Cosmetic Surgery

The beige bandage on my brown face was probably noticeable to everyone whose path I’d crossed. I’d forgotten it was there until I ran into Jackie at Target.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

It took me a second or two to answer.

“Oh. Yes. This?” as I instinctively pointed to my face. “I had a growth removed; sort of like a mole. It wasn’t a spot, but it was tested anyway. They’ll give me the results next week.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Jackie responded. “You have to be careful about these things.”

“Yeah, I have a lot of them on my face. A few black people tend to get them; they’re like old age spots, I guess,” I say with a small laugh. “People think they’re freckles so I just go with it. The one that I had removed got big and my mom kept asking me when I was going to have it removed. Plus, Cindy Crawford has a big mole on her face; why can’t I have one?” I say as I laugh again.

Jackie, who is about fifteen years older than me, says, “I’m with your mother. And I’ve always thought Cindy should have had hers removed. Why would you want a lot of stuff on your face?”

Stuff on our bodies… Hmmm… Is it normal?

In most cases, it is, so why are we always changing and fixing things? I color my hair, but have yet to go under the knife, aside from having corns removed from my two pinky toes. Though I’m not one to obsess over my body, I’ll admit that there is one thing I’d change if there was a tried-and-true method, but I’ll keep that my little secret. And no, it’s not a boob job. Besides, surgeons seem to have mastered that area.

A Google search asking if plastic surgery is increasing shows numerous web sites featuring articles that say it is. Not surprising. Evidence of vanity is all throughout history. It seems that people haven’t changed, but rather our accessibility to the means to make the changes, along with advances in surgical techniques.

But, is it mostly vanity that makes us want a procedure? Heavy breasts cause back pain. Droopy eye lids can affect vision. These are valid health issues, although getting them fixed has an extra benefit of making a person look… better? What about my protruding facial growth? Honestly, it didn’t bother me as much as it bothered those who had to look at it. I became concerned when the seasonal heat arrived and worried that the sun would continue to feed it and that I’d wake up one morning with something the size of a pea sitting under my eye. Sooo, I did it. It’s gone. There’s just a tiny scar left that may or may not fade. I like the new almost original look.

A lot of teens are having surgery, too. The thought of it disturbed me until I read that much of it is to pin back ears, reshape noses, reduce breast (girls and boys) and to give symmetry to breasts. I really don’t know if I would allow my child to have any of this done if she had an inferiority complex, but can understand the empathy a parent must feel for their child.

For adults having cosmetic surgery, the strong opinions I once had, I no longer have. The reasons why people make physical choices are always going to be subjective, so I’ll just mind my own business. However, if you want to get tucked, nipped, lifted, botoxed, brotoxed, injected, suctioned, tattooed, scraped, scrubbed, tightened, enlarged, implanted, reduced—what have I missed? I’ll hope the best for you. Who knows? I might run into you at the office a few years from now when gravity is at its best. I’ll be the one in dark sunglasses.

For it? Against it? Depends on the circumstances?