I was watching CNN Headline News (Showbiz Tonight) recently and they were interviewing the plastic surgeon that performed ten surgeries, including liposuction, on Heidi Montag. Other doctors have lashed out and called him irresponsible for doing so many procedures on a woman that didn’t need them. When asked if he went too far with plastic surgery on the reality starlet, Dr. Frank Ryan defended his actions, seeing nothing wrong with someone having ten surgeries for basically no reason. It’s not like she was fat or ugly. (I said that last part, not the doc). As I recall, the doctor’s face looked a tad too tight, as if he had a few too many tucks done on his face. Snicker. That might explain why he sees nothing wrong with what he did to Ms. Montag. Dr. Ryan even had the audacity to call Heidi Montag a hero for admitting to her surgeries. A hero? Not.
What’s wrong with this picture? On the left, Heidi Montag before going under the knife and on the right, Heidi after surgery. Does a beautiful twenty-three year old woman need ten surgeries? Now she looks really freaky, kind of like a plastic blow up doll.
Is this a disease like anorexia? Do beautiful people like Heidi look in the mirror and see an ugly person? I wondered about this because there are more people like her that keep getting surgeries until they don’t look human anymore. Look at what happened to Michael Jackson. His nose pretty much disintegrated.
The other thing that bothers me about all this plastic surgery is that pretty soon everyone will look exactly the same—like pod people. That creeps me out. I remember an actress named Jennifer Grey. She was really popular, starring in Dirty Dancing and Red Dawn, and was on her way to becoming a big star. She had a unique look, kind of ethnic, but that’s what made her so appealing. Her nose wasn’t a perfect little nub, but she was pretty. Well, she got a nose job and has hardly worked as an actress since then. I think I saw her in a Lifetime movie and I didn’t even recognize her. She looked just like every other actress in Hollywood and apparently lost her appeal with casting agents. I read an interview she did in a magazine and she admitted that she regretted getting a nose job.
Do some people and doctors take plastic surgery too far? Should doctors be held accountable for doing excessive surgeries? After all, they are the professionals and should know better.
Kelley Heckart
‘Timeless tales of romance, conflict & magic’
http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/
The Pagan & the Pen ~ An Online Magazine! 
I agree that going for surgery when you don’t need it is stupid. I’ve had quite a bit of surgery … but replacement joints for rheumatoid arthirtits, without which I wouldn’t walk. As a shaman and psychotherapist, I see the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual strain this puts on everything … not just the person but the whole earth-system in resources, time, and the inevitable 21st century god “money”
You ask, “Do some people and doctors take plastic surgery too far? Should doctors be held accountable for doing excessive surgeries? After all, they are the professionals and should know better.”
I think the blame should rest with the individual … unless we all wish to be treated as idiot children. We should know better. Cosmetic surgery is often just that, cosmetic and not done because of severe disfigurement. The person requesting it wants to be a “princess” (or prince) … age 5 stuff, not grown-up at all, and very selfish. The plastic surgeon isn’t a psychologist to attempt to grow the person up, nor is s/he a parent to administer a quick slap back into reality.
Modern life seems to find it only too easy to blame somebody else rather than look at oneself, shoulder one’s own hang-ups and get sorted. Parents often don’t help with the attitude that their child is god’s gift to creation and should be the most beautiful thing on earth. Ok, one has a bias towards one’s own family but why carry it to childish extremes? Such parenting does no good to the child … they end up being pains in the arse to the rest of creation.
Plastic/cosmetic surgery is good, can be most helpful, but when people take it to the sort of extremes in your article it is ridiculous. The girl looks like a “plastic booby-doll, blow-up variety”, as my husband commented when I showed it to him :-). Obviously he’s not attracted. My dad used to say that women that shape always seemed nearer to you than you were to them … I loved his dry humour!
I think we need to stop trying to find somebody else to blame for our own cock-ups, including daft plastic surgery.
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I don’t get the need to be so vain. I like clothes I feel good in, and a bit of makeup, but that’s as far as I’ll go. I had a friend who had some surgery done… and it seemed to be a lot of pain for not much difference. It did boost her confidence, so I was happy for her. The good thing about all these people who make the choice to alter themselves, is that it provides doctors with practice in this skill so that when someone is severely hurt, or born with defects, they already have the knowledge, tools and ever advancing techniques to help repair the damage. IMO, people like Heidi Montag are volunteer labrats, paying to advance the science of medical reconstruction.
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“The good thing about all these people who make the choice to alter themselves, is that it provides doctors with practice in this skill so that when someone is severely hurt, or born with defects, they already have the knowledge, tools and ever advancing techniques to help repair the damage. IMO, people like Heidi Montag are volunteer labrats, paying to advance the science of medical reconstruction.”
Thing is, the doctors that see people the incredibly self-absorbed narcissists like Ms. Montag do NOT perform facial reconstructions. These are the Beverly Hills parasites who make millions working on already beautiful people strictly for their own profit. The docs who travel to third world countries and perform harelip reconstruction or rebuild a fire victim’s face don’t do cosmetic foo-foo on D-list celebrities. A doc with ethical standards would refuse to perform so many on such a young patient; one or two maybe, but not ten. An ethical doc sends people this this nitwit to a shrink. Why does Hollywood demand everyone look like a Barbie doll? Watch British films and see the delightful variety of REAL faces and figures. We need to change people’s perception of themselves, understand that variety is beauty itself.
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Hi Jude … you are so right about these doctors. At least the high profile big shots! I am sure there are others with more charitable hearts who do give. But you can’t tell me that some big shot barbie sculptor… who is paid insane amounts of cash to do junk work and who has resources to invest in development and invents a better tool or technique, is NOT going to brag about it or try to cash in on it! Once the new tools and skills are out there, they benefit others too, even though it may not be, as you so rightly point out, the super star doctors who actually spread the good work. 🙂
As for ethics, I’m not sure that they see what they do as anything more than ‘harmless’ cosmetics. That’s how the irresponsible people who ask for it seem to view it. It’s always such a SHOCK when someone gets hurt… duh?? Honestly, even tattoos and piercings are a very basic form of ‘cosmetic surgery’… when we go in to have these done, we should also keep in mind that there are serious, permanent health risks, and yet people all over the world do it everyday and think nothing about it. It’s only cosmetic… same attitude, different extremes.
If we think about it, it really is stupid to take such risks and waste such resources… but that’s it, WE think about it, which is why we are here, speaking negatively about it.
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Thanks for the great responses and differing views.
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I believe that some of these people simply lack the self esteem necessary to say “I am beautiful and if you don’t like like it, well, there’s the door. Don’t let it hit you in the arse on the way out.”
I once contemplated getting a nose job because I felt that it was too large or long. I thought it was just plain terrible. Now I know that my nose is a damn fine nose and I’m proud of it. It took me years and a baby to see that my face was just fine the way it is.
I try not to judge people who get cosmetic surgery because of it. I know ten might seem outrageous to you and me, but maybe what Hiedi Montag saw in the mirror was not the same thing we saw. Perhaps her perception of herself is skewed for whatever reason.
All I know is that cosmetic surgery is a personal choice. A good doctor would try to help ypu see why its too much, but in the end it is the patient’s right to change their face. Much like you and I change our clothes to suit ourselves.
Though I honestly thought she was prettier before. Now I think she looks more like Tori Spelling who I don’t think is particually attractive.
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vanity leads to more plastic surgery procedures. people are becoming more conscious about their appearance ‘”`
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How do I start a blog under a pen-name and maintain my anonymity. How do you then get regular readers?
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