Extreme Makover.

I personly dont know about the rest of you lot, but this is Hogwash and needs to be off the air.
What exactly are we teaching our children? Beauty is silicone Deep!

Before



After




abc.go.com...

www.smh.com.au...

In which two lucky applicants get the face and body of their dreams and reality TV reaches its lowest ebb.

Look, if someone is so unhappy with their appearance they want to undergo plastic surgery, it's not for me to judge them. What I can't stomach about this show is the casual way it assumes physical beauty is the only measure of a person's worth: you are how you look. It's the apotheosis of superficiality and treats instant gratification as though it were a fundamental human right.

This doesn't shy away from the brutality of plastic surgery - the post-op footage is horrific - but it sees this as a minor speed bump on the road to self-realisation. If you're ugly, it seems to be saying, you're just not trying hard enough.

This is not unwatchable - in fact it's reasonably entertaining as these things go - but it's impossible to ignore the corrupt values at its heart.



Deep

Yes this kinda angers me aswell...

As i have a teenage sister who is always worried about how she looks.

It used to be the case of her saying "maybe if i had a hair and makeup makeover" it would be good...

but sitting there listening to her and her friends,
there talking about boob jobs, lip changes. lipo suction
teeth surgery.

They even whet as far as to see what age you had to be to appear on one of these shows saying it would be a dream come true,!

I think its bad to teach children beauty is skin deep. But if getting a makeover makes these people happier about themselves, more power to them. Its their life. You cant protect your children from society's view and standing on beauty. Its in school, on tv, in magazines, everywhere. You just have to teach them to look beyond that.

Society is very superficial and needs to change, We cannot expect to go on adoring physical beauty at the rate we have.

Its disgusting to see Men and Women, being thrown around like slabs of meat.

Teens are idolizing the wrong images. Iv done runway myself and can tell you, that its the worst industry to be part of. Your image is what grants you success and money.

Deep

It's the cold hard reality of life, your "looks" matter.

When I was very young, I truly believed that life was fair... Ugly people had many characteristics that compensated for their lack of beauty. Reality set in by age 10, and I realized that life isn't fair, and beautiful people are more successful.

If you have the money, or win a contest, why not better your odds of success.

Personally, I love the show. It' wonderful to see people happy!

Ehhh... kinda sick. Cosmetic mods aren't cool. The way I figure it, it's unneccesary surgery that will catch up to you later. It's good to see people happy, but this is a bit much.

I'm a bit of a hypocrite myself, because if someone offered me free hardcore bodymods (MBW, bone lacing, muscle augs, ect.) I'd get them in a new york second.

DE

That's what I call an extreme makeover.

from ugly skank to beautiful skank!

ain't technology wonderful!

Personally, were it not aired so widespread, I would love to undergo every scrap of surgery on that show.

When I was young I also saw life as fair, it was like a dream, then I realized I was wrong as I grew older.

Life is very unfair, I have become ugly, and would do anything to even come back a few steps to my true self. Surgery or not. This is not sick to me, scary to be sure, for the operations are painful, risky, ect. Yet, to those brave enough, I am happy if they get good results, as I must also try this method, though not on T.V.

Continues the trend of "garbage TV" that we have seen since...I would say Survivor, but I am sure there were worse "reality type" TV before then. Beauty is much more than just "skin deep." I agree crap like this goes to prove just how superficial some people are.

As for "cosmetic mods" go, as DE mentioned, my fiance has breast implants. She had them long before we met. Can't say I really have an opinion. Sure they look nice, but that had no bearing my decision as to wanting to spend my life with her. She has her reasons for why she did it and is happy with it. So I accept it. As for health concerns, that is something I know she has brought up a few times.

I do not think any of you understand how much it means to people, being ugly, how looking in the mirror and being dissapointed feels.

It is a horrible feeling. Whether beauty is more than skin deep, is irrelivent, it means nothing to a person who hates themselves. Giving them a chance at feeling a bit better about what they are, can make a person so much happier than anything else.

Saying it is junk, or garbage is just ignorant to me, to those who are so confident and arrogant about themselves that they feel they would change nothing even if they could.

fiance has breast implants.

May eternal peace lay on man who invented implants

I will speak for all men and say that this shall not be abolished in my NWO!


Deep

Would it be brash to say that it is completely typical of a man to want his girlfriend to look beautiful, while not caring even a bit of how he looks?

What an alien confidence that some people posess, not all mind you and some girls have it as well. I am not bitter though, it is good people can be happy, unless of course they push hard upon those they date to look beautiful, while not caring how they look, since that is just rude, not confidence. Expecting it silently is not AS bad though.


[Edited on 8-2-2004 by QuestForSafety]

My problem is not the show in its absolute, but its hidden values at its core that is eating away society.

People are more worried how they look physicaly, than they worry how they are protrayed internaly.

Deep

Originally posted by ZeroDeep
May eternal peace lay on man who invented implants

I will speak for all men and say that this shall not be abolished in my NWO!

Deep

*blinkblink*

Waitaminute here, Deep.
You started this thread talking about the ideal of beauty (not) equalling worth, and finished up with a comment about the show's values eating away at society.
I completely agree with you on that.
But somewhere in the middle, you do a little 180 when the subject of breast implants come up.
Is a woman more attractive if she has surgically altered breasts? Does her worth as a girlfriend/mate decrease if she has the American average 36B size bra?
Am I correct in reading your views as: 'placing too much emphasis on looks is a bad thing, but bring on the giant saline-filled boobies!!' ?

You know, I had once considered liposuction.
Then I found out the latest trend in plastic surgery is "butt implants."
It was then I decided to keep any junk in my trunk natural. I never realized quite how far this plastic surgery craze had gone. Butt implants?? Forget it. That's a little much.

-B.

I was just playing around Banshee! No harm attended.
I still stick with my original Bias on this subject.

Deep

i can understand the need of some people to feel better about themselves by getting plastic surgery, especially those scarred by accidents or birth defects.....

I still want a boob job, not to get bigger and add plastic to my body but to reduce what I have and hopefully take some strain off my poor back, plus I hate when people talk to my chest and not me.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
i can understand the need of some people to feel better about themselves by getting plastic surgery, especially those scarred by accidents or birth defects.....
I still want a boob job, not to get bigger and add plastic to my body but to reduce what I have and hopefully take some strain off my poor back, plus I hate when people talk to my chest and not me.

IMO, plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery are two completely different things.
Plastic surgery is the liposuction, the breast implants, the lifts and tucks and all those procedures people get because they want to. There is no medical or societal need to get freaking calf implants.
Cosmetic surgery is for a person who was scarred in a fire, or a child born with cleft lip...procedures to correct a disfigurement (I hate using that word for it, but I don't have a better one!) It's not a vanity thing.
Breast reductions are done for valid medical reasons ... cosmetic surgery. I don't think anyone has a debatable issue with *cosmetic* surgery.

-B.

Take care of yourself & you won't need to be fixed up.

So stop complaining that you're ugly & that beautiful people get all the breaks.

There are only a very small percentage of people who were born with physical defects who deserve to complain.

I have a bit of a different take on cosmetic surgery. I have a bump on my nose. Its not huge but it is there. I have actually been asked a few times in my life if I had my nose broken. My Mom has the same thing. As did my Maternal grandmother who I treasured when I was growing up, and still do long after her death. When I look at my face I see my history. I see the legacy that is my maternal ancestors. I wouldnt change that for the world. I like looking at myself and seeing a bit of history. Of course, as I grow older, Im seeing a bit of my own personal history in the laugh lines and crows feet. But thats ok...Ive earned those suckers!!

now we're getting some where on this topic.. with the last couple of posts that is...

There is a difference in Cosmetic / Plastic surgery.

I happen to know someone who was born with a facial birth mark. I have been told the stories by them of growing up and being seen as "different" or "ugly". I got to read a letter written by this persons mother, to the doctors and insurance companies that didn't want to pay for the laser surgery that would give some comfort.

I watched this person go through months of fighting with the insurance company that it wasn't fair that they wouldn't pay for her laser surgery to remove a birth mark, but if she wanted implants that's fine, or if a man wanted a penile implant, that would be covered too.

whats wrong with this ?

I do not agree with the reality TV show offering these makeovers to people who .. have a crooked nose, a few extra pounds.. etc.

However, should people come forward, who were in an accident and scarred, birth marks, defects... etc, by all means, help them out.