Plastic: Everyone's doing it!

I received yet more advertisements in my neighborhood mailer this week advertising plastic surgery. I hear the industry has really taken a hit with the downturn of the economy, so I guess they are more desperate than ever for new customers. Looking through the different “specials” and “new client packages” got me thinking:

I have joked in the past that if I ever needed another major surgery, I wanted enhancements and a tummy-tuck at the same time. In reality, though, I cannot see myself doing that. I can, however, understand what makes women consider such surgery. I confess, I am not always pleased with what I see in the mirror. After 24 years as a T1 diabetic, either taking injections or wearing a needle 24/7, my body has large areas full of scar tissue. My finger tips are callused over from 24 years of testing my blood up to 12 times a day. The front of my torso looks like a road atlas with all the left-over stretch marks, and although the baby-weight is gone, my skin stretched so badly during my pregnancies that I have sections that just hang there. And I can’t forget the numerous scars from 2 c-sections, a cat bite resulting in surgery, another bite that left several scars (I really should learn to avoid cats!), a huge cut from a nail sticking out of my saddle, and another from sitting on a nail (I should learn to avoid nails as well!), a whole section on the side of my thumb where I cut a chunk off with a knife and sliced open the finger next to it (I have learned to avoid knives! ), and multiple scar spots from years of needles (wish I could avoid those!). Yes, I can understand what inspires women to take such drastic measures.

That being said, I am left wondering, If God created us in His image, and formed us perfectly according to His will, then by seeking out a plastic surgeon, aren’t we unintentionally telling God, “you did not do a good enough job making me, therefore I am going to have a fellow human do it better”? Maybe I am thinking too deeply, but since I live near one of the plastic surgery capitals of the world, I see the ads (and the resulting bodies) EVERYWHERE. I just can’t help but wonder what made a woman so unhappy with her God-created image that she willingly went under the knife (or needle). Sure, God does not cause the injuries, scars, weight gain, etc. that happens during life after creation, but He does create our bodies with the unique healing properties that contribute to the way we look. I happened across a secular article, written by a non-Christian actor. However, his thoughts were interesting to read:

“…As far as I could tell, almost all the women I’d met who had changed their bodies through surgery had either done it to bandage some adolescent body issue or to make themselves more attractive to men. I didn’t like that—it didn’t seem like a celebration of beauty, but a scrambling attempt to fix something. What I wanted was to be with a woman who worshiped herself as much as I worshiped her. I mean, come on, this is the female form here, the most beautiful thing on earth. To me, surgery somehow implied a lack of confidence. It was as if something purchased to say, "Hey, check me out," actually said, "I don’t like myself very much..." --Actor Gabriel Olds
I pray that I can continue to seek a growing closeness with God, that the enemy might never tempt me to be so unhappy with my body—designed and created uniquely by God’s own hands—that I would allow myself to try to “fix” something that isn’t broken.