BEAUTY BLOG Siargao through the eyes of Katarina Rodriguez
Should we be more supportive of our fellow females who dare to go under the knife?
Picture this: you and a girlfriend of yours are aimlessly browsing through Instagram when you stumble across a photo of a celebrity you heard—or simply suspect—has gone under the knife. Before you know it, you Google “[celebrity’s name] before surgery” and chuckle when you find yourselves to be right. Sound familiar? At least once in our lives, many of us have judged someone for undergoing plastic surgery. It could be subtle, in the form of a double take when you pass someone on the street. It could also be a snide comment to your group of trusted friends. Sadly, with the rise of social media came this constant pressure to look “perfect”—whatever that means. But at the same time, because the topic is still quite taboo, many still try to hide whatever it is they had done. And the more they hide it, the more backlash they seem to be getting.
“You’re plastic. Cold, shiny, hard plastic,” shouts an enraged Janis Ian to Cady Heron in 2004’s Mean Girls. At this point in the film, Cady, the film’s protagonist, was barely recognizable as her former Mathlete self, and has fully transformed into one of The Plastics. What angered her friend was the fact that she was totally in denial.
Slowly but surely, the beauty industry has been trying to fight this tendency towards denial by becoming more inclusive, more open. As someone who has been working closely with the industry for the past few years, I’ve been exposed to procedures I didn’t know could exist—some of which I’m offered to try for myself. While I haven’t done anything that isn’t non-invasive, I could see the appeal in procedures that would help just a little, such as botox and fillers. “I’d love to do your nose, just a little,” a noted aesthetic doctor told me when she met me. While I was perfectly fine with my nose, I did see how something as minor as fillers would make a slight difference.
It is true that lot of these procedures are met with positive reactions, but this is not always the case once you step outside the bubble that is the beauty industry. To erase this stigma, having outspoken public figures would certainly help. Fashion icon Bryan Yambao, better known as Bryanboy, is one person who comes to mind. When I had the chance to interview him when he came back to Manila, I questioned him about his frankness on his cosmetic surgery procedures.
“I post pictures all the time, so people might talk about the slightest difference. It’s better to be truthful,” Bryanboy told me during our interview. “I like the idea of inspiring people to make bold choices. I suffered so much insecurities when I was younger and then I thought, why not do something about it? The surprising thing is, even some of my own friends have reached out to me after I posted pictures of myself swollen, post-procedure. They were wishing me well, telling me they went through the same thing and I had no idea,” he shares.
Women just want to feel good about themselves. An unsupportive environment might only contribute to a cycle of self-loathing and self-perfection that threatens the very core of feminism: choice. I have nothing against plastic surgery, but I believe it is the intention that matters. Individuals should be sure they are doing it for themselves, and under the hands of a trained professional. When that is all sorted out, there should be no harm in someone wanting to better themselves for themselves, whether it is a big change or something very, very minor.