To be upset that young women feel they have to mutilate themselves like this

[LandOfFruitAndNut]

For context ‘young’ in my book is anyone under 35. I am in my 50’s. Very much old crone territory and thankfully no amount of procedures could improve my bog standard appearance. Thankfully as I am over 50 I really couldn’t give a toss.

So - AIBU to think that any level of plastic surgery is unnecessary except for medical reasons and to be particularly upset that young women think they need it?

Young people are beautiful. Full stop. They are young, have fresh skin, bouncy hair and ooze youth. Why does society tell them that making their bottom extra round or their lips extra puffy will improve their lives immeasurably?

Because it is society. I don’t buy the ‘doing it for themselves’ for one minute. If it was just for them they wouldn’t be posting images of the new improved them over the internet usually with the support of some down lighting and a smoothing filter or two.

Is this yet another issue we can lay at the feet of the patriarchy or is the concept of beauty so skewed anyway that I should stop getting so exercised about it and go back to my knitting?(societal stereotype of 50 something woman for dramatic effect. I prefer decoupage)

It is a pity a once fairly clear distinction between plastic/reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery has disappeared in the English language (I'm aware there may be a rather fuzzy middle ground, but repair work for cleft palate and lip is obviously plastic surgery).

I think your point is completely valid, and I agree that a lot of the pressure can feel unnecessary. That said, I’ll be honest I chose to shape my lips because they looked uneven to me, and it affected my confidence in public. I had been bullied as a kid at school when I grew up I decided to get treatment. I worked with Masha Banner she is an aesthetician at visagesculpture that I trusted. My goal was simply to achieve a natural balance not anything influenced by social media.