When you look at yourself in the mirror, do you like the way you look? Do you like your body? Your figure? Your face? Do you twist and contort your body, your skin, your features and hold it in place for a few seconds just to see what you would look like if you were different. Do you suck in your stomach, tense your core, pull to the side your body fat just to get a glimpse at a different ‘you’? Are you truly happy with you?
If your answer is ‘I do like the way I look and I don’t alter my body just to see a different ‘me’”, then some might say you love yourself. You accept your body. You know self love. If your answer was the opposite, well you clearly don’t love yourself. Maybe consider some plastic surgery to truly know what self love is.
You see, self love can be bought, all you need is a seller. Like in any sale, you need to be convinced, persuaded and sold on the idea that you need this product. Any good salesperson can do this for you; sell you an idea of what your body needs to look like.
Sales people follow a strict guideline of what this body is, and although this idea changes like the seasons, it’s important to stay in tune with fashion. What is the perfect body this season? Well recently the tiny waist paired with an hourglass figure, thick thighs, small boobs and a flat stomach is what most deem as ‘perfect’. This of course is strictly for cis women. For cis men, a dad bod is out of the question. You need abs, broad shoulders and a lot of body muscle to fit this criteria of ‘perfect’. If you want to love yourself, better get working on that body. And for non-binary people… well simply pick a side and go with that. This body type doesn’t adapt for anything outside strict gender norms.
You see, the type of body you’re after is the type you can see on Instagram. Give a few seconds to scroll on your explore page, pick a random Instagram model or influencer and just copy and paste that body onto yours.
How can you do this? Well, there are plenty of plastic surgeons who will help you, for a very modest price of a few thousand pounds. If you want it cheaper, a flight to South America or some parts of Europe like the Czech Republic or Turkey are hot spots for your surgery. It all depends on how much you're willing to give to love yourself.
Satire over for now, I want to actually talk seriously about this topic. While my opinion on cosmetic and plastic surgery changes frequently, there has been some discussion on a recent Love Island episode on plastic surgery which sparked my attention. Is it okay for some people to dislike the way you look because of plastic surgery? Although the archetypal narrative is people might find you unattractive because of your ‘natural body’ (aka you have never had any cosmetic surgery) but as talked about briefly on Love Island, is it acceptable to have a preference for natural looking people?
This preference which a Love Island contestant brought up was received badly and honestly I don’t know why. This is new, to me anyway, since from the age where I first got social media I soon realized that having a very ‘unnatural’ body, figure and facial features was not the way to go if I wanted to be deemed as attractive and sexy. I always had an idea in my head that I will get some sort of plastic surgery at some point, either a Brazilian butt lift or a tummy tuck just to look the way every other cis woman looks on Instagram. It was just something I envisioned for myself. For example, one day I will raise children, similarly one day I’ll pay thousands of pounds to change my body for approval.
It irks me that from a young age, girls, boys and everyone else are forced to think they need to look ‘sexy’ to be approved. What 12 year old needs that kind of encouragement? Second, something I did not realise as a prepubescent girl but these models and influencers on Instagram are for the majority of the time, paid to get plastic surgery. Whether directly or with the hope that a larger bum and larger boobs will help them receive more brand deals, the money is the outcome of this venture into the cosmetic surgery world. This is a world that 12 and 13 year old me never fathomed.
To highlight how intense this world of cosmetic surgery is, 28 passengers who came off one flight from the Dominican Republic to Atlanta were transported in wheelchairs as they were recovering from BBL (Brazilian-Butt-Lift) surgery. Perhaps it is because of our increased access to global media but it seems that more women are getting plastic surgery, even travelling abroad, than in the previous few years. But when surgery is trend led, it makes the prospect of permanently changing your body even more uncomfortable.
Even though ‘surgery’ has been in my vocabulary for most of my life, the risks women are taking to pursue an ideal created by a few ‘perfect’ women is only getting more extreme. BBL has the highest fatality rate. Popular celebrity plastic surgeon Dr Terry Dubrow told TMZ “It turns out that it’s the most dangerous, not only plastic surgery procedure, it’s the most dangerous operation there is with the highest fatality rate.” Moreover, depending on the price you’re willing to pay, the chances of complications are arbitrary.
Although the media is selling a body ideal to all of us, those who can actually seek a ‘good’ plastic surgeon depend on accessibility. Yet another trap of capitalism.
Cosmetic surgery is only a branch off the beauty standard tree, the roots are so much deeper. Insecurities. That’s what drives the majority of people to get plastic surgery but I can promise you, once the surgery is over, the insecurities will still exist. I’m not necessarily against surgery, but it’s the cookie-cutter type of surgery that is trend-led which I fear the most for society. I understand what it’s like living in a body where the insecurity is so deep that you wish for cosmetic surgery. But when the insecurities arise from comparison with unachievable ideals and when the insecurities are sold to us for a pay-off through dangerous procedures, that’s where I draw the line.
Pushing women to believe they will be loved if they go under the knife only perpetuates deeper problems. Further, this craze that ‘self confidence’ and ‘self love’ can be gained at the snap of the finger has women in a chokehold. For me, getting surgery is a cop-out to self love. Self love isn’t something that can be bought. Self love does not happen overnight. Self love involves nobody else but you. As cliché as it sounds, self love is a journey, a rigorous one to say the least, but one that isn’t attached to a product. Because at the end of the day when you are changing your body at a price, your body becomes a commodity. Your body is a product.
It’s easier said than done, but when I look at myself in the mirror, when I contour my shape, when I tense and when I pose I need to remember that this body I desire comes at a price. Self love, real self love, is priceless.
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