Beauty standards and body modifications will always be a gold mine of heated opinions.
For women, it is however imperative that a balance is found because women’s bodies are often the target of cosmetic surgery.
To get a holistic picture of plastic surgery and the good, bad and ugly sides of it, Urban Woman Magazine asked some women to share their thoughts on it.
Read their responses below.
EH
Like with most complex things, my thoughts on plastic surgery (and beauty standards more broadly) don’t fall easily under groups such as feminist and anti-feminist ideals.
On one hand, plastic surgery is basically sorcery. The fact that the medical field is so advanced as to be able to perform procedures that are purely for aesthetic purposes(not for survival) is proof of the astounding feat that we’ve reached as human beings. It’s actually so crazy.
On that front, there’s quite a lot to appreciate about plastic surgery as a concept.
There’s also the fact that these procedures often were “invented” in response to very real physical issues.
Issues which in many historical societies, were seen as reasons to abandon children or hide them away as they grew. The nearest one I can reach now is cleft lips/palates.
To that end, plastic surgery has been an innovation in terms of truly empowering people that society has cast aside.
The crux for me though is that term “empowerment”.
A babe can do her yansh so that rich men will pay more attention to her. Which in turn allows her to gain access to people with wealth in ways she may not have thought possible before the surgery. I’ve heard it referred to as an “investment” a number of times.
That one too, e follow for empowerment abi e no follow?
I remember reading an old magazine one time and there was a feature on Kim Kardashian. She said plenty things, but the thing that sticks with me till today (and I try to remind myself of when I lean towards judging plastic surgery harshly) is one bit where she said something along the lines of ” if it is possible and you can afford to and you feel it brings you closer to a full expression of who you really are, then why not?”.
So it seems then that there must be something to plastic surgery that gives people permission to love(?) themselves.
However, on a more personal basis, I believe the real culprit here is a world that incentivizes people to go through such procedures before they can love themselves.
And the thing about the world is that these standards always seem to change.
Infact, the themes that seem to appear over and over again through human history when it comes to physically “preferable” standards are good skin and good smell(which makes sense just on a practical level since the skin sort of acts as an indicator of the quality of health underneath, and smell…well, I don’t need to explain that).
Every other thing tends to go out of fashion. If it comes back in fashion (for example, the pear body shape was a banger in early medieval Europe and it’s kind of also in vogue now), that’s simply because the human body can appear in only so many shapes, so recycling of standards is bound to happen.
All this to say, the world we live in functions in such a way that we are incentivized to contort ourselves in order to conform with the standards of whichever point in history we find ourselves in. Plastic surgery is just an extension of that.
Whether or not it fits into feminist ideals can be debated on a case-by-case basis, I suppose.
For me sha o, it feels like the most public acknowledgement of insecurity. Which, in itself, is not necessarily bad. But omo, the solution(which is the surgery) doesn’t actually fix the problem. It merely covers it.
Fixing the problem would require a great refusal–of the imposition of these standards on all women–and a radical acceptance of the one body we get, the one body that holds us through our journey here.
CY
They’re a miracle of science to some extent, a good solution to accidents and unfortunate incidents, so we can’t exactly complain about them. And I think everyone is entitled to do what they want with their bodies, but I don’t see any reason why you’re getting plastic surgeries or working on your body as a young woman under 30/40.
I don’t think it’s anti feminist per se, but the rampancy of it in today’s world is definitely worrying.
I can’t say if I would or wouldn’t get one, as there are several factors that have to be considered before I make such a decision. Would I get one within the next 10 years though? Absolutely not. So there’s that.
Beauty standards play a very huge role in plastic surgery, as young ladies who aren’t quite secure in their looks would be pushed into taking such steps, especially when 6 out of 10 mainstream influencers are championing the charge.
All in all, it’s a very dicey slope. It would be perfect if beauty standards were not so constantly changing, and if they were not so heavily advocated for, almost to the point of borderline manipulation if that’s the word.
Angel Nduka-Nwosu is a writer, journalist and editor. She moonlights occasionally as a podcaster on As Angel Was Sayin’. Catch her on all socials @asangelwassayin.