Plastic not Fantastic

I hate plastic surgery. The inflated pufferfish lips, the enhanced cheekbones, the immovable facial skin & the reality that the 80 year old looking like a 20 something is still going to feel considerably self -conscious when they witness two sides of themselves when their naked, even after spending a colossal amount of aesthetic treatments.

Aesthetic salons are everywhere and the rise continues despite women innately knowing that botox or plastic surgery won’t change how you feel about yourself. 10 years ago, I used to laugh with international friends when they said a regular 21st present was fake breasts and yet in Australia I’ve met women who all looked the same as each other and it’s celebrated! Now before you come at me, yes I know there are legit reasons that impact womens’ confidence and there is a shift when people work on those things (fixing scars and injuries, evening out breasts post cancer or child rearing days) but we were never meant to be frozen in time nor were we meant to look like each other.

Plastic surgery and botox are an expensive bandaid to how we really feel and the insidious thing is the beauty standards never stick so there is always more work to be done. While this is conveniently helpful for surgeons and aesthetic salons it runs off a society that encourages a lack of self -esteem to push products and services, all while draining the bank accounts for women who fill compelled to conform.

This 6 billion dollar industry (yes BILLION) certainly has no qualms in profiteering off the infamously harmful ideologies circulated by the media the world over about how women ‘should look’. It does with such arrogance knowing that those who spend money on aesthetic services will be stuck into the financial trap of always doing more to at least keep the same effect to the detriment of a woman’s mental health.  While the injectables industry reaps in 19.3% more sales per year and cosmetic surgery boosts their sales by 9% annually the health industry deals with 1 in every 2 women suffering from a mental health condition. Let’s let that sync in.

Now, I am all for looking and feeling great but I won’t advocate for aesthetics helping women’s confidence, by and large they simply help women focus on what is skin deep and let’s be honest society has been doing that since the beginning of time. It’s high time women collectively advocate more for looking after our skin naturally, ageing gracefully & investing our hard earn cash in something far more valuable that will lift our inner and outer confidence.