My $.03 (inflation, you know)
Plastic surgery: No problem if a person has a deformity due to birth defect, illness or injury. Or if a person has a feature so totally out of proportion. There are women with breasts so oversized they literally cannot stand up straight, and are in constant agony from back/neck pain.
But when a woman, on her own or at the insistence of her man, gets huge fake boobs implanted in a perfectly healthy body, I have to wonder at her priorities, or the kind of man she's with. Dennis Rodman insisted his ex-wife get implants, and when they weren't big enough, insisted she have a second set. I mean, what kind of relationship is that? I can talk about physical attributes I find attractive but if the person is a dimwit, a right wing fanatic, airhead, spoiled brat etc. I don't care how good looking she is, I will not find her attractive. In fact, most people feel that way. After all, look at happy couples, they are not usually drop dead gorgeous. I've known straight men who say they admire drop dead gorgeous women but would not really want to date a woman who could not go for a walk on the beach without worrying that the wind would muss her perfect hairdo. As I read once in War and Peace, it is not the people who are beautiful that we love, it is the people whom we love that are beautiful.
Two thought on air brushing. I read an article a few weeks ago called "The Unreal Beauty of Alissa Milano". When it comes to looks, Ms. Milano sure won the genetic lottery. And she can afford, and has hired, a nutritionist, personal trainer, makeup artist, hair stylist, and fashion consultant. She had a photo shoot for some magazine with a professional photographer using professional equipment and lighting. The article showed those pics. But they were not the pictures used in the magazine. The magazine photoshopped them to make her waist smaller, her bosom fuller, her arms thinner, erase a mole, etc. Take natural beauty, add everything money can buy to enhance a woman's appearance, add a photographer whose job it is to make people look their best, and it still was not enough. So women look at those photos and wonder what is wrong with them that they don't look like that. Men wonder why their girlfriends don't look like that, or wonder if there is something wrong with them that they don't get a woman who looks like that. But even Alissa Milano does not look like that.
Air brush story #2. I'm a University of Washington grad and keep getting their alumni mag. (It's actually a bit scary as I've never contacted them, but no matter how many times I move they keep finding me.) A year or two back Paul Allen made a big donation to UW so the mag had a cover story on him. The photo on the cover showed a man who looked, well, handsome. At least 20 years younger than his actual age. Spud talked about what time and gravity does to breasts, it does the same to faces, but the man in this photo had no wrinkles, sagging skin, or enlarged pores, just a few fine lines around the eyes. You know, enough to look dignified. He had a sparkling smile and thick glossy hair. And his glasses did not distort his eyes at all. Now, I don't want to put down Mr. Allen, I'm glad he owns the Blazers, he's surely smart and for all I know may be a lot of fun when you get to know him. But I ask Spud and other ladies on the board, would you call him handsome?
Ah, the miracle of technology!
