This was eye opening. An article in the current W magazine talks about how plastic surgery patients used to care about how soon they could hit the sack again, and now it’s not even a question the plastic surgeons get asked about anymore.
That’s not the most interesting part. The most interesting thing is the women’s priority list: work, working out, and forever looking young.
“Interest in fitness and nutrition has supplanted sex as the No. 1 concern in many patients’ minds.”
That’s their no. 1 concern?! What about, will my face heal? Or how long will it hurt?
Patients get upset if they can’t go back to work after a few days, but are relieved when they can’t have sex for two weeks. For these women, their sexual identity is less tied to actual sex than it is how attractive other people find them — and we all know, youth is sexy.
Plastic surgery “…is such a totally self-oriented procedure most of the time. It’s not necessarily related to the other people in their lives.” Women don’t go to have face lifts and tummy tucks because their husbands or boyfriends ask them to, they go because they feel like they need to in order to stay desirable. Which used to be associated with sex, but is apparently less so nowadays.
I found the whole article bizarre — I don’t read W and found the link to it off another website. I can’t imagine being so constrained by some pre-fab notion of beauty that I virtually spend my entire life trying to attain it. And from what it sounds like, at the cost of my human relationships, too. Those patients didn’t ask any questions like how soon can I pick up my child again, or have a cocktail with my friends again, and are relieved if they can’t have sex with their partners. Nope, they just want to go back to the office and the gym as soon as humany possible without destroying all the beautifying work the surgeon did.