#plastic surgery culture

[ms-revived-frogs]

Anyways, so I've been seeing this gross misinterpretation of my post on unnecessary hysterectomy and I'd like to explain, even though the OP has me blocked (unsurprising).

Gotta love seeing my post resurfacing and being taken wildly ou of context! Anyways @ratbastarddotfuck and @vergess, the meaning of my post was not that hysterectomy should be banned. I know that hysterectomy is oftentimes medically necessary for the health of a woman. And no, I do not believe it should be restricted only until after a woman might have had a child. I am not right-wing and do not believe this is woman's "role".

However, my post was in reference to this new phenomenon of young women trying to get hysterectomies simply because they never intend to have children or because they don't like having periods. Meanwhile there better, less invasive, and less damaging surgeries out there! One example can be tubal ligation. As back-not-broken said on the post, the uterus plays a key role outside of reproduction. New research is showing that the uterus has a role in your cognitive function (removing it is linked to higher risk of Alzheimer's), and plays a structural role as well (removing it is linked to risk of prolapse). In my post, I was attributing this desire for unnecessary hysterectomy to beauty culture and plastic surgery culture. Because yes, these two involve the division of the female body into a collective of parts, rather than one whole human organism. Women are already en masse cutting themselves up, and making the bulk of almost every plastic surgery (nose jobs, liposuction, BBLs). And while men out there do get these surgeries sometimes, they are getting them at a far less severe degree than women. So as feminists, we must inquire as to why women specifically are doing this and not men as much. And the answer of course points to self esteem issues and societal voyeurism into what a woman's body is or should be. It's not a coincidence that all these women are getting surgeries to look like the media's ideal woman. And it's not a coincidence that the media treats women like a collective of parts ("Increase your bust with X product!" "Shave your body hair with X product!" "10 ways to make your butt look bigger!").

I think the funniest part about this extremely liberal interpretation is that the idiot @vergess decided to list... wisdom teeth removal, tonsillectomy, and kidney donation, as if these all were done with the same intention as women wanting to cut out healthy organs because they don't intend on reproducing. Neither of the three above can lead to prolapse or Alzheimer's, and neither of them are male-exclusive either. Almost all of @vergess examples were gender-neutral! Which proves exactly my point that it is mainly women who are encouraged to cut themselves from inside out unnecessarily. Once again, I'm not speaking of medically necessary hysterectomy.

It's feminists' duty to analyse the societal behaviours of man and woman. Why should this be off limits, when it is so invasive and dangerous?

[redditreceipts]

[live-love-laugh-lesbian]

Cosmetic surgery is NOT the same as reconstructive surgery ffs. Someone getting a nose job so they look "better" is not the same as someone trying to restore their nose after an accident and you all know it.

"Oooh you can't criticise plastic surgery, some people NEED it" ok well I can and I will, just like I'll criticise the diet industry even tho sure there are people who might need to lose weight out there.

Let's be real here, it's very telling that feminists will be like "hey so X exploits women" and suddenly a bunch of you will be like "whoa there, have you considered not talking about that?"

It's worse when those of you claiming to be all anti capitalist do this tho. Oh you think capitalism is bad, but also we shouldn't critique the rise of dangerous and unnecessary cosmetic surgeries? Go fuck yourself

[mikasasrippedtoenail]

Plastic surgeons should be stoned in public

[reyneofswords]

Currently reading the Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf.

Here are some of my highlights so far:

"As soon as woman's primary social value could no longer be defined as the attainment of virtuous domesticity, the beauty myth redefined it as the attainment of virtuous beauty."

"The message of the news team, not hard to read, is that a powerful man is an individual, whether that individuality is expressed in asymmetrical features, lines, gray hair, hairpieces, baldness, bulbousness, tubbiness, facial tics, or a wattled neck; and that his maturity is part of his power. If a single standard were applied equally to men as to women in TV journalism, most of the men would be unemployed."

"to be credible about being harassed, in any case, a woman must look harassable, which destroys her credibility."

"fashion modeling and prostitution are the only professions in which women consistently earn more than men."

"While only one man in ten is "strongly dissatisfied" with his body, one third of women are "strongly dissatisfied" with theirs. Though the sexes are overweight in equal proportions - about a third - 95 percent of enrollees in weight-loss programs are women. Women think they have a serious problem when they are fifteen pounds above the national average; men are not concerned until they are thirty-five pounds above."

"The holy oil industry offers to sell back to women in tubes and bottles the light of grace, to redeem women's bodies now that the cults of virginity and of motherhood can no longer offer to surround with consecrated light the female body whose sexuality has yielded to others."

"We as women are trained to see ourselves as cheap imitations of fashion photographs, rather than seeing fashion photographs as cheap imitations of women."

[fitzrove]

Hate when someone online vents about not liking traditionally feminine things - and ESPECIALLY not liking the fact that society forces them to do it - and every response is

a) pick me accusation

b) "i used to be like you too but now i love my 294050 step skin care routine and playing with makeup and skinny jeans and gilmore girls teehee :) you'll grow out of it <3 anyway you should like it more because it's really good for you and helps your confidence!! Don't you want to have something to talk about with other girls :3"

c) "it's not valid to say you hate those things that's misogynist :("

d) "those things are not gendered, everyone should have a 294050 step skin care routine and wear makeup <3 especially queer people regardless of gender because everyone knows queer = femininity and if you don't do this you're ugly and boring and also queerphobic"

The worst thing is that some queer women do this, like bestie I thought living outside a pretty major societal norm meant we all had to reflect on the ways in which society (and the people it consists of) tries to put everyone in a box and, you know, fight it when we see it....... Even some lesbians do this and if you call it out they say "just because i'm a lesbian doesn't mean i'm not hot and conventionally attractively feminine!!" which I find terrible

[melancholic-pluvioph1le]

Libfems will watch this and swear it’s empowering lol

[uncanny-tranny]

I know I've talked about this before, but as somebody with Strong features who has been mocked for it, it really infuriates me when people bully others for changing their strong features through surgery instead of criticizing beauty culture, you know, a big issue as to why people with strong or ethnic features are often bullied or even discriminated against. When you bully people for altering their appearance through surgery, you may just be victim-blaming somebody. Beauty culture is the issue, not somebody using their bodily autonomy as they see fit.

[leaves-lilies-and-esther]

I'm so excited to see what I'll look like as I get older!

I hope that I'll be able to eat bread and desserts without worrying about my figure, that when I exercise it'll be focused on mobility instead of how I look in a swimsuit.

I hope that I can go to the beach when I'm middle aged or elderly without feeling self conscious.

If I have children and gain weight I want to be happy that I had a baby, and not upset that my waist is gone.

I want to see my hair go white, to get laugh and smile lines, etc.

I hope that my money goes to books, pets, gardens, and vacations instead of the beauty industry that doesn't give a sh*t about me.

I'm so happy that my older relatives always cast "aging out of beauty" as such a freeing time of life. Nobody is staring anymore, there's no expectation that you put effort into being sexy. It's just you!

[edwardshundredyearoldspunk]

I shouldn't be surprised that the chronically online crowd refuse to acknowledge that dot and bubble is actually a "phone bad" episode. it's a "phone bad" episode guys. it's a better "phone bad" episode than we usually see because it grounds itself in real issues like racism, but it is a "phone bad" episode. believe it or not, phones can be, uh, bad. sometimes.

[eddis-not-eeddis]

.

[mikasasrippedtoenail]

The Female Hunger

There is an eternal void inside my heart that is gnawing my blood, bones and sinew. The mirror haunts me, reflecting what I am and mocking what I can never be. I see the asymmetrical eyes, the pudgy stomach and scarred legs. To be seen by the world is to be fulfilled. The void is hungry for beauty, it demands it. So I sew my eyes, my stomach and my legs. Yet, the void only grows hungrier. It doesn't care that I am skin and bones or that my body is black and blue. But Before I can satiate its hunger, it devours my soul.

[hussyknee]

Thinking about how so much of what we call beautiful and attractive is just proximity to white European features and figures. I think a decolonized understanding of beauty necessarily wouldnt allow for any universal standards. Ideally, there should be no premium put on attractiveness. Failing that, however, it would be real nice if whatever arbitrates the concept of beauty didn't involve simply hating your racial and ethnic origins.

I'm not particularly evolved in that area myself. I still find fair skin, light eyes, slim figures and sharp features much more appealing. However, I do find stick thin white women unattractive as hell. For now, as a proud South Asian woman with child-bearing hips, I call that praxis.

[reyneofswords]

The Beauty Myth highlights part 2

"The woman who dies thinnest, with the fewest wrinkles, wins."

"If women were going to have sexual freedom and a measure of worldly power, they'd better learn to fuck like men."

"Midway through the 1970s, the punk-rock scene began to glorify S and M: High school girls put safety pins through their ears, painted their lips bruise-blue, and ripped their clothing to suggest sexual battle. By the end of the decade, S and M had ascended from street fashion to high fashion in the form of studded black leather, wristcuffs, and spikes. Fashion models adopted from violent pornography the furious pouting glare of the violated woman. "Vanilla" sexual styles - loving and nonviolent - came to look passé."

"Consumer culture depends on maintaining a broken line of communication between the sexes and promoting matching sexual insecurities."

"With women experimenting sexually, men risked hearing what women hear every day: that there are sexual standards against which they might be compared. Their fears are exaggerated: Even with sexual freedom, women maintain a strict code of etiquette. "Never," enjoins a women's magazine, "mention the size of his [penis] in public... and never, ever let him know that anyone else knows or you may find it shrivels up and disappears, serving you right." That quotation acknowledges that critical sexual comparison is a direct anaphrodisiac when applied to men; either we do not recognize that it has exactly the same effect on women, or we do not care, or we understand on some level that right now that effect is desirable and appropriate."

"What little girls learn is not desire for the other, but the desire to be desired."

"So the beauty myth sets it up this way: A high rating as an art object is the most valuable tribute a woman can exact from her lover. If he appreciates her face and body because it is hers, that is next to worthless."

"Some men do get a sexual charge from a woman's objective "beauty," just as some women feel sexual pleasure at the thought of a man's money or power. But it is often a status high, a form of exhibitionism, that draws its power from the man imagining his buddies imagining him doing what he is doing while he does it."

"The idea that adult women, with their fully developed array of sexual characteristics, are inadequate to stimulate and gratify heterosexual male desire, and that "beauty" is what will complete them, is the beauty myth's Big Lie."

[f1minist]

Fear of life and of ourselves.

from @hmsindecision

[dirtied-perception]

Brotha ewwww

What the fuuuuck

This woman got three shades lighter, removed half her fucking nose.

This is self-hate infinity and the comments are praising it.

I don't know if I'm more sad or disgusted.

Not to mention the make up hiding her actual face. "Enhance the features" always ends up being an excuse to cover everything and look like plastic. It's unhealthy.