DEAR MAMA

This blog entry by Christine Song.

The story: "How The West Was Lost"

The analysis:

The topic that I decided on was the tragic death of Kanye West’s mom. When I first saw it on the news, my heart dropped for him. As we all know he comes from a single mom that raised him to be the top star that he is today. Through their rags to riches story, she was his number one fan and the only person that could hit this strong spoken, at times conceived cocky, driven man’s soft spot. What a vulnerable feeling it must be to feel on top one minute and feel like everything has been lost the next. I am sure that Donda West never thought the worst, and went in thinking only about how great she would feel afterwards with a new body to prove.

People do not realize how much we put our lives at stake when going under the knife. It makes me wonder, is society to blame or is it the sole individual for being sucked into society’s pressures to fix your flaws if you can. Regardless of being persuadable or not, we live in a world where image can be the ticket to many things. Image is everywhere in the media. We drive everyday across billboards of beautiful people, see magazines of flawless bodies, and living in Los Angeles we are surrounded by a world of people who buy their way to happiness. People have operations performed thinking that it will get them closer to their dream job, significant other, and be that last confidence booster that one needs.
According to the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, “Nearly 11.5 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were performed in the United States in 2005, according to statistics released today by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). Compared to 2004, surgical procedures increased 1% to 2.1 million, while nonsurgical procedures declined 4% to 9.3 million. The Aesthetic Society which has been collecting multi-specialty procedural statistics since 1997 says the overall number of cosmetic procedures has increased 444% since the collection of the statistics first began. The most frequently performed procedure was Botox injections and the most popular surgical procedure was liposuction.”

Surgeons like Dr. Jan Adams makes a living by telling his clients that “they don’t have to live with their flaws.” Although one’s “flaws” depends on the judger, it makes me wonder whether society’s views of plastic surgery has gone out of hand or whether it really is not a big deal. I have had a friend who has had a nose job because her once bigger nose made her feel very self-conscious and different from the rest. Of course we all loved her for who she was, but we were also happy to see that she was happier after the procedure. She illuminated a sense of self-confidence that she never really portrayed before. We can all look at it and say that in the big scheme of things, if the person is happy, isn’t that all that matters? However, what if we view it as her being a victim of being brainwashed into the common expectations of beauty? Shows like “The Swan” where very low confidence-troubled people have operations done to feel better about themselves gave me a new perspective to plastic surgery after seeing some people so happy for the first time. They deserve to feel confident and the reactions that people had after their procedures proved that people definitely treat people differently regarding their looks. It is a shame that many go under the knife in desires to be treated a certain way and to make one feel better. The thought still crosses my mind of whether it will ever be enough and people will just stop caring about physical appearances. Sadly enough, I do not think this will ever occur.