C – Cosmetic Surgery
This is probably the vainest faux pas out there, mostly prevalent to the rich and famous although now many members of the general public are investing in this cosmetic tailoring. In general it has been popularised by ageing actors, singers and so on as they try to regain their youthful beauty and looks. For others it serves as a modification tool, to enhance their visage or perhaps correct minor imperfections, this can include anything from fuller lips, bigger breasts, slimmer waists and straighter noses. The list is quite extensive and includes subject matter that would probably mean that this book would have to be sold from the top shelf or in the adult section, not that it’s going to end up in the kids section with my language and opinions. My problem with this is that in these attempts to look beautiful or more importantly youthful again they end up looking quite ghastly and just downright weird and achieve the complete opposite of what is desired. Clients now look less attractive than they were before and now reveal that they are old by trying to look young. Amusingly or sadly, depending on your disposition many of these operations are botched and leave the patient looking rather ridiculous. For example Leslie Ash is a British television actress who was a pretty woman, but she decided to get an injection of collagen to ‘plump up’ her lips. The first injection in her thirties was successful however she repeated the procedure with the same surgeon in her forties and it left her with what the press dubbed a ‘trout pout’ as she looked like a fish. It was a shame but it doesn’t stop there; Katie Price once attractive got ridiculously large breast implants and kept repeating the procedure till her boobs were even bigger and this just looked awful, Pete Burns a singer from the 80s band Dead or Alive, who now looks like a monstrosity, the late Michael Jackson who looked increasingly weird until his death, Sylvester Stallone’s mother Jackie who looks like one of the orcs from Lord of the Rings, Dolly Parton who now looks like a man in drag, Tom Jones who looks like he’s been dipped in varnish and had his skin pinched back and Peter Andre for having pec implants (chest implants), I mean that’s plain lazy, just go to the gym you idiot then you’ll actually have the strength as well as the physique. These aforementioned cosmetic surgery clients aren’t even the tip of the iceberg, there is a huge amount out there and now spreads out into the public. Now I must mention that not all plastic surgery is bad, cosmetic surgery being one aspect of plastic surgery. Reconstructive surgery has helped improve many people’s lives after having being injured through accidents, victims of attacks, birth defects, scars from cancers or tumours, breast reduction and breast reconstruction for women who have had to have a breast removed due to cancer (mastectomy) and even now literal facelifts i.e. a face transplant. So it is important that these two areas are not confused.
Exceptions where this faux pas is acceptable
When you have suffered an injury and need reconstructive surgery for physical and psychological benefits to make life easier.