An editorial in the UK Observer published over the weekend pitted British journalist Alice Hart-Davis against Annabel Jones, beauty director for UK fashion magazine Grazia, asking them “Can cosmetic surgery ever be a viable solution to aging?”
From the start, the question is inherently flawed. Can anything at all be a viable solution to aging? Unless you’re optimistically waiting for developments in stem cell research, the aging process is a fact you must accept. So, perhaps the word “solution” is misleading; we don’t have a “solution to aging,” but we do have options.
Options for dealing with the cosmetic effects of aging are relative to the individual. Someone might be completely satisfied simply with “great skincare, clever makeup, and an amazing haircut” – but that doesn’t mean you or I need to be.
This social dissonance of individuality seems to be an underlying point of contention between the two journalists.
Ms. Jones naively asks, “What’s the point of having work done if you end up looking like an identikit version of every other woman in your doctor’s surgery?” She assumes that plastic surgeons aim for some objective, ideal form of beauty, with no concern for the patient’s autonomy or individual aesthetic. As any good cosmetic surgeon should tell you, this assumption is way off the mark.
A primary goal of cosmetic surgery is to enhance a person’s individual beauty, at least in part, according to that person’s desires, so it actually serves as an expression of autonomy. The end result will always reflect a combination of three things: the patient’s goals, the patient’s natural characteristics, and the surgeon’s aesthetic sense. Cosmetic surgery just isn’t as simple as many would lead you to believe.
Where do we draw the line between reasonable and excessive cosmetic interventions? Ms. Hart-Davis refers to “a slippery slope on which everyone will have their own stopping point,” and she’s correct; trying to make a distinction between cosmetic interventions that are deemed acceptable or not acceptable will likely use some arbitrary criterion, so the distinction must ultimately be made by the individual.
However, Jones employs the same “slippery slope” concept in absolute terms saying, “once you start [cosmetic surgery], there’s no going back.” It is unclear whether she means to argue that there is no “stopping point” or that there’s no returning to your “real” self once you’ve begun.
First of all, each individual can decide when enough is enough. Second, because aging and life change our bodies and selves over time, there’s no “going back” for any of us.
I could continue picking apart both sides of the argument, but perhaps it would be more interesting to see what our readers think: is cosmetic surgery a viable option for you?
