Artificial beauty
was under scrutiny at the recent Plastic People Pageant in China...
I thought beauty pageants were supposed to be about real people, sort of, but I’m not sure which people the Artificial Beauty Pageant in China is about – the contestants, or the surgeons who, um, modified them. Who gets the prize money?
It’s a Chinese version of Extreme Makeover. The list of surgical procedures those people went through could make you cry, and not just because of all the carving. All that pain and risk is endured just so the final products – excuse me, people – can end up looking like strange Barbie dolls!
Fox’s The Swan is actually worse because it attempts “total-person” makeovers, but that’s silly because it’s basically about making the "patients" look like glamour girls (read: tramps) so they’ll feel better about themselves. Sheesh! Whatever happened to I Peter 3:3-4?
The Swan claims to take “women who are stuck in a rut and revitalize them by revealing their beauty and confidence.” Revealing their beauty? You've got to be kidding. If only they actually tried doing that. Obviously these women have little confidence to reveal or they wouldn’t be in ruts. So The Swan team, magnanimous as they are, helps make them nice pretty "houses"...that are built on sand. It's grievous, not to mention pathetic.
Unfortunately, it's not just in America that the idol of physical perfection is being pursued to such lengths. From another article related to the Chinese pageant:
I want to be clear that I don’t find anything wrong with looking one’s natural best by aid of subtle makeup, nice clothing, or tasteful jewelry. But there’s a difference between a little “polish” and a charade.
What’s also lousy about this “pursuit of (artificial) beauty” besides the pursuit itself is the poor stewardship involved...surely there are better uses for those 1000's of dollars/yuan.
Update: here's something to add perspective: a smart, happy, well-adjusted girl with Treacher Collins Syndrome (congenital facial deformity). Thanks to Elena via Proverbial Wife for the link.
I thought beauty pageants were supposed to be about real people, sort of, but I’m not sure which people the Artificial Beauty Pageant in China is about – the contestants, or the surgeons who, um, modified them. Who gets the prize money?
It’s a Chinese version of Extreme Makeover. The list of surgical procedures those people went through could make you cry, and not just because of all the carving. All that pain and risk is endured just so the final products – excuse me, people – can end up looking like strange Barbie dolls!
Fox’s The Swan is actually worse because it attempts “total-person” makeovers, but that’s silly because it’s basically about making the "patients" look like glamour girls (read: tramps) so they’ll feel better about themselves. Sheesh! Whatever happened to I Peter 3:3-4?
The Swan claims to take “women who are stuck in a rut and revitalize them by revealing their beauty and confidence.” Revealing their beauty? You've got to be kidding. If only they actually tried doing that. Obviously these women have little confidence to reveal or they wouldn’t be in ruts. So The Swan team, magnanimous as they are, helps make them nice pretty "houses"...that are built on sand. It's grievous, not to mention pathetic.
Unfortunately, it's not just in America that the idol of physical perfection is being pursued to such lengths. From another article related to the Chinese pageant:
Beauty pageants were once considered reviled displays of western decadence but have become big business in Communist-ruled China following more than two decades of economic reforms.
"I wanted to convey a message to society -- that the pursuit of beauty is ageless," said 62-year-old Liu Yulan, the oldest contestant who turned to plastic surgery to smooth facial wrinkles and fill out her drawn cheeks.
I want to be clear that I don’t find anything wrong with looking one’s natural best by aid of subtle makeup, nice clothing, or tasteful jewelry. But there’s a difference between a little “polish” and a charade.
What’s also lousy about this “pursuit of (artificial) beauty” besides the pursuit itself is the poor stewardship involved...surely there are better uses for those 1000's of dollars/yuan.
Update: here's something to add perspective: a smart, happy, well-adjusted girl with Treacher Collins Syndrome (congenital facial deformity). Thanks to Elena via Proverbial Wife for the link.
posted by Bonnie at
10:38 PM
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