Is Plastic Fantastic?
If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be? Come on, it’s easy now – you can change whatever you want. You don’t have to be you. Being you probably sucks sometimes. That kink in your nose. Those crows feet around your eyes that’ve come from nowhere. That other ass that resides on your ass. All those things can just be smoothed over, ironed out, sucked away. You don’t even need to look old anymore. So what would it be?
Me? Hell, it took me so long to accept the way I look, I wouldn’t change a thing now. I figure I wasted enough years avoiding mirrors or overanalysing everything in them and hating my reflection. No ma’am, now that I actually like what looks back at me, I think I’ll keep it just the way it is, thanks. Alright, truth be told, I have a writing bump on my middle finger on my right hand that makes my nail look all wonky. Maybe I’d have that corrected. But then I wouldn’t have my weird middle finger with the writing bump, so I wouldn’t totally be me, would I?
It baffles me how many people say they wouldn’t hesitate to get plastic surgery as they get older. Personally, I think those people who have their faces sandblasted and stretched and lifted look all kinds of weird, but hey, whatever makes them happy I guess. I think there’s a lot to be said for allowing yourself to just age. Start messing with that and you lose your character, you lose what makes you, you.
Only when she was in her 80s did my grandmother start saying ‘where have all these wrinkles come from?’ – but she still looked fantastic. Those wrinkles were well earned. She lived a full life and was the very definition of growing old gracefully. Wrinkles, liver spots and white hair didn’t make her any less beautiful to me.
Isn’t it all about how you feel anyway? I once met a woman in Toronto who was in her 70s/early 80s. She always had her hair done and a nice outfit on. She said she liked to make an effort, even though people probably didn’t look at her that way anymore. She says she looks in the mirror and can’t believe what looks back at her. In her head, she said, she’s still in her 30s. Once, she got on the bus and the bus driver said ‘it’s half fare for you sweetheart.’ She thought he was hitting on her, then she realised he’d said it because she’s a pensioner. She laughed to herself. I thought that was the cutest story. I’d never thought about age that way til I had that conversation.
We’re constantly under pressure to look a certain way, especially as women. Just look at the TV – a man can be old, fat and balding and remain on TV til he dies during a live broadcast. Women get relegated to radio after 45.
So I say stuff it – I don’t want to be nipped or tucked or stretched or lifted. I just want to be me. And that ain’t so bad.
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Tags: looks, plastic surgery, self acceptance
