Perfection Hurts

An Amazing G4G member, and personal friend of mine wrote this speech to give at her high school graduation! You go girl! 

Is Perfect Worth It?

      Beauty is something women have tried to achieve for centuries. But is it really something worth trying to achieve? Women have put themselves and their daughters through extreme pain in order for society to consider them beautiful. From the Chinese foot binding to the corsets of the Victorian ages. And now, in modern times with plastic surgery, beauty seems to always be tied in with pain.

        For several hundred years in China, women of high class, and even middle class would cripple themselves by binding their feet so tight that their bones would break. Mothers would take their daughters, who were used to running around free and climbing trees, and force them into a life of pain and immobility.

        During the Victorian age, from China to America and Europe, the pain of beauty did not end... the means of torture changed. The corset was now the weapon of choice to achieve a dangerous standard of beauty. The small waist it provided was not the only alteration it made to the body. The tight fabric that was often ribbed with whale bone or steel would alter and distort the placement of the internal organs and ribcage. Women would die from internal bleeding due to a rib puncturing a vital organ because a corset was laced too tight. 

         Now, women are still torturing themselves for beauty. Plastic surgery, extreme dieting, and extreme workouts are the foot binding and corsets for the modern woman. Women spend thousands of dollars to go under the knife to change their appearance. From breast implants to liposuction, some women are willing to do anything to fit society’s standard of beauty. One mother even encouraged her 16 year old daughter to get a nose job!

         Many risk the possibility of not waking up. Why is this? It’s because society has instilled in us the idea that girls need to be beautiful in order to succeed. When we were young, beauty was always associated with kindness. And face it, no one wanted to be an ugly stepsister. Even in fairytales, beauty took precedent over personality. Prince Charming didn’t fall in love with Sleeping Beauty’s winner personality after all. It was her amazing beauty that captured his attention.

          With the idea of perfection ingrained in women’s heads, it’s no shocker that plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery to be more exact, is a multi-billion dollar industry. Clinics receive and average of $100 million a year just from non-invasive surgeries alone. The idea of nipping and tucking isn’t just in the US either. It’s world wide. A 21 year old Saeko Kumura, a native of Tokyo, received surgery to widen her eyes and “improve” her nose and chin. The results? Once the anesthesia wore off, she collapsed to the ground clutching an ice pack to her face murmuring “It hurts.”

          According to the chief surgen at the Faceline clinic, people “think that plastic surgery is one of the easiest ways to improve their personal relations and to do better, to achieve more in society." Now more women are putting themselves under the knife, including a minority who were once thought to have pride in their bodies.

          Besides the loss of money, they’re risks to cosmetic surgery. Take liposucktion for example. It is a very popular surgery that literily sucks the fat out of you. Because this precedure does not take place in a hospital but in a clinic, many assume that the risk are lower, but this is not the case. A published survey shows that this operation has a 20-60% higher risk that all other surgeries that take place in a hospital. Blood clots, anethesia problems and internal injuries due to this seemingly harmless operation are factors that can cause death. Would you risk of never waking up, ugly scars, or unbarable pain just so you can impress a society which places appearance above all else? Or maybe $5,000 for a tummy tuck that you could achieve from a healthy diet and exercise? Is perfect really worth it?

A note to all women out there who believe that cosmetic surgery is the way to go: Don’t listen to society. Aesthetic preferences change year to year, and even season to season. Your life isn’t worth trying to impress guys who suggest you would look better with bigger breast or a smaller nose when in two years they’re going to prefer the girls with flat chests and a normal sized nose. Just remember, you are beautiful to those close to you and you are too precious to change your body in such an unhealthy and dangerous way.

Thank you SO SO SO much for sharing this with us!! It was absolutely beautiful, and came right from the heart. Thank you for sharing this and making the world a better place!!! You GO GIRL!!!  

 If you want to share your story, or something you've written (a poem, story, opinion piece) please feel free to e-mail us at g4gyourebeautiful1@gmail.com!