These days, there is no escaping tabloid journalism. You
could be scrolling harmlessly through social media, or looking at the cover of
a magazine, and there is a very high chance that you will come across a click bait headline, titled “Learn about so-and-so actress’ nose job” or “Botox
is the secret behind this celebrity’s lips”. Before criticizing them, let us
ask ourselves, how many times have we clicked on such a link, or flipped
through the pages of the magazine, out of curiosity? Why are we so eager to
find out who gets cosmetic surgery done, and who doesn’t?
The answer to this question lies in our perception of the
word beauty. For some people, beauty is all about one’s personality, the
overall expression of self and everything that is included in it- your way of
laughing, your quirks, the way you style your hair, your expressions, your
dressing sense, your mannerisms and what
not. But let’s not go that deep. If we look up the word beauty in the
dictionary, we find this:
“ a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or
form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.”
Aesthetically pleasing.
This is the keyword. People often discard artificial beauty, or cosmetic
surgery by saying that it is superficial to spend so much money to enhance
one’s appearance. While this statement is correct to an extent, I personally
disagree with it, and believe that there are some other factors we should
consider before forming a conclusion.
For a lot of people, there is a direct correlation between self-esteem
and appearance. Not only this, aging and the changes it brings physically is a
major cause of dread for many. You only need to search the internet and you
will come across numerous blogs, articles and videos about skin-care regimes,
maintaining the volume of hair, losing or gaining weight etc. The market is
filled with beauty products, ranging from creams to lotions, from hair sprays
to oils, to name a few. Most of us use at least some of these products, and
take care of our body as best as we can.
The clothes we buy and the trips to salons and hair
dressers, these are all attempts to present ourselves in the best way possible.
If all of us invest some time and money in making sure that we look good, why
are we so quick to label cosmetic surgery as vain? We could argue that people
should not be judged on the basis of their appearance, but that would be
hypocrisy, since appearance usually factors into our life in some way or the
other, including physical attraction. A lot of people who decide to get
cosmetic surgery done are celebrities, who are constantly scrutinized by the
media and judged on what they look like.
I believe that everyone should decide for themselves, where
they want to spend their money and how they want to appear to the world. If a
hair transplant or a breast augmentation makes someone feel better about
themselves, and if they have the resources to get these procedures done, then
it is not our place to criticize it. Beauty is neither natural or artificial.
As clichéd as it sounds, it is a subjective concept and its definition varies
from one person to another.
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