words by TIANA DE HASETH
Cosmetic and plastic surgery have been part of our society since around 600 BCE in ancient India. Suśruta, a surgeon and physician pioneered the method of pedicled skin flaps for nasal repair, a practice that was performed due to amputations resulting from punishments or war. Today it has developed into something quite different. Whether it’s a young adult wanting to improve an insecurity, an aging woman wanting to reduce signs of aging, or an athlete needing to fix a broken nose, the motivations remain diverse.
However, the results have always been a public topic of discussion, especially with the rise of celebrity culture. And in the midst of this social discourse, a question arises: when did it become acceptable to comment on people’s bodies simply because we suspect they’ve had plastic surgery?
image via PINTEREST
The normalisation in media could be pinpointed to the early 2000s, specifically to the series like The Swan, which gave women extreme surgical makeovers or Botched on E!, where plastic surgeons corrected badly performed cosmetic procedures. From there, we saw Dr. Miami gain popularity on Snapchat by livestreaming surgeries, followed by the rise of BBL culture and, eventually, buccal fat removal.
What was something we watched only on TV or news tabloids, has now become something we all have access to, and therefore, can scrutinise in real time. Social media has become a facilitator of free digital megaphone, a place where we all can comment and discuss people’s bodies — head to toe.
Rumours about celebrities getting plastic surgery spread like a plague. Before-and-after pictures flood social media. Media outlets publish headlines like “She’s Gone Too Far.” TikTok is now a platform for analysing which procedures someone supposedly underwent. And today, we even have what the social media calls the "Kim Kardashian butt," "Kylie Jenner lips," and "Mar-a-Lago face."We categorise these distinctive procedures by how they look on celebrities and give them internet-specific names.
Yet, no matter how used we are to seeing cosmetic procedures in real life or online, public reactions seem to keep falling into two extremes: glorification or harsh criticism. It has become a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation.
Bella Hadid is praised online for her alleged cosmetic work, whereas Zac Efron has faced criticism over his appearance and speculation about whether he has had work done. But doesn’t everyone have the right to make decisions about their own body without judgment from the public?
Whether it’s someone from your hometown or a celebrity, discussing and dissecting people’s cosmetic procedures has become so normalised that we rarely stop to question it. And I’ll admit, I’ve been guilty of it, too.
We question why they did it. We say it wasn’t necessary. We insist they looked better before. We call it botched. We say they’ve done too much. But what made us feel entitled to have an opinion on their bodies in the first place?
Because shaming someone for having plastic surgery is still body shaming.
We live in a world where beauty standards place immense pressure on people to look a certain way. But, rather than questioning the systems that create and reinforce these standards, we direct our criticism towards those who make choices within them.
Of course, people have different reasons for getting cosmetic work done. Some want to enhance their features. Others want to change something they’ve always felt insecure about. For some, it may be influenced by cultural expectations, societal pressures or even self-hatred. For others, it may simply be a personal preference.
That doesn’t mean we should ignore the beauty industry and the unrealistic standard it promotes. The societal pressures on ageing women are real, and this is quite evident in Hollywood. Usually women waited until their 50s and 60s to start getting botox, but the pressure is now so intense that starting preventive anti-aging treatments in your 20s or 30s has becoming very acceptable, even before the visible signs of ageing have appeared.
It’s one thing to critique the system that reinforce these standard, but another to shame women for participating in them. If body-posivity means not shaming people for their looks, then plastic and other cosmetic enhancements should fall under the same principle.
