- The ugly face of beauty
- July 2010
The days when cosmetic surgery was the preserve of the rich and famous are long gone. There are now numerous clinics offering cut price procedures (UK or abroad) and many come complete with finance deals to help their clients pay for it. £ 200 million per year is spent of cosmetic surgery, yet as many as 1 in 5 are unhappy with the results.
Tuesday’s 'The ugly face of beauty' presented by Dr Christian Jessen on Channel 4, raised more questions than it answered; for me anyway.
Why would 90% of the women who visited Jessen’s fake surgery, a temporary Portakabin that appeared overnight in their local high-street; willing signed up for cosmetic surgery no questions asked? If they couldn’t really afford it, no problem, finance with payments as low as £7 were quickly snapped up. No questions about the surgeon, clinic, risks or aftercare were raised.
The realisation that women would eagerly offer their bodies up for surgery, unconcerned about any possible repercussions, was disturbing to say the least.
The first lady who signed up for breast implants and a nose job had been only intended to "enquire about prices”. After signing on the dotted line Jessen revealed himself and asked her who would be performing her surgery. “I don’t know” came the reply. The second lady who wanted a nose job confessed to being disappointed that it wasn’t a real clinic, because it meant she would not be able to have nose surgery and ‘be beautiful’. After Jessen highlighted the risks she said, with much embarrassment, that she felt "stupid”.
Fortunately, after being confronted with the dangers associated with their actions, those interviewed all stated that they would ask more questions in future.
We also met 19 year old size 8 Natalie Rooney, cousin of Wayne Rooney. Natalie underwent a double procedure involving a second breast augmentation doubling the size or her breasts to a JJ cup and liposuction. She later added a a surprise injection of lip filler. She had no concerns, simply telling herself that “it will be alright”. If having unnecessary surgery wasn’t enough, she then really alarmed Polly Hudson, the journalist presenting the abroad section of the program. In response to Polly's question asking if she intended to have any more surgery she said, “no more for a few months or weeks….”. Adding, “it’s still good, a bit more surgery”.
Sadly, I don’t think Natalie will ever be happy with her body. I don’t think it will be long before she goes back under the knife.
The programme also introduce us to Rachael. Rachael had undergone surgery because she wanted to “feel more confident about her bobs". She had hoped that her initial operation would be “be life changing”, that it would enable her to look into the mirror and think, “I look good”. Instead her breast augmentation and uplift surgery left her with misshapen, droopy breasts complete with misaligned nipples.
Rachael complained to her surgeon about how she felt about the surgery, she responded, “what does it matter how you feel, its how your man feels that’s important”. She tearfully explained “that’s not what it was about; it was not how I wanted to look". Having lost all faith in her surgeon, she refused to see him again.
The one good news story of the night, revolved around the correction of Rachael’s botched surgeries.
The most worrying story was centred on a group of teens. The programme surveyed 1500 pupils and found that:
- Over 1/3 had a friend or relative who had undergone surgery.
While the females wanted breast augmentation, they also appeared to prefer the look of ‘fake breasts’ to natural ones. The boys also indicated that they felt the same way.
The continuing rise in the number of people choosing to have cosmetic surgery shows no signs of abating, despite the facts that surgery is no guarantee of beauty and it comes with risks associated:-
- 1:20 women left with severe unsightly scars.