Modifications to our genetic expressions are commonplace and extend back to ancient times. Men shave their facial hair; women use makeup. Primitive peoples paint their bodies, tattoo and scar their skins into complex, meaningful designs. Lip-plates, nose-bones, piercings, all of these are attempts to modify, decorate, or otherwise enhance our genetic foundation.
Practices not used within our own culture seem alien to us, and the repulsion they evoke have to do with how extreme we perceive them. A lip plate seems extreme to the average westerner, who thinks little of removing subcutaneous fat, excess skin, and male circumcision. Exercising, dieting, and clothing are also cognitively made modifications to our physical expressions as well. These are more acceptable, because they have practical applications in addition to their aesthetic enhancements.
We now have the potential to radically and permanently change our designs willfully. In a surgical process that puts patients in a wheelchair for up to a year, a person’s height may be increased 18 centimeters. Plastic implants can give people the appearance of muscle mass. Tattooing creates permanent makeup for eyeliner, eyebrows, and nipples. Women and men are removing more and more hair from all over their bodies. We are free to transcend our species’ natural expressions.
If I may abuse the cliche: The book may now modify its cover.
What are the social implications of human beings having the freedom to redefine their appearance absolutely? One could argue that in such a system, racial discrimination would be rendered inoperative, but a new form of discrimination could arise. If everyone has equal freedom and means to design how they look, then couldn’t prejudice on the basis of appearance gain some validity?
At first glance the incredible degree of Surgical Modifications pop-star Michael Jackson has undergone could prompt us to declare something psychologically abnormal about him, but there is a dangerous, slippery slope to such assumptions. No matter how drastic the change, body modifications are purely cosmetic. Judging Michael Jackson’s mental state on the basis of his fashion taste is prejudice.
Yet one’s appearance can express aspects the mind below. Cher’s age-defying medical maintenance reveals a an effective expression of classical beauty. What does Cher’s judicious use of plastic surgery tell us about her? That she has a good surgeon and an understanding of what’s attractive.
Judging someone for their piercings, tattoos, plastic surgery, or other body modifications is like judging the content of this website on the color scheme and graphics I decorate it with. Yes, these things tell you something about me, but reading my articles tells you more. We might judge an individual’s aesthetic tastes, but only against our own, because, opinions, if I may use another cliche, are like a certain orifice. We all have one, and they all stink.
A Tale of Two Surgeries
A funny coincidence made me ponder this realm of the Medical Science. I was at my parent’s house, sitting on the couch and indulging in Cable Television, something prohibited at my own house as a rabid time-waster. I don’t miss Television, but I do miss the documentary channels like Discovery, TLC, The History Channel, etc. The coincidence involved one of these and an unlikely channel, MTV.
The show was “Extreme Surgery,” on the Discovery channel, and the focus was on Cosmetic Surgery techniques being used to reconstruct facial features of burn and cancer victims. The most dramatic example was a police officer whose car was rear-ended and exploded into flames. His eyelids, ears, and nose were burned off, leaving him horribly disfigured. A combination of plastic surgery and professional prosthetic design were helping him regain some of his normal appearance. A pair of ears and a nose were adhered to his face, creating a less shocking appearance.
Immediately following this show I stumbled across MTV’s “I Want a Famous Face,” where a beautiful model was seeking to drastically increase her breasts and lips in order to look more like model Pamela Anderson. For her, cosmetic surgery was a means to help her career, possibly getting her into Playboy magazine.
So began the inevitable comparisons:
In both cases, the patient is looking to Medical Science to give them control over something they would otherwise have little control over. For the Police Officer, a victim of fate, lacking ears, nose, and hair were disconcerting features for those around him. Even his wife, in an admirable bit of honesty explains that he looks “horrible.” For the model, her genetically predetermined features were a potential hindrance to her career. She must look buxom, voluptuous in order to appeal to Playboy’s consumers.
In both cases Biological Carpenters reworked bone and tissue into new, aesthetically pleasing forms. What makes it hard to think of it this way is the pain factor, and it is severe. After her combination of surgeries to enhance her lips, breasts, and spot-liposuction fat, the model is writhing in agony and crying on the car ride home. In the three months recovering from his accident, the Police Officer is kept in a medically induced coma to make him unaware of his agony while scar tissue and grafts are performed.
The two patients differed on their motivations for obtaining these body-mods. For the model, body modifications were a career investment, like buying business wear for an interview. Her enlarged breasts and lips were attributes needed to land the job. For the Police Officer, while there was some functional use to having ears and a nose, the prosthetics were mostly for the benefit of others, to prevent his appearance from evoking repulsion.
The most important factor has to do with self-perception. While the model finds the beginnings of success in her career and apparent joy in her appearance, I couldn’t help but wish we could visit her in the future, when the aging process begins to set in and things begin to wrinkle and sag. Will she have a sort of wisdom about life’s priorities, or will she continue to struggle against forces she cannot hope overcome?
More amazing was the Police Officer, who discovered that, soon after returning to work, he did not feel the need to wear his prosthetic nose and ears as often. His identity was focused outward, away from himself and on the world. While I empathized with the model, I admired the Police Officer.