Hello my beautiful doves. My name is Mina and today... We're gonna be talking
about cosmetic surgery. Honestly, I was afraid of
doing this topic a little bit, because I know it's very contentious, I know there's a number of
opinions people have about it... But...! If you don't agree with me,
all press is good press, right? I wanted to do this video
topic for a long time now, especially within the last
year with the BBL epidemic. - The line to get to Atlanta, 95% of the passengers
just got a BBL. I also did a paper in college about
double eyelid surgery in Asia, so I've had opinions about
plastic surgery for a while now, and I think... I think it's time! I think it's time for me to make a video on this. I also came across this article on Tumblr... Yeah, because I don't
follow Page Six like that. In this article,
my queen Jamie Lee Curtis, has blamed social media for the widespread
growth of the plastic surgery industry. She personally doesn't believe
in plastic surgery anymore, having had some bad
experiences in the past. In 1989, she got an
operation done on her eyes and the medication, the painkillers that they
gave her post operation led to a decade-long vicodin addiction. She also said that she carried this
label, "Glam Jamie", "Perfect Jamie", that was initially dubbed because
of her really good figure, which she admitted to profiting
from when she was younger. But now, she says: "Demystifying has
been a real goal for me. "For myself,
as well as on a public level. "I'm trying hard to take
the veil off the fraud, "to be real,
to start with me. "In the recovery program I'm in
(for addiction problems), "they talk about peeling an onion
exposing more layers. "Don't think I'm not afraid of it. "I'm not financially independent enough
that I don't rely on outside income still. "But it's just money. "It isn't love". What is beauty? They say "beauty" is
in the eye of the beholder, but I feel like there are
some universal truths: Sunsets, flowers, Keanu Reeves... And, depending on what society
and what generation you grew up in, there are probably some shared
ideas of beauty that you have with other members of your community. In America today, ideal beauty is represented
by the Kardashian clan, a severe hourglass body shape and a face
represented by a mix of ethnic features, but still distinctly white. I'll get into that face a little later. But it wasn't always like this. Of course, in the 1920s, the boyish charm of Mary Pickford was
pegged as the all-American beauty ideal, to the point where the winner of the
1921 miss America beauty pageant, Margaret Gorman, bore a notable
strong resemblance to Mary. Then, in the 1950s we had the Marilyn's,
the Elizabeth Taylor's; those well-endowed beautiful ladies
with elegant groomed hairstyles. Skipping ahead to the '90s, we have the straight supermodel proportions
of Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. So, unfortunately, body
types have always been and probably always will be, a fashion trend. And yes!
It absolutely sucks! Because a lot of the time, fashion trends are also dependent
on the fashionable body trends. Right now, the whale tale
or thong reveal trend is in, but unlike the '90s,
when it was last in vogue, this decade's thong almost
always creates a severe V-line to give the illusion that
you have wider hips and butt. A bunch of brands have
also released skirts and pants designed with a V-line hip
cutout shape in mind. And in the '60s,
the popular fashion style, was the straight boxy dress silhouette that
emphasized the youthful boyish body type in vogue. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's get back to the
turn of the 20th Century, because even though
plastic surgery procedures have existed long before... I think the earliest documented
case was 6th Century BC in India. So, even though it's
existed for a long time, the modern plastic surgery
industry as we know of today, really originated in
the early 20th Century. Why is that? Well, according to
historian Lois Banner, in the late 19th
and early 20th Centuries, beauty was identified
as this "inner true beauty". As in it was more important for women
to have a good personal character, healthy lifestyle routines... And to engage in proper thinking. By the way, even though this sounds like
it was more ahead of the time, "inner beauty" was still focused
on like, patriarchal concepts. For example, a woman
who was loud and rambunctious was considered uglier
than a woman who was demure and polite,
because that's what the patriarchy wanted. However, by the end of the Victorian Era, we see a rise of consumerism and the development
of a stronger and bigger beauty industry. Notably, in new cosmetics
and hair care techniques. And the beauty industry subsequently encouraged
women to focus more on their outward appearance. Now, external beauty was more
important than internal beauty. The one good thing about this beauty
industry coming about is that, in the 19th Century, basically, if you were over the age of 35,
you were an elderly woman. But in the early 20th Century, it was now encouraged,
for better, for worse, for 30 to 40 year old women to
partake in these beauty trends. To put on makeup. To try to look younger. Which, beforehand,
would have just been inappropriate. As for plastic surgery we don't have
that much information around this time, because aesthetic surgery
was still very secretive and it was frowned
upon by the general society. By the way, just so
we're on the same page, because I realized I didn't make this clear: "Plastic Surgery" is the umbrella
term for two major subgroups: Cosmetic/aesthetic surgery
and reconstructive surgery. So, cosmetic surgery is literally just the
plastic surgery we are most familiar with today. It's changing your appearance
for aesthetic purposes. Reconstructive surgery is defined as "restoring function to a body
part that's been disfigured", and also gender reassignment surgery
is under this category as well. Surgeons who did offer aesthetic
surgery procedures at the time... Had their own clinics and they didn't document their
procedures because, once again, it was frowned upon. For example, Eugene von Hollander is often
credited as performing the first facelift in 1901, but he didn't publicly say
that he did it until 1932. World War One was the big game changer
in the plastic surgery industry. A lot of soldiers who were lucky enough to
come home sustained major facial injuries. As the New York Times observed, "no wounds of the European war
have been quite so shocking "as those to the human face". Thus surgeons were now tasked
with reconstructive surgery to give economic independence
back to the veteran. As one surgeon puts it: "What is the use of life if he is not in a
condition to seek and earn a livelihood?" What I mean by that is, unfortunately,
we live in a society... And our society has
always prioritized beauty. There is a major beauty bias: - There is this network of apps that
are essentially "beauty passes", so if you're a model... Or just like a pretty girl,
or an influencer, you can apply to get in there... Like, exclusive-- So not everyone gets accepted,
but you apply to get in and if you get in,
there's a shit ton of businesses, restaurants, massages, facials,
lip injections, makeup clothes, whatever-- Haircuts, everything...! Yoga classes, pilates...
Everything that you can get for free, just if you like, tag them
on an Instagram story. And this is because our
ideology runs very deep for an extremely long time. Physical ugliness has been
considered a marker for... Evilness. And beauty has been considered a
marker for morality and goodness. Think about how the evil stepsisters in
'Cinderella' were purposely depicted to be uglier, while Cinderella,
the good innocent character, was portrayed as beautiful. Italian criminologist,
Cesare Lombroso, even said that you could detect
a criminal by his physique. "Someone with prehensile feet,
left-handedness, hernias, "outstanding ears, abundant hair,
a sparse beard, enormous front sinuses, "prognathism--"
Have no idea what that is. "Broad cheekbones,
a low and retreating forehead, "oblique eyes, a small skull
and, in women, a masculine face, "was probably an evil doer". So given our society's beauty ideology, these wartime deformities were
off-putting to the average American eye. And so there was a real concern that these
young men who were drafted into the war, like age 19, who were forced to
put their lives on the line to fight for our so-called "rights", would have trouble finding a job and being
able to make money when they came back. It's a little fucked up, isn't it? The bright side of this, I guess, is that the technology and science
that goes into plastic surgery improved a ton during this time period. Also Sander Gilman says in his book "Making the Body Beautiful:
A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery", that "the growth of cosmetic surgery coincided
with the spread of so-called 'race science', "that linked one's physical appearance
to one's character and intelligence". For example, those considered racially inferior
to the English middle class [ Laughing ] Included the Irish welsh
and the lower classes and those groups were thought
to have "protruding jaws", which was a sign of
inferiority for some reason. So, unfortunately, plastic surgery does have its roots in
white supremacist eugenicist thinking. Famously, Fanny Brice,
a popular Jewish comedian, got a nose job in 1923
to get an acting role. I understand why she felt
she had to do it at the time. As Elizabeth Haken points out, a lot of the Americans who sought out
plastic surgery in the early 20th Century, did so because they wanted to
liberate themselves from stereotypes, from ethnic stereotypes, and they wanted to be treated as
individual people with real identities. And, despite being popularized
among wartime veterans, plastic surgery became a
very woman-dominated ordeal, to the point that, in 2018, 92% of cosmetic procedures
were performed on women. And this is because: One, beauty and aging have always been
an unequal pressure applied onto women. And Two, our patriarchal
society dictates that "real men don't care about their looks". And in the 1970s, LA surgeon
Michael Curtin even said that "any man considering a facelift
was either an aging actor, " homosexual, "or both". So, bringing us back
to the 21st Century, we have a phenomenon called... The "Instagram Face". The first time I heard this term
was in Jia Tolentino's article, from the New Yorker,
which was published in 2019. Jia describes the
Instagram face as: "A young face, of course, "with poreless skin and
plump, high cheekbones. "It has catlike eyes and
long cartoonish lashes; "it has a small, neat nose
and full, lush lips. "It looks at you coyly but blankly, "as if its owner has
taken half a Klonopin "and is considering asking you for
a private chat ride to Coachella. "The face is distinctly white
but ambiguously ethnic". Celebrity makeup artist
Colby Smith adds: "We're talking an
overly tan skin tone, "a South Asian influence with
the brows and eye shape, and African-American
influence with the lips, a Caucasian influence with the nose, a cheek structure that is predominantly
Native American and Middle Eastern". So, as you can see, the ideal face went from the
all-American white, blonde Barbie, to something... Racially exotic,
but still white passing. And yes, this is bad, because... In America, currently, people who belong
in those ethnic groups who have these features
naturally are still ostracized. They're completely excluded
because they're not white enough to make the ideal. Or if they are included, they're fetishized for having
these sought-after features. The Kardashians kind of created this face and so, it's no surprise that celebrity
plastic surgeon Jason Diamond said: "I'd say that 30% of people
come in bringing a photo of Kim, "or someone like Kim— "There's a handful of people, "but she's at the very top of the list,
and understandably so. "It's one of the biggest
challenges I have, "educating the person about
whether it's reasonable to "try to move along that
path towards Kim's face, "or towards whoever". Kim's face is not the only thing
people are trying to replicat3, as I mentioned briefly earlier, the BBL epidemic has gone
kind of out of hand and, if you want more
information on that, I highly suggest watching Khadija's
video on the Slim-Thick body because... They really go like,
in depth with this topic, and it's just too much for
me to talk about right now! But, anyways, why is it bad for everyone
to have the same face? People are just doing
what makes them happy. And, sure, on an individual
level, it's totally fine. I don't like blaming and shaming
anyone for getting procedures done. And a lot of these procedures
aren't even as dangerous as a BBL, especially the non-invasive ones. As long as you're getting them
done by a real medical professional in a real medical setting. The AAFPRS surveyed hundreds of board
certified facial plastic surgeon members to get insight on the most
popular procedures in 2019. According to the data, 85% of procedures
were minimally invasive. However, cosmetic dermatologist Heidi Waldorf does warn that the non-invasive and
quick nature of these procedures has led to the coexistent idea that they are no more serious than a
makeup application or hair blow out, when obviously there are more risks involved. So that is one negative of
the plastic surgery craze: The more people talk about the benefits and
just offer these successful sound bites, the more people are willing to get this
procedure without doing the proper research. - Girl, don't do it. It's not worth it. I'm not gonna do it girl,
I was just thinking about it. I'm not gonna do it. I did it. And that's another reason why a
lot of people who got these BBLs ended up coming forward talking about
their horror stories in recovery and how this was not the
experience they expected. - What the fuck? Why isn't anything getting better? Nothing's getting better,
it's only getting worse! ♪ I'm fucking sick of it ♪ ♪ I'm fucking sick of it ♪ Another downside is
the economic costs. Fillers are still expensive, but the way that they get you is that "it's not as expensive as
a full-blown operation": The average price per syringe
of filler in 2019 was $683 and the filler lasts for
about six months to a year, before you have to go in and get one again. And yes, that sounds
like a lot of money, but compared to actual surgery that
takes tens and thousands of dollars, plus you have to factor in how, in recovery, you can't go to work. So you have to take time off
and you're not making money during that time. So, yes, compared
to full-blown surgery, it is considerably more affordable. But it's still costly and
these treatments do rack up, if you keep going back for more things. Jia said that, when she visited an
LA plastic surgeon's office, injectables in the cheeks cost
between $5,500 to $6,900. An ultrasound "lipofreeze",
to fix the asymmetry in a jaw line, costs $8,900 to $18,900. And Botox in the TMJ region was $2,500. So, you know, you may not be paying like... A lump sum of $20,000, but if you keep going back,
6 months after six months, it racks up and you probably
end up spending more money. I don't know, I'm an
armchair expert on that, but there is an addictive
nature to getting procedures, because Dr. Diamond
even said himself: "It is true that the vast
majority of our patients "absolutely love their results
and they come back". And also not naming any names
because I'm trying not to get SUED, a lot of doctors have a tendency
of offering multiple procedures, even though you had only
come in for, let's say, a lip filler. And this is because they want
to get more money out of you. And it's total psychological warfare, because if you're getting
a procedure to begin with, you probably have some kind of
insecurity about your face or your body. And I feel like, and tell me if this makes sense, if you have a low self-image already, you're probably prone to
developing more insecurities. In my professional opinion, I think it's super insidious for doctors to
point out more features that can be "improved" to people who have
already low self-image. And that's, bottom line, my major issue with
people trying to say that "plastic surgery is
empowering for women". One plastic surgeon that Jia
interviewed in her article said: "It's empowering to do
something that gives you an edge. "Which is why young people
are coming into my office. "They come in to enhance something,
rather than coming in to fix something". That's a load of
bullshit to me, doctor! It reminds me of this one article I read
from 1991 by Catherine Polly Morgan, but it still holds up. One of the main points that she
talks about in this article is that, one of the main reasons
that women feel ugly is because of our white
supremacist patriarchal society. So, changing your body to fit in
with this mainstream ideal of beauty is giving in to those... Colonial and oppressive forces. Yes, even though you're "choosing" to "liberate"
yourself from "ugliness", you're still allowing
these patriarchal ideas of what it means to be beautiful
and what it means to be ugly, to rule your life. And, by the way,
once again, I don't have any problem with any individual
person who chooses to get plastic surgery. I think it's really sad that our
society is the way that it is, but I don't blame anyone for wanting to make their
own lives easier by altering their own bodies. But it does annoy me
when people take this reach and they're like, "cosmetic surgery is empowering,
blah, blah, blah...", because it's not. And it's also disempowering
just because it's gatekept. $683 for Botox injection
is a lot of money for a lot of people in this country. And it just creates this class divide where the rich are beautiful
and the poor are ugly. But rather than before,
when we could say, "rich people are beautiful because they
can afford nice makeup and nice clothes", a lot of rich and upper middle
class people are not disclosing the fact that they've gotten any procedures done. So, instead, when we look
at a celebrity, we're like: "Oh, she has an age today",
without realizing why that is. Also, really bothers me, and I know this is just a joke
ragging on white people, but just hear me out: There's this joke that goes
around, where basically it's like: "White people age gracefully
when they're not problematic". There is zero correlation, obviously, and I don't doubt that a lot
of people take it as a joke, but it's also just reinforcing
this opinion that like, aging is an evil person thing. While also ignoring the fact
that these people get procedures have like, a team
of dermatologists, have personal chefs
that make high quality food, who have enough time to rest and relax... That these people have privileges
that the "average aging woman" doesn't, regardless of whether
or not they're problematic. Speaking of aging, as of 2020, when asked to predict
the top future cosmetic trends, 73% of surveyed plastic
surgeons cited "prejuvenation", which is a popular preventative treatment
among Millennials and some Gen Z. The idea of prejuvenation is getting non-invasive
treatments early in life. so that you don't have to get
surgical procedures as you age. But, again, who can afford this? As Morgan hypothesizes: "As a consequence
to cosmetic surgery, "more and more women will
be labeled 'ugly' and 'old' "in relation to this more select population of
surgically created beautiful faces and bodies "that have been contoured and
augmented, lifted and tucked "into a state of achieved
feminine excellence. "I suspect that the naturally
'given', so to speak, "will increasingly come to be seen
as the technologically 'primitive'; "the 'ordinary' will come to be
perceived and evaluated as the 'ugly' ". And, you know, over the years I've gotten a lo
more used to and a lot more... Accepting of my natural face. I don't wear makeup every day
and I don't feel like I need to anymore. But even in saying that, like, I can't say for sure that
I will never get Botox, given the opportunity. Because I know how bad
society treats Asian women! Did I just say "Asian"? Well, if the shoe fits... "Aging" women! And why would I want to be
treated badly if I can opt out? So, in conclusion, I don't
want to put blame on anyone. We're all just part of a system! And we're all just doing what
we can to survive out here, but, at the same time, I don't think we should like,
reinterpret this narrative and reclaim cosmetic surgery
as an empowering practice, because it's not. People can do what they want,
but let's not play pretend here. Okay, that's all I have for today. Thank you so much for watching. Let me know in the comments what you
think about plastic/cosmetic surgery and... Whether I changed your opinion
or whether you don't agree with me, I'm open to hearing what
everyone has to say about this and I hope you all have
a lovely rest of your day. I'll see you next time. Bye!
