By the Pink Nun, 7/2004

Do you notice how many reality TV shows center around people’s desire to be like someone else? It began with basic makeover shows, and now, in the age of "Extreme" Reality Television, people are the ultimate spectacle. The new makeover shows are about people undergoing plastic surgery because they are not happy with how they look.

Beginning with ABC’s Extreme Makeover, now Fox’s The Swan turns the cast of into makeover patients, including surgery, and then into beauty pageant contestants. It extends to the worst yet, MTV’s I Want a Famous Face, in which people as young as 19, barely out of puberty, decide to undergo multiple permanent plastic surgeries to look like their favorite celebrity. They are convinced they will feel better about themselves, or have better social success if they, literally, are someone else.

Channels like TLC offer a show about young people, teens undergoing plastic surgery, advertising with the slogan, "Changing the body, lifting the spirit." MTV’s I Want a Famous Face shows the gruesome surgery, filming IN the surgery room, and shows the pain the people go through, making it literally like looking at a train wreck. But in the end, after the persons’ swelling and stitches have healed, he/she says something to the extent that they are glad they did it, and feel so much better now. In an article by Tania Chatila, she writes:

"These shows glorify plastic surgery and permanent physical change," said 22-year-old April Fulmer, senior social science major at Cal State Los Angeles. "(The surgery) might introduce (an) immediate change in self-esteem, but possibly not long-term. It is great for that moment, but how long will it really last?…Meri Tehrini, a 27-year-old Valley resident, reflects back upon the nose job she got at 18. "I wanted it at the time because I wanted to fit in," she said. "Now I kind of wish I never did it. It was cute, even though it was a little big. I felt really good about (the nose job) at first, but my self-esteem issues were still there. They didn’t change." -The Sundial

Once known as "Plastic surgery," the surgeries are now masked with nicer terms like "Cosmetic surgery", or "Breast Augmentation" instead of "Breast implants" or "boob job." The sad thing is that the commercials, ads and reality tv shows dealing with plastic surgery are increasingly aimed at a teenage audience.

In I Want a Famous Face, a 19 yr. old girl named Sha has an obsession with Pamela Anderson, beginning when she saw her in Playboy. Sha wakes up every morning to a poster of a nearly naked Pamela "in order to motivate [her] to lose weight." Since childhood, her mother succumbed her to beauty pageants, and it’s no surprise that she’s escorting her to the surgery room to look like Pamela Anderson. Even plastic surgeons know that the "ideal" is not always possible.

Dr. Hummel believes makeover shows inflate expectations. "Some people are much better candidates than others," he said. " Extreme Makeover has the luxury of choosing from a large number of potential candidates and picking the ones with the most dramatic and aesthetically pleasing results. Many people won't get the same results." -Rebecca Bryant, Cosmetic Surgery Times

Many "role models" today are not idolized because of their accomplishments, or even their personality, but because of their physical attributes or celebrity status. Plastic surgery, Botox, etc. are just signs of our lack of self acceptance and rejection of God’s image. "He created man in his image, male and female, he created them." I believe God created us all very different looking; different facial attributes, body types, bone structures, as well as different personalities and gifts in order to make life interesting. How boring would it be if we really all looked the same?

Many of the MTV post-op patients said they had more success getting girls/guys after having some surgical alterations. Well, if that’s what gets you a guy/girl that you couldn’t have gotten with your natural self, than what do they desire you for? And how long will they stick around before they turn to someone else they find more desirable? How freeing it would be to be with someone who instead loves us because of everything we are, inside and out. Who wants to be in a relationship where you constantly feel pressure to maintain a young, "beautiful" body or face, when God designed us to age and change over time? The fact that staying young forever is an impossible task is illustrated beautifully in the movie,

Death Becomes Her,

where women drink a potion to live forever in their youthful bodies. They are in love with a plastic surgeon and keep him around in order to maintain their disintegrating bodies. They do live forever, but unhappily with their bodies falling to pieces.

These makeover shows aren’t even dealing with people with impairing disabilities, they are all about vanity, showing people who want to change their God-given features. Instead of embracing how different we all are, culture embraces uniformity. Culture pressures us to take control over all aspects of their lives, including custom order faces and bodies….Until we accept the beauty of the way God made us, and we instead chase after physical gratification through extreme vanity, we will be desperately unhappy. We cannot please all people, and should not look for our self-worth from imperfect creatures (humans). In Tania Chatila’s article, she writes,

Louis Meaux, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology, the idea that happiness is just a snip away could be far from the truth. "Generally, people who are dissatisfied with parts of themselves will usually remain dissatisfied with parts of themselves," said Meaux. "The dissatisfaction may go to other areas. If someone wants to make minor adjustments to alter their appearance, they are probably (a) perfectionist and are likely to find fault (elsewhere)." "The new wave of plastic-surgery reality television is a serious cause for concern," wrote ASPS President Dr. Rod Rohrich on the society’s website. "Some patients on these shows have unrealistic, and frankly, unhealthy expectations about what plastic surgery can do for them." (The Sundial )

How do you keep up with the trends? The world’s idea of what is ideally beautiful is constantly changing. Sometimes it’s curves, anorexic skinny, flat hair, big hair, outstanding cheekbones, large breasts, unisex like figures with pre-pubescent breasts, etc. Big butts didn’t use to be in style and now "famous fannies like those of Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce Knowles are driving up demand for buttock implants, cosmetic surgeons say."

(MSNBC) How can you keep up? Don’t. Just be who God made you. Wear makeup or dye your hair if you want, but don’t cut yourself up. You are not a stitched together cloth doll, not a plastic molded Barbie. You are a living, breathing human being who God designed individually.

In an Mtv.com poll, they asked:

Would you ever have plastic surgery to look like a Celebrity?

Hell Yeah 12%

No Way 67%

Maybe 21%

QUOTES:

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