Said "R., 18, is an incoming college freshman from Colorado who got a deep neck-lift and rhinoplasty," quoted in "Three People on Why They Wanted New Faces" (NYT gift link).
That realization "Wow, this feels like the real me" is so "Twilight Zone."
August 11, 2026
"Now, I’m 13 days post-op. Only one of my friends has been negative about it."
"Before the surgery, he said, 'It’s weird to me that you’d do this, because you’re someone who preaches embracing who you are.' The confusing thing is that he’s very 'black pill,' which is a trend that says you need to be beautiful in order to get a job or find a soul mate. I hate black pill, because it’s pushing the narrative that hurt me as a little girl: that looks are the only things that matter.... Maybe I’m contributing to that narrative by getting this procedure. But I looked in the mirror after my surgery, and I thought, Wow, this feels like the real me. It sucks that I have to change a part of me to truly like myself."
Said "R., 18, is an incoming college freshman from Colorado who got a deep neck-lift and rhinoplasty," quoted in "Three People on Why They Wanted New Faces" (NYT gift link).
Said "R., 18, is an incoming college freshman from Colorado who got a deep neck-lift and rhinoplasty," quoted in "Three People on Why They Wanted New Faces" (NYT gift link).
Posts
26 comments:
Plumbing the depths of a woman's vast ocean of justifications is like dropping a lead line into the Challenger Deep.
The "real" me is much more handsome than the real me, but I've managed to go through life living the lie anyway.
[start virtual italics]Plumbing the depths of a woman's vast ocean of justifications is like dropping a lead line into the Challenger Deep.[end virtual italics]
One of the three post-surgical profiles is of a male (53, an engineer from Idaho). He's looking forward to his co-workers telling him that he look better. I guess that's part of his "vast ocean of justification."
With any luck, at least some of his co-workers will have read or heard of this article! That way, they'll know what to say.
"One of the three post-surgical profiles is of a male. He's looking forward to his co-workers telling him that he [look] better."
How very 'male' of him. He probably smokes Marlboros.
Justification is the huge grey area that provokes all of the conversation on this. Correcting a harelip? Botox injections for puffy lips? Boob job? Breast reduction? Where does pure unnecessary vanity transition into a reasonable self-image boost?
Seems like young people have more to gain, in terms of self-esteem and confidence, by getting plastic surgery. If a nose job reverses social withdrawal, it's a big win any way you look at it. We don't need to look at plastic surgery from the same vantage point as that of an early-twentieth-century eugenicist or a modern day liberal. If these people want to get rid of their big "Jewish" noses, they should just go ahead and do it.
Spiros said "If these people want to get rid of their big "Jewish" noses, they should just go ahead and do it."
Nose job is a popular Bat Mitzvah gift.
One of our commenters mentioned knowing Marlo Thomas before she got rid of her big "Lebanese" nose. Her Dad kept his.
Interesting that only the man shows us his before and after face. Makes wonder if the women are still unhappy with how they look.
I certainly didn't appreciate my 18yo physical being. Plastic surgery never occurred to me - probably because that's something aging women did (and, of course, money). If I'd been born thirty years later, I wonder how I would've dealt with (or wanted to deal with) my physical shortcomings.
Basically I'm glad I wasn't born thirty years later.
I just watched the Twilight Zone clip - how DID they get those women's waists so tiny, without foundation garments showing through the costumes?! Did they have their floating ribs removed? How tight were girdles?
In about 1958 my eldest sister, then about eight, had surgery on her external ears, to add a missing fold. Otherwise she looked like she had a couple of seashells sticking out. Seems like a reasonable fix.
In the summer of my seventeenth year, I asked my parents for a nose job; that's how I put it, "a nose job".
The top of a horse's head is called the poll. (The term poll as in "poll tax" and "opinion poll" is etymologically identical.) Anatomically. it's the occipital process, and it's as hard as a brick. A rearing horse hit me square in the nose with its poll, causing me to see stars and many other swirling lights. How I managed to stay in the saddle, I don't know, but I recovered my wits and carried on. The next morning, I noticed something odd. The tip of my nose now pointed slightly to the right rather than straight ahead, but my nose was still sore, and I assumed healing would fix everything. Weeks passed, and the pain ended, but my schnoz still pointed to the right. I also noticed the airflow through my left nostril was a fraction of the flow through the right. I was set to start my freshman year in just a few days. My father told me to put aside my concerns about my nose, at least for a while; otherwise, I might miss registration. Consequently, the subject was dropped until Thanksgiving, when the family decided that after exams I would see a plastic surgeon. The appointment was made, and the consultation took place the day after my fall semester grades were posted. Dean's List -- good. Maybe I'd get a fully operational honker as a reward. Not so. The surgeon seems less than desirous of a new patient. He said he could give me a pug nose, as if that was the only option, which was not what I had in mind. The rhinoplasty didn't happen, and my nose still points to the right.
The people who need face jobs the most never get them - cf: Bill Maher.
The NYT's part of the article on the 53 y/o male engineer was hilarious. Imagine wanting a "neck job" as a man. Spend a lot of time looking in the mirror, guy?
He must have money to burn. To go from OK looking, to OK looking with a nice neck.
“…black pill,' which is a trend that says you need to be beautiful in order to get a job…”
Unfortunately, there is a whole lot of truth to that viewpoint, especially in this day and age of electronic images and social media. Think “Mamdani” or “AOC” etc. Do you think Abraham Lincoln could get elected today if his face was plastered all over the internet during the primaries?
Here's an idea - grow a beard. Then someone wont look at your neck.
You can understand women, especially women with big jaws or big noses getting them reduced. And also older women who want to look younger and don't want a turkey neck or whatever.
I saw barbara eden on some TV about 10 years ago, and she looked pretty good for 75-80, but she obviously had tons of plastic surgery. When you're beautiful it must be tough to accept old age and move on.
BTW, the original Twilight zone was always pushing the message - don't be a conformist. Don't accept authority without question. Be open to new ideas.
Today Hollywood and the MSM has the exact opposite stance. Gee, I wonder what changed.
"Grow a beard."
Yeah, I'm not a fan of yet another phase of male facial hair. I think this is the third go-round of it being in style in my lifetime. I've never been a fan, at all, in most (though not all) cases. I'll be happy when this latest phase passes.
Just a personal preference. I certainly do think men should do what they want and that it's fundamentally none of my business. (Except for chefs and line cooks; I really dislike seeing all that excess facial hair in a kitchen. Again, just a personal quirk that I don't expect to carry an weight.)
Looks aren’t the only thing but important. Sorry it’s wired. Not all our wired predispositions have caught up to modern ideals…
Jerry says ninety five percent of the population? UNDATEABLE!
I might consider some relatively minor work, but there are other surgeries I need, so I don't think I'll go with electives on top of all that. (Though, who knows what the future will hold?) It's more likely that I'll go with "she looks like a senior citizen." Well, after all, I am!
I found this:
"From 1998 to 2021, the average nominal price for the 16 most popular cosmetic procedures increased by 31.3%, which is significantly lower than the 66.2% increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) over the same period. "
So, plastic surgery is getting more affordable over time. This confirms the theory that anything the governement is involved with gets more expensive.
Years ago the large company I worked for was acquired by another larger one. Suddenly none of our executives had a trace of grey hair.
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith. Also: No italics, even briefly. Use asterisks for emphasis. And don't play with the format by changing fonts or using boldface or all caps. Never include more than one extra line break between paragraphs.