addicted to the knife

What makes one feel beautiful?  Is it your family or friends?  What about your dazzling personality and genuine kind nature?  Many of us would say none of the above.  In reality, most woman can agree clothes, makeup, and jewelry make us feel beautiful.  Of course, there are several factors that contribute to our happiness and our feeling of confidence and beauty, but many (even I) rely on a shopping fix or a new lip color to boost spirits.

However, when do we say enough is enough and just be content?  The pressures to look good have grown to such great heights that  in 2008, over 10 million people turned to plastic surgery for non-medical reasons.  Liposuction, breast implants, nips, tucks, and BOTOX.  Perhaps referred to as one of the most common "minor" surgeries, Botox, can alter a face to the point we can no longer recognize the person.  What I find so outrageous is people are set out to find ways to slow down their aging and to keep a fresh young face.  Since when did aging become negative?  It is a part of life.   Sure, wrinkles and sagging make one feel old, but that is the way of life.  Sixty year-old women, should not look like they are in their 30s and most certainly should not have perky round breasts while the rest of their body is sagging in comparison.

Our generation is becoming so dependent on surgical procedures to halt the aging and to fix what some consider "imperfections".  What happened to true natural beauty?  Makeup is normal.  Botox and tattoo eyeliner is not.  One of the most recent procedures most talked about on celebrity gossip sites is the dozen of surgeries Heidi Montag went through.  I never thought I would mention her on my blog, but it HAS come to this.  Heidi looked like a natural, pretty woman before the surgeries.  I see her now and I am afraid she may melt in the sun.  She looks plastic.  Surely, men do not find that appealing.  If they do, well then, that is full proof of how superficial our world has become.


It is scary how books such as "Brave New World", written in 1931, have many parallels to the world we live in now.  What will be next?