Life in plastic, is it fantastic?

Society today has become extremely materialistic, and you could say shallow. The beauty industry has rocketed over the last few years, with more and more cosmetic procedures being carried out on a regular basis. Surgery used to be seen as something terrible, when people were on a hospital bed desperate to survive. Now however, it is a normal aspect of every day life. It's main purpose to keep women looking young and beautiful. Getting cut open with knives, having unnatural products stuffed inside them like soft toys, as well as getting things sucked out of them, putting their bodies through hell just to achieve what they perceive as "beauty". What happened to growing old gracefully?

I don't understand why people feel the need to have these procedures. Why would people want to become anything other then who they are? In a sense they lose part of themselves and part of their identity. Growing up for so long and looking at yourself every day in the mirror and seeing your reflection looking back at you, and one day for that to change. It would be like looking for yourself but instead seeing a stranger.

There is so much pressure for people to look beautiful these days, but what actually is beautiful? Different people have different ideas, and not one person is the same. People should embrace their uniqueness instead of trying to look like clones of each other, else there will be an army of walking, talking Barbie dolls.


I personally believe that plastic surgery should only be for medical purposes only. If someone is in a fire, or car accident, they would be scared for life, their confidence may be crushed, and every time they saw a reflection of themselves they would see the memories of what happened to them. In these cases, surgery should put back how they were, it shouldn't change who someone is.

However saying this it is difficult to draw a line on where changing who you are with the use of cosmetics starts. Hair dye, teeth whitening, make-up and self tan all change you slightly, if not only enhancing your original features. But when is OK, not OK? I would say when you become addicted, needing surgery after surgery to achieve "perfection" and not stopping until you eventually turn into plastic.

Furthermore, plastic surgery is not always a quick fix to all your problems. Many procedures go wrong, leaving people disfigured and more unhappy with themselves than before. They may have an idea in their head of what they are going to look like once it's all over, however when it actually is, they aren't. They simple aren't the person they want to be, they are themselves, they have their own bodies, and that's what surgeons have to work with. You may want to look like Jennifer Anniston, but you are not. So no matter how much surgery you may have, you will not look like her.

What you may hate about yourself, another person might love.

Always be yourself.