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hippybngstockngWatching a TV news thing about plastic surgery got me thinking about cultural aesthetics. The surgeon used the term "a little bit out of proportion to the ideal" a few times too many to justify why he was doing liposuction on a rather skinny teenage girl, and the more he used it, the more I became enraged.
What IS proportion, really? In this case it's just a term used to describe the size of something in comparison to the "things" immediately around it.
Who should decide what "in proportion" should be, and when something is out of it? And is being out of proportion always a bad thing?
Take Picasso- that dude had NO CLUE about proportion, but does that make all his art worthless and ugly? um... No...
Take Angelina Jolie! She has some big-ass lips compared to other people. Does that make any of us want to nibble them ANY LESS??? I didn't think so.
And what about boobs? It's a rare woman who expresses interest in having her boobs actually be in proportion to her body- usually quite the opposite.
So yah, when a surgeon goes on national TV and shows me a picture of what in my mind is some teenage girl's skinny hips and uses the phrase "a little out of proportion to the ideal", I look at it and get enraged... Whose ideal are we talking about here? His? Mary-Kate's? Ashley's? Is rail thin really the only ideal we gals are supposed to aspire to? You're not really trying to say that, are you?
I feel like if we're ever to move forward as a gender, or as a society, even as a species, we need to drop this idea that there is any one "ideal" of anything, especially beauty. No one truth that will make all falsehoods pale in comparison, only personal preferences, and flavors of the week. Who's to say what tomorrow will bring, or even what's around the next corner when it comes to what makes people excited.
And why is it so hard to just say that it's HER ideal of proportion, and HER ideal of beauty- and she gets what she wants because of her willingness to write the checks- It's the truth, right? The fact that she's a teenager only means her resolve is stronger- her sense of beauty is still going to be the same when she's 20, so if she wants the surgery now, so be it. Just don't sit around calling her "out of proportion" when there is really no such thing, especially not in her case.
See, I'm of two minds about plastic surgery: On the one hand, I think BECAUSE everyone has a different idea of beauty, people should be able to get whatever crazy ass surgery they want, whenever, and no one should be able to complain as long as they can pay for it somehow. Go nuts, get an udder worth of boobs, take out some ribs and even a finger for all I care. You should do whatever it is that makes you happy. I will thoroughly support your decision because that's what having your own aesthetic ideal is all about!
On the other hand, I am saddened by that growing section of people that do it because it seems to come from a really insecure place, more like they can't learn to accept what I would see as rather minute differences about themselves, like the extra half inch of fat here or there that might be just a bit more than your average supermodel. Differences are supposed to be the thing that make us each individual and unique, and we should celebrate them. Of course, if you have something that is so different it borders on deformity or if being different feels really bad to you, then sure- nip, tuck, suck, or enlarge away, but remember that Jamie Farr never would have gotten so famous if it hadn't been for his nose and his ability to have a sense of humor about it. I only get angry when this particular section of surgery fiends tries to defend their need for surgery with language geared to make the rest of us feel bad just to be able to deny it's their own insecurities that are motivating them.
I actually find it fascinating how surgery has taken such a hold of the world, and the doors this opens as far as aesthetic ideals are concerned. I'm certainly not against it, heck, you could even say I was for it, even though I'm not interested in it personally except from a curiosity standpoint. I think it was Oprah that had a thing about it recently where they sent female correspondents around the world to see what women in other countries were having done. It was terribly funny to me because of how much cultural difference plays a role- what women nip and tuck in our locality is what gets enlarged in others. It was also kind of alarming to me how many asian women are having their eyes and cheeks altered to appear more western, and similar things in other races.
That got me to wondering- How does an individual, or culture go about figuring its aesthetic anyway? When and why do those things evolve and change? Like what was it that made those folks start putting plates in their lips and ears? Why foot binding? Why tattoos?
Equally perplexing to me is when people want to force their aesthetic on others, like it's a religion or something. I'm not talking about the occasional voluntary make-over, especially if the person in question just needs a boost in their self image- I'm talking about the other kind of make-over.... The kind where some "fashion conscious" person tries to make over a person with a particular personal aesthetic- like, oh, Goths- I've seen this scenario played out on a couple day time talk shows I care not admit to ever watching (no, I don't watch them regularly either, just Oprah and sometimes Phil and Ellen- I end up seeing them while flipping channels). The Goth in question always states after the make-over is finished that they will likely strip in the parking lot, put a bag over their head and run to the nearest Hot Topic, and then pray that their friends are at work when the show is aired. I can't understand why anyone ever assumes that by simply dressing a friend up like their own personal Barbie they can somehow remove large sections of their friend's brain that determines what they find sexy and immediately convert those chunks to some Entertainment Tonight ideal of hot. As if... Basically having a strong opinion about someone else's personal style, and especially trying to act on that opinion seems kinda pointless to me- Like trying to teach someone who hates the violin to love it by forcing them to play one. Sure is funny to watch them try sometimes though...
And before you say it, I know, I should just stop watching TV. It would just be refreshing to be able to fulfill my need for news and The Simpsons without being inundated with the opinions of people who are like aliens to me, telling me how I should want to look and feel, and how I should regard myself if I don't agree with their ideal. I'm sick of hearing about their ideal. I like being a depressed, black wearing, out of proportion ovoid creature, they can fucker off and bite my out of proportion ass...
Makes me want to go put a plate in my lip.
What IS proportion, really? In this case it's just a term used to describe the size of something in comparison to the "things" immediately around it.
Who should decide what "in proportion" should be, and when something is out of it? And is being out of proportion always a bad thing?
Take Picasso- that dude had NO CLUE about proportion, but does that make all his art worthless and ugly? um... No...
Take Angelina Jolie! She has some big-ass lips compared to other people. Does that make any of us want to nibble them ANY LESS??? I didn't think so.
And what about boobs? It's a rare woman who expresses interest in having her boobs actually be in proportion to her body- usually quite the opposite.
So yah, when a surgeon goes on national TV and shows me a picture of what in my mind is some teenage girl's skinny hips and uses the phrase "a little out of proportion to the ideal", I look at it and get enraged... Whose ideal are we talking about here? His? Mary-Kate's? Ashley's? Is rail thin really the only ideal we gals are supposed to aspire to? You're not really trying to say that, are you?
I feel like if we're ever to move forward as a gender, or as a society, even as a species, we need to drop this idea that there is any one "ideal" of anything, especially beauty. No one truth that will make all falsehoods pale in comparison, only personal preferences, and flavors of the week. Who's to say what tomorrow will bring, or even what's around the next corner when it comes to what makes people excited.
And why is it so hard to just say that it's HER ideal of proportion, and HER ideal of beauty- and she gets what she wants because of her willingness to write the checks- It's the truth, right? The fact that she's a teenager only means her resolve is stronger- her sense of beauty is still going to be the same when she's 20, so if she wants the surgery now, so be it. Just don't sit around calling her "out of proportion" when there is really no such thing, especially not in her case.
See, I'm of two minds about plastic surgery: On the one hand, I think BECAUSE everyone has a different idea of beauty, people should be able to get whatever crazy ass surgery they want, whenever, and no one should be able to complain as long as they can pay for it somehow. Go nuts, get an udder worth of boobs, take out some ribs and even a finger for all I care. You should do whatever it is that makes you happy. I will thoroughly support your decision because that's what having your own aesthetic ideal is all about!
On the other hand, I am saddened by that growing section of people that do it because it seems to come from a really insecure place, more like they can't learn to accept what I would see as rather minute differences about themselves, like the extra half inch of fat here or there that might be just a bit more than your average supermodel. Differences are supposed to be the thing that make us each individual and unique, and we should celebrate them. Of course, if you have something that is so different it borders on deformity or if being different feels really bad to you, then sure- nip, tuck, suck, or enlarge away, but remember that Jamie Farr never would have gotten so famous if it hadn't been for his nose and his ability to have a sense of humor about it. I only get angry when this particular section of surgery fiends tries to defend their need for surgery with language geared to make the rest of us feel bad just to be able to deny it's their own insecurities that are motivating them.
I actually find it fascinating how surgery has taken such a hold of the world, and the doors this opens as far as aesthetic ideals are concerned. I'm certainly not against it, heck, you could even say I was for it, even though I'm not interested in it personally except from a curiosity standpoint. I think it was Oprah that had a thing about it recently where they sent female correspondents around the world to see what women in other countries were having done. It was terribly funny to me because of how much cultural difference plays a role- what women nip and tuck in our locality is what gets enlarged in others. It was also kind of alarming to me how many asian women are having their eyes and cheeks altered to appear more western, and similar things in other races.
That got me to wondering- How does an individual, or culture go about figuring its aesthetic anyway? When and why do those things evolve and change? Like what was it that made those folks start putting plates in their lips and ears? Why foot binding? Why tattoos?
Equally perplexing to me is when people want to force their aesthetic on others, like it's a religion or something. I'm not talking about the occasional voluntary make-over, especially if the person in question just needs a boost in their self image- I'm talking about the other kind of make-over.... The kind where some "fashion conscious" person tries to make over a person with a particular personal aesthetic- like, oh, Goths- I've seen this scenario played out on a couple day time talk shows I care not admit to ever watching (no, I don't watch them regularly either, just Oprah and sometimes Phil and Ellen- I end up seeing them while flipping channels). The Goth in question always states after the make-over is finished that they will likely strip in the parking lot, put a bag over their head and run to the nearest Hot Topic, and then pray that their friends are at work when the show is aired. I can't understand why anyone ever assumes that by simply dressing a friend up like their own personal Barbie they can somehow remove large sections of their friend's brain that determines what they find sexy and immediately convert those chunks to some Entertainment Tonight ideal of hot. As if... Basically having a strong opinion about someone else's personal style, and especially trying to act on that opinion seems kinda pointless to me- Like trying to teach someone who hates the violin to love it by forcing them to play one. Sure is funny to watch them try sometimes though...
And before you say it, I know, I should just stop watching TV. It would just be refreshing to be able to fulfill my need for news and The Simpsons without being inundated with the opinions of people who are like aliens to me, telling me how I should want to look and feel, and how I should regard myself if I don't agree with their ideal. I'm sick of hearing about their ideal. I like being a depressed, black wearing, out of proportion ovoid creature, they can fucker off and bite my out of proportion ass...
Makes me want to go put a plate in my lip.
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I have a theory...
Date: 2004-10-15 06:41 am (UTC)'They' essentially want pre-pubescent girls.
It's a cultural sickness that is so prevalent, it's nearly invisible.
For centuries, woman were kept in the role of children.
Hells, at the time of christ, woman who married were legally adopted as daughters to their new head of house. (Hence the greek 'young girl/virgin' confusion of the christian's holy book - there was no word for 'wife.')
I think a lot of men, and girl/women too, yearn to return to that kind of thinking.
Real woman, however.
HA!
no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 07:35 am (UTC)Take Picasso- that dude had NO CLUE about proportion, but does that make all his art worthless and ugly? um... No...
I'm an art major, so pardon the rest of this reply.
Picasso drew that way on purpose, he was big on abstraction. Here's an example of his classically trained work. I find it to be rather dull, but it is proportioned. Most people think he painted the way he painted because he couldn't draw, but it's a myth.
sorry it's so small, it's not easy to find his crayon work online.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 08:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-16 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-16 08:19 pm (UTC)Must watch TV in order to understand all of the cultural references in the Simpsons shows.