Under the Knife, and None of Your Business

We all love the movie Mean Girls, I don’t want to argue that. But watching it for the umpteenth time the other night I had some second thoughts on The Plastics, a gang of bullies portrayed throughout the film as conniving, spoiled girls you would never want to come in contact with. It just made me think: Why call them The Plastics? Regina George admits in the film about getting a nose job, along with her mom’s fake boobs being a funny gag throughout the story. Still, The Plastics may represent everything wrong with how women are represented in the media, so their name is fitting in regards to the long history of women’s bodies being ridiculed. 

Image Courtesy: Pinterest

It’s not hard to think of a celebrity who has had cosmetic procedures done. It’s actually harder to think of a celebrity who hasn’t. Usually these procedures amount to people deeming those celebrities, often women, as “fake,” “bad role models,” or, as you can guess, “plastic.” Like I mentioned earlier, women’s bodies have been ridiculed for ages. Our social, intelligent beings have struggled to be recognized throughout history, but our physical beings have always been under a microscope. Cue today’s cosmetic surgery craze. With the United States being one of the leading countries for cosmetic surgeries, it’s still an issue many think is taboo.

Plastic surgery, especially in young people, is controversial for many valid reasons, and patients should be aware of the potential risks and side effects of any procedure. But I want to talk about the most common reasons women are attacked for getting work done. Many argue getting these procedures diminishes one’s natural beauty, strips them of their worth as a woman and exposes their silly, superfluous desires to be prettier. Hopefully everyone sees the problem with those thoughts. 

Have you ever thought to wonder what these women are coping with? Girls spending their life savings on plastic surgeries isn’t the issue, the issue comes from the suffocating pressure many feel from the standards set today regarding what makes a woman valuable. It’s a sad reality that so many women feel the need to change themselves physically in order to fit a certain mold and feel more confident, but it’s happening and it’s rooted in a much deeper, sexist practice in our society. 

I hate to over-generalize. Women decide to get cosmetic procedures done for a plethora of reasons, and many feel no outside pressures to do so. Just like many have an internal drive to change up their hair or nail color, some want to change their nose or lips. My main point is: Why do we care so much? Regardless of what procedure a patient wants and why, it’s a personal decision. Our culture is so obsessed with women’s physical beings that we forget what really matters. A woman’s value has nothing to do with what she looks like, and if you have a problem because a celebrity got their lips done and you feel self-conscious, you are part of a bigger problem. I’ll rephrase it again: A human’s value has nothing to do with their physical appearance, so let’s stay out of it! 

Strike Out, 

Morgan Quinn 

Athens