A Recession in Plastic Surgery...Yeah!
Slate has a good article, Tuck Off by William Saletan, about how the economic crisis back home is causing a recession in elective plastic surgery. Like me, Saletan is elated to hear this news.
I've had my say on plastic surgery and it's not something that interests me much simply beyond how patently dishonest it is yet how damn popular it is. Basically, my respect for my fellow humans is diminished because how can plastic ever be more beautiful than real? People get work done, it's obvious a lot of the time and other people don't care because in the most common sense of the word those people look "good". I still very much think if everyone has the same features that's not very good looking at all. There is one area of the city here where you can see woman after woman pass you with the same set rounded eyes on their otherwise Asian faces. That's just creepy. But okay, I'm just too critical for my own good in this respect.
More people need brain enlargements than enlargements of anything else...too bad that can't be done. ;-)However, what is nice is that the doctors who are hurting for cash are turning back to help people who really need it.
More effectively than any bioethicist, the recession is reminding people that cosmetic work isn't medicine. "While healthcare spending as a whole has traditionally moved independently of the economy—a safe haven—that really isn't the case with plastic surgery," a financial analyst tells the Times. In the new, sobered economy, the paper reports, some cosmetic doctors are diversifying into "reconstructive surgery for cancer patients and others that is covered by insurance." Insurance!That's good to hear. Good there is a silver lining to this economic slump.
Say what you will about coverage-denying bean counters, but they do enforce the essential priority of urgent procedures over elective ones. In a health-care industry controlled by tight budgets and insurers, you might even see the cream of the med-school crop shift back to the kind of work that keeps people alive. I hope they're well-paid for it, and I hope the next rising tide lifts millions more families into the ranks of the insured. But let's never forget what the bad times taught us about what matters and what doesn't.
*Images stolen from Plastic Surgery Humour ;-) Sphere: Related Content
As an independent patient consultant for plastic surgery I warn those who believe that "now the real doctors will practice medicine". It was the bean counters that drove the good doctors away from insurance. The patient doesn't win when insurance companies get rich. I vividly remember an insurance company calling several different plastic surgeons to determine which would accept $2,700 for a full day of a very difficult surgery on an infant. Who will accept it? They had a difficult time finding anyone, yet the parents never knew the insurance company was looking for any surgeon who would take the minimal amount they were willing to pay. Not the most qualified. Do really believe this is a better way to take care of America? Don’t be so quick to believe the recession only affects plastic surgeons, it hurts all of us. www.AngelaSegal.com
ReplyDeleteWell, one big reason I've not lived in the States for years is health care. As an insulin dependent diabetic who wants her flexibility when it comes to work, time and income to travel and the choice not be to tied to a mundane job, it's not going to happen back home unless I come into a boatload of money or marry someone who does have a mundane job or has a boatload of money.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the elective plastic surgery craze, the physical freaks and addicts it produces and the greedy practitioners it attracts is a joke as is the US health care system itself is a joke.
Assuming I'm looking at it through a narrow lens will get you into trouble. Maybe write the William Saletan over at Slate who wrote the article. I'm thinking you got to me via a blog that attributed what Saletan wrote to me and didn't bother to read anything else on my blog. The one minute and six seconds you spent perusing my blog tells me as much.
Nice...
I look at some of our H'Weird actresses Jane and the American obsession with perfection has produced alot of drones.
ReplyDeleteEveryone wants to look the same with no facial expression because they are shot up w/botox (ironic considering expression is important for actresses).
I used to watch Dr. 90210 and to see girls as young as 15 getting these porn queen breast augmentations was scary indeed. he then went to S. America and worked on kids w/cleft palates, etc and you could see the joy he felt.
We need to be easier on ourselves because none of us will ever be perfect and maintennace is a byeotch. LOL.
Yeah, the same thing here. South Korea has a lot of plastic surgeons. A lot of those procedures are the eyelid surgeries, breast enlargements and nose jobs. The thing is they all turn out "pretty" but they all look the same. And that, to me, is not pretty. It shows a character flaw.
ReplyDeleteGood info Expat as always and Oprah just got chastised by Korean Americans for her biased reporting on South Korean women and plastic surgery. They were pretty pissed off as they felt it wasn't accurate and that they dismissed the notion that all of the women who elected to get surgery wanted to be more westernized and to add injury to insult, they say she didn't get a Korean female's perspective on it but a Chinese woman .
ReplyDeleteI am like okay I don't know about that one but plastic surgery seems to be very important especially if you want to get an edge up in the workplace. I've seen pics of people who go from ordinary to extraordinary and read where they got higher paying jobs so what does one do in that instance.
Of course what is Westernized you mean Caucasian? I am like baby not in million years will you look Caucasian it's not happening so be happy with what you have, exercise,eat right and live life.
Neverthelees,if you want to enhance your smile I don't see anything wrong with that or if you want to get Lasik surgery that's okay too but you are right Expat some take it too far and it's like you pass them on the street and it's like the damn Stepford Wives who is real and who isn't. LOL
Yeah, that's the thing. I'm not getting this stuff done and if it's going to help your life, well, who am I to sit here in my dirty apartment judging them?
ReplyDeleteI just feel like when it's to the point that it's obvious and you look like everyone else, that's sick.
But I do understand that there is nothing wrong at all with wanting to look better. From that perspective, it's a wonder of modern medicine and science that people can do this stuff. It's just when you're more plastic than real that it's just gross to me.