Thursday, October 13, 2011

Plastic Surgery--"Getting a Little Work Done"

At dinner tonight, we all started talking about plastic surgery because I said that Cher doesn't look very good. And she doesn't. I have no problem with plastic surgery. If someone wants to "have a little work done" that's just fine. It's just that sometimes folks who have had this done just don't look like themselves anymore. Take Kenny Rogers. Whoever did the surgery on him really botched it. Kenny Rogers used to have the most marvelous crinkly bright smiling eyes. Whatever was done made his eyes all round and sad. He doesn't even look like himself. Can you imagine what he must have thought when he saw himself in the mirror? I picture a grown up Macaulay Culkin (only it's Kenny) with his hands on the side of his face yelling like Mr. Bill "Oh No." He looked pretty bad a couple of years ago, and I have a feeling that he doesn't look much better now. I don't think that type of operation can be reversed.

Cher had this interesting rather exotic kind of face. Her nose was the first to go. I noticed that several years ago, but she still looked like herself, only maybe just a tad better. I gotta admit that. But the last round of slicing and stitching and pulling just doesn't seem to fit. Of course, none of this is any of my business, but her smile is not the same, and she always had this great smile. Maybe she likes it, though. So, who am I to say what looks good to her? I'm trying to be nice here and not too judgmental.

Dolly Parton is just a smidgen of her former softer self. She looks all angles and ridges, but she makes jokes and pulls no bones about her surgery. One time she said on The Tonight Show, "Hey, it takes a lot of money to look this cheap." I loved it, and I think she is just great. I don't care how much she gets "done." She's still Dolly and my 5th cousin. No, I look nothing like her in so many ways. I'm serious on that. She's just a brilliant business woman and artist and has done so much for the community of her birth. She's a good woman.

Joan River is another one who jokes about her surgery (ies). She is also a facsimile of her original self and also jokes about it. The woman can't really smile anymore. She used to laugh this huge guffaw. Oh, wait, that was Phyllis Diller. She is about 90 years old now, I think, and finally gave up on trying to look younger.

This is the thing. Having plastic surgery when someone is a bit older is fine as long as it makes you look better. A face should still look like the person, only the lines and wrinkles are smoothed away. A person 70, though, isn't going to look 25 (or even 30 or 40) no matter how much surgery. She (or he) is just going to look unnatural. There, I said it.

I've actually thought about having something done to get rid of my wrinkly chicken neck or my smile lines. In truth, my face could very well wind up on the back of my head. Now, that folks would be unnatural, indeed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unless you are frightening children and dogs best to leave well enough alone.

Anonymous said...

The saddest thing about cosmetic surgery is that it really is major surgery, and people can get horrible infections, deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in their legs) and even die from it. I have a wonderful friend who was so worried about the wrinkles she was getting that she had "a little work done" and she really doesn't look that different. I didn't tell her though, I was too worried she would wind up looking like a Barbie doll left in the Georgia sun in July....