Teens and Cosmetic Surgery, What is That About?

How many of us have looked at ourselves in the mirror and easily picked out at least one feature that we deem unattractive? How many times have you heard the following;

“God I hate my eyes, they’re too close together”. “Oh my gosh your eyes are so pretty, I hate mine. They’re just so dark and boring. I wish I had blue eyes like yours”.

And then you hear someone else join the conversation and it goes a little something like this… “Girls you have nothing to complain about. You’re both beautiful. At least you don’t have a nose the size of birthing hips”

Don’t assume; this isn’t just an issue with girls. Guys struggle with their appearance just the same; I’m just not sure how those conversations would go. See, I don’t spend a lot of time in male oriented locker rooms or bathrooms.

Point being, self criticism is a natural phenomenon. We will always be conscious of something that may be ‘visible’ to others, whether it be the sound of a voice, the size of ones ears, the shape of a butt or the shape of a face.

“My face is too round”. “No my face is too pointy!” “It’s so not, mine is simply not proportionate....”

So we’ve got our beauty norms defined already by media – it always has been and seems it will be that way for the next few years anyways. Just because it’s the way it is, doesn’t mean that it’s a positive thing nor something we should deem acceptable.

An aspect in physicality that is hindering your health or your ability to function in society can serve as a justified use of economic and medical resources. Sure if you can fix the problem and you must, then why not. But what about changing your look because you just don’t like it?

Plastic surgery is indeed a thing, and it’s become ‘less taboo’ over time. Plastics used to be that thing that rich celebrities did because they had the money and so they could. A nose job, a breast implant, a face lift; if you can afford it, what’s stopping you?

However, over the years, this particular trend has become less associated with rich blond cougar wives of pop stars and increasingly popular among every day citizens. I normally don’t have a problem with what people do with their own money as long as they’re not using it to cause harm. Sure it pisses me off but I don’t assume the right to say where they should and should not be putting their Benjamins – or should I be saying Bordens considering we live in Canada. Did you even know who the dude was? Sir Robert Borden was the 8th Prime Minister of Canada and is also the dude on your Canadian100$ bill.

Benjamins or Bordens, who gives a flying f*ck, at the end of the day it’s money. A whole shit load of money being spent to change that thing that bothers you every time you glance in the mirror or hear yourself speak or try on that pair of jeans that make everything about your shape seem so ‘abnormal’.

There’s one extreme being old and ‘mature’ enough to undergo drastic physical experience but what about being 7, or being 13 and getting your ears pinned back or your nose straightened. Nearly 250 000 teens underwent cosmetic surgery in 2010, where does one draw the line?

In April this year, there was news of a 7 year old girl who went under the knife because her ears ‘stuck out’ and she had a fold in one of her ears. Samantha Shaw went on the plane for the first time ever, went to New York for the first time ever and all in one trip she also got plastic surgery for the first time ever. According to her mother, she had seen her daughter receive negative comments concerning her ears yet Samantha had told Juju Chang that she hadn’t really gotten bullied much.

Despite whatever the reality may have or have not been, Samantha Shaw at age 7 went through surgery because her mother wanted to avoid any chance of her daughter getting bullied. Sure, the little girl looks happy post surgery, but she kind of looked pretty happy before too. She’s adorable either way, I mean come on look at her! That’s great that her mother gave her daughter this opportunity and she didn’t have to fund the plastics either so that’s a win.

Then just a few days ago, another news article caught my eye that discussed an adolescent undergoing cosmetic surgery. 13 year old Nicolette Taylor went through plastic surgery for her nose just this summer. She had broken it at the age of two and then again at eight, leaving a bump in her nose. This triggered the teasing that was to come for the next few years and eventually the surgery she underwent this July.

After getting teased and called ‘big nose’ on Facebook, she felt conscious that all her new friends would be able to see it and basically, gossip hurts. Okay so this case differs slightly; Nicolette had broken her nose twice and therefore was not ‘born this way’. But the fact of the matter is, aren’t there so many other people out there that have broken bones, gotten visible deforming injuries, burns, cuts, scars, you name it. This basically gives someone the right to say, sorry you have an abnormality and it justifies why I’m going to be cruel to you.

What about all the other people out there in the world that just have a naturally large nose, or a sixth finger or a double thumb or whatever facial/physical difference. What is this teaching the kids of the next generation? That if you don’t look a certain way, you must have it taken care of because it will cause problems for you in the future?

Sure kids are mean, kids get made fun of all the time, but isn’t that normal for every child or most child to go through? Some cases are most extreme and I’m not denying that. They say kids with physical ‘deformities’ tend to lack popularity and experience bullying on a much higher scale than everyone else… but if you think about it, if more and more kids are undergoing surgery to change their appearance, that increases the minority of beings with physical differences. Doesn’t that draw a bigger spotlight on this minority? What about the kids who can’t afford it, who aren’t granted pro bono surgery, who maybe live in a cultural or religious system that negates plastic surgery – what happens to them?

No matter what, children get made fun of. If you’re really lucky you might never go through it but most likely at one point or another in your life, you would have gotten picked on. Even if you share the same hair colour and eye colour and skin colour as the aggressor, even if you have proportionate features and have no apparent deformity, you could very well be picked on just the same.

Yes bullying hurts and no it’s not as easy to just ignore it as everyone will tell you to do. But instead of encouraging children to change their appearance to try and control whatever teasing may be coming their way… why can’t we try and teach the future generation that beauty is not a measurement, it’s not a colour nor a shape. Let’s try and teach children that they’re beautiful the way they are and that they should love the way they look and love themselves because they were born this way!

via @huffingtonpost, @huffingtonpost, @abc