Time Marches On: Except in the Field of Cosmetic Surgery

[LizzieMaine]

There seems to be some race of "plastic people," an evolutionary offshoot of the human species, that has developed in LA. They are slowly migrating to major cities in the United States.

But seriously, I live in the Texas Hill Country, where the grisly old cowboy face, like nicely aged horsehide, is the desired norm. Drinking, smoking, and hard living and loving expedites this process.

I don't think I've ever seen one of these modern plasticene faces face-to-face around here. Around here the mark of success and high living is a face tanned to the color and texture of an old baseball glove by constant exposure to salt air and sun on one's sailboat. If the LA look is the Face Of The Future, I'm perfectly happy to stay in the past, thanx.

Lillian Gish never had plastic surgery of any kind, as far as I know, and she looked better at 90 than most of these people do at 50.

 

[Flicka]

Famous faces that hopefully will never go under the knife.

Nick Nolte
Jeff Bridges
Tommy Lee Jones
Willie Nelson
Clint Eastwood

Please feel free to add some famous women who have certainly never had PS. I just can't think of anybody off the top of my head.

Maggie Smith. Judy Dench. Both of them have lovely faces with great character and if they had PS, it doesn't show.

 

[Lily Powers]

It's more than just plastic surgery. The airbrushing on mag covers has gotten totally outrageous! I saw a cover with Gabrielle Union, a truly beautiful young woman, and she had been brushed so much i could barely recognize her. We seem to be seeking perfection so much that we have reached inhuman proportions. While women have become even more powerful in Hollywood, it just reinforces our unrealistic expectations for everyone. We can't get fat, we can't get old, and we must be eternally young and beautiful. We really haven't come a long way, baby!

Many years ago, I rode in an elevator with dancer and actress Ann Miler. She was up there in years and wore a sparkling red gown and a white fur. Her body was fit and her hair was black, but it was her nose that fascinated me. It had so much work, that the cartilage was visible.

I don't know if it's the seeking of perfection or the mandating of what perfection should like that offends me. Magazine covers have gotten to be a joke - every wrinkle erased, fake muscle tone shadowed on the torsos of "health" magazine cover girls, body parts slimmed down and clothing made to look like it fits perfectly. The famous faces (and I hesitate to call them "stars" because stars are those twinkly, romantic little lights in the sky; these folks are just celebrities) are unrecognizable.

 

[Mrs Chaddsley_Corbett]

Jane Seymour looks very good for 61 and the makeup isn't over done

 

[Undertow]

Pfft, these plastic Hollywood people...

Don't they know all they need is Kellogg's Pep!

 

[PADDY]

'If' it makes the individual 'happy' making them feel happier within themselves and they can afford it, then who am 'I' to judge..?

(also remember, some people have burn injuries, other injuries from accidents/incidents, birth defects..etc, and again, if they feel better within themselves to get it sorted, then again, it's got to be good).

However, there are some who are hooked on it. Obsessive compulsions/addictions to it, like any compulsive disorder, isn't good.

And...I know we chuckle at the stereotyped image of the face pulled right back like it's permanently caught in a Gale Force, but...in reality there are some GREAT results out there too

Hey - if I could afford it AND BE GUARANTEED that the surgeon would seamlessly make me look like Flynn or Gable, well...

 

[Mrs Chaddsley_Corbett]

There is a very talented Cosmetic Surgeon in Beverly Hills who can "Cut You, to look like Lana Turner"

[video=youtube;Tfyd9YVo9uU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfyd9YVo9uU[/video]

 

[W-D Forties]

That bit of LA Confidential cracks me up every time!

 

[Edward]

'If' it makes the individual 'happy' making them feel happier within themselves and they can afford it, then who am 'I' to judge..?

(also remember, some people have burn injuries, other injuries from accidents/incidents, birth defects..etc, and again, if they feel better within themselves to get it sorted, then again, it's got to be good).

However, there are some who are hooked on it. Obsessive compulsions/addictions to it, like any compulsive disorder, isn't good.

And...I know we chuckle at the stereotyped image of the face pulled right back like it's permanently caught in a Gale Force, but...in reality there are some GREAT results out there too

Hey - if I could afford it AND BE GUARANTEED that the surgeon would seamlessly make me look like Flynn or Gable, well...

Bingo.

Mind you, if my eyes get any more sunken in, a decent wig will be all I'll need to pass for Bogey....

 

[LizzieMaine]

What we ought to be condemning, and as strongly as possible, is a culture that brainwashes people -- and especially women -- into thinking they *must* be perfectly young, perfectly thin, perfect-teethed, perfect-haired, perfect-bosomed, and perfect-posteriored, even if they have to resort to being carved up in order to achieve it. Such a culture isn't as advanced and as "free of terrible stereotypes" as it likes to pretend that it is.

 

[scottyrocks]

There are vast numbers of human beings who are not as free in their thinking as they believe they are.

On the one hand, people will say that they are free to put themselves under the knife to achieve the 'youthful look' they want. My belief is that if you are truly free, you won't be pressured and influenced to actually do so, and be proud of who you are, the way you are. To me, that's true freedom.

 

[Mrs Chaddsley_Corbett]

I have had several procedures, the main aim is to look "fresh and rested" having my upper eyelids fixed means, that my field of vision has been restored

 

[scottyrocks]

See, that's a quality of life, as well as a cosmetic, improvement. Very different, to me, than why many, especially famous, people go under the knife.