botox and my forehead still moves. I can frown, knit and raise my brows and everything. I remember worrying the first time I got it done because I thought something had gone wrong, since I was so far from frozen.

There is some small restriction of movement in the early days after having it but it soon wears off.

I'm starting to think all these ignorant ideas about what these procedures do and don't do are actually a good thing. It means people really don't know when you get it done!

I wasn't talking about you. It is always amazing to read of these people who have access to better practitioners than the richest women in Hollywood, though. It may be subtle and it may be not, but Botoxed faces do not move naturally and even if you can't put your finger on it, it looks odd.

You were talking about Botox and those who have and admire it, so yes, you were talking about me. And even if you weren't, it doesn't make what you were saying any less wrong. But like I said, works to my advantage, so carry on. And I'll pass your compliment to my practitioner. I agree he's very good.

I think you'll find that most plastic surgery is very subtle and you'd never know the person had it. Not everyone ends up looking like a cat eyed Bratz doll. And try minding your own business and worrying about yourself instead of what other people do with their own faces and bodies, life is a lot more pleasant that way. Where do we draw the line? No hair dye? No makeup? No nail polish? Burlap sacks for us all? All natural only? We must think of the children and all that!

Like I said before: you have to work at getting the totally frozen look. You simply don't get it from a low dose, taken infrequently, just as you don't turn into Arnie from lifting weights once every six months.

And even then, the worst of what we see in Hollywood isn't usually Botox - that wears off pretty fast. There's actually only so much it can do and it really isn't that dramatic. If Botox inevitably gave the spoon with hair look, it frankly wouldn't be as popular as it is.

The overdone Hollywood look is usually something surgical, or sometimes face fillers that were done too recently (they can puff up and harden a bit before they soften down). It's not actually in an actor or actress' interest to stop their face from being expressive.

My forehead still moves.

HTH.

Foreheads with Botox do not remain forever frozen. I understand the misconception as it’s often used as an example in comedies, but in the real world foreheads with Botox very much still move. What made you think they didn’t?

Yes, they do.

I actually suspect that what happens to actresses is that they know how unkind the industry is to ageing women and, instead of being guided by their doctors towards graceful ageing with some interference, they insist on full-on resistance.

In publishing, as authors develop clout they sometimes start to resist professional guidance and start refusing to accept editing will give them a better book. No-one wants to push back too hard because they'll jump ship for someone who'll tell them what they want to hear. So their books get longer and ultimately not as good.

A good doctor will refuse to do fillers more often than once every 12-18 months and if someone wants it more often or too much of it. But I'm guessing it's harder to hold that line when it's Jennifer Aniston who's insisting, just as it's harder to be firm on cutting at least 10,000 words when it's JK Rowling.

Botoxed faces do not move naturally and even if you can't put your finger on it, it looks odd.

I'm always a little confounded by this. I guess everyone's different, but since Botox wears off, most people have maybe a couple weeks of maximum effect. They're not walking around for the entire time blankly frozen because it's pretty quickly starting to wear off. Maybe it's not all that hard to guess Botox at two weeks out, particularly on someone with a heavy-handed practitioner, but by a month, I think it's much harder.

Written as someone who has had it very lightly for tension headaches (it works) and wishes it would last longer.

I think a lot of actresses are very thin and need a lot of fillers? I also think you will end up looking odd at some point if you try to completely erase all signs of ageing.
I have botox and think I look a bit frozen about 2 weeks in when it sort of peaks. I think some people might be able to get I have it, but you would have to really study my face. You can’t just walk passed someone in the street and tell they have botox and fillers are impossible to spot unless badly done or too much.

The amount of butt hurt women on here is hysterical.

If you're that happy about your wrinkles and thin lips why are you lashing out and shaming women for tweaking themselves when it has NOTHING to do with you or your wrinkled thin lipped faces.

Just a fun fact for you, you can have Botox and fillers without looking like a duck. Trout pout doesn't come around with a subtle 0.5ml in your lips. It comes from overfilling and migration.
I'm happy with my SUBTLE filler and Botox. I look young and refreshed. Also, my face still moves in its natural way. Hope that helps!

So many insulting words on this thread. Being called disgusting, injecting 'crap' (not true) into our faces, fake. Blah blah.

If it's not up your street, fine, but you are no better of a human, just because you're too precious to do something about the bags under your eyes or the wrinkles on your forehead.

Even if it is possible to tell I've had some minor work done, which not one person has ever commented, I'd rather have someone think 'hmmm has she had some Botox?' Than 'Christ she could do with some work on her haggard face.'

Thank youuuuuu.

And no, cosmetic surgery doesn't affect others.

If that's what's coming up on your Instagram and social media, stop looking. It's done by algorithms. The modern world moved on and there's new ways for women to feel comfortable in their own skin. If you're so bothered by that, and it's affecting your life, that's a you problem.

My sister has had a ridiculous amount of lip filler, so much so that they’ve burst and been oozing a couple of times. She said she wants to look like Pete Burns and a Bratz doll (?!), well she achieved her goal. She’s ruined her face with cheekbone fillers, lip fillers and tattoos. Shame as she was such a pretty girl, far prettier than me. She’s only 27. I keep looking at my lips and thinking maybe I should get filler- just to smooth out the wrinkles? Lips are meant to have wrinkles! It really messes with your head.

Her practitioner should never have agreed to it.