Beauty and Sadness

I wasn’t very happy with the last article I tried to write, hence a delay in this one’s appearance. Inspiration was at a bit of a low, due to my dismay over my previous article’s poor conception. Thank goodness for television. There I was, moping with my laptop, and Dr. 90210 comes on in the background. It’s a series, part reality show, part documentary (yes, there is a difference) and typically follows the day in a life of a cosmetics surgeon, as well as one of his patients — the location being Beverly Hills, California, USA.

So… what’s with the title then, you’re wondering? Cosmetic surgeons’ lives can’t be all that sad and no, according to this show, they don’t seem to be. They’re not perfect either. Sadness of the patients, perhaps? Closer.

Actually, I just chose that title because it is also the name of a novel by former Japanese Nobel prize winning author Yasunari Kawabata. Thought it might impress you or trick you into thinking I’m smart. (It’s all bluff! Sadly, I’ve not yet read this novel of Kawabata’s).

Seriously, now, I thought it a very fitting title because one can read that title in so many ways: beauty as a cause of sadness (because one does not possess it), beauty is sadness (because now it can be bought), or the notion of beauty obscuring what truly makes one sad – using one’s appearance to hide emotional pains and so forth.

It does also apply more literally: I feel sad to learn of a teenager, who seems pretty bloody gorgeous to me, resorting to cosmetic surgery at the age of seventeen and her mother wholeheartedly approving. The mother, who deserves credit for supporting her daughter’s decision, explains that if it will make her daughter happier about herself, then why not have cosmetic surgery?

Her daughter is visiting a cosmetic surgeon because she wants a breast augmentation. This is slightly worrying, to me at least. First of all, she’s seventeen. Her body will not yet have stopped growing, or developing. Also, her mother supporting the daughter’s decision – what kind of message is this giving her child? That good looks (of a stylised kind) are important and that it’s perfectly normal to fork out however much it is for a boob job? That her daughter could not be considered beautiful without the aid of what looks to be a fairly invasive procedure? I’ve witnessed a few nose jobs on this series and even that looks… violent.

You probably think I’m overreacting, but let me explain. If these sorts of procedures become more culturally acceptable, then a particular definition of what is considered attractive becomes narrow, and even worse, tenacious. It becomes locked in to people’s minds that you need to look like blah blah blah in order to be considered attractive when in fact there are countless definitions of beauty, of attractiveness. At least in my mind. I’m hoping that I’m not alone in this view.

Article Author: Snarkattack

The author going by the name of Snarkattack was born in the UK, and moved to Australia at the age of eight.
She is a former music school rebel who now wrestles with mental illness and various pathological obsessions including but not limited to …

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