A backlash against aesthetic medicine has been noticeable in Australia for some time. Following the 2007 death of Melbourne woman Lauren James, who died following a liposuction
procedure and has become a poster child for this
phenomenon, Australian officials have repeatedly focused the spotlight on the lax controls imposed on the cosmetic and beauty industries.
Regulating the industry in that country may or may not be a good thing, but a recently published article focused my attention on the intense cultural backlash against plastic surgery in Australia. Drawing the line on the beauty industry:
While these are the tragic deaths that make the headlines, untold
numbers of women volunteer to go under the knife each year, striving
for physical perfection despite the risks.
The author of Skintight: An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery,
University of Technology Sydney senior lecturer Dr Meredith Jones, says
it's a recipe for unhappiness. "The makeover culture is a kind of state
of being where nothing is ever good enough," she says.
"For women in particular it means they tend not to focus on the
important things. They will spend a lot of time, energy and money
trying to achieve something closer to an ideal body than what they
have. The fact is they can never actually achieve an ideal body, so
there is never going to be any rest."
It is impossible to obtain accurate figures on the number of
cosmetic procedures performed in this country, with the Australian
Society of Plastic Surgeons stating: "No-one knows exactly how much
cosmetic surgery is being performed in Australia, as national
statistics for the industry are not collected at this time.
"This is partly due to the fact that so many different practitioners
perform cosmetic surgery, ranging from plastic surgeons to cosmetic
doctors and dermatologists."
As Mr Spock would say, "Fascinating." Read it all.