Bubble, bubble

[flexagon]

So you think I haven't been LJing much? I'll have you know I started trouble over on miyyu's post about plastic surgery before I even left the house this morning. That's how dedicated I am. :)

Mostly I've been doing a bunch of personal-productivity things like sorting all the papers I brought home, doing lots of reading for future work, working out (squats felt fine again; something really is better about them) and so forth. Along with scary books like Effective STL and some more C++ Primer, I've been reading an even more scary book called Winning Office Politics. It's a disturbing and hilarious read, and ranges from the most innocent of tactics (smile at people) to such things as: For the sake of completion, we are compelled to mention the ageless tactic of marrying an offspring of a powerful person in order to catapult into a key spot in the organization. Yipes--and then there are the not-at-all-sarcastic references to Machiavelli. I think at this point I'm reading it for humor value and for self-defense rather than as part of any offensive plans. After all, for a few months I will have no agenda beyond fitting in and figuring shit out.

Oh--I did manage to have a friendly and non-bridge-burning talk with the CEO, who is back in town, this morning. I started out friendly and smiling, and as usual it magically stayed that way (I love you, Dale!). I scored some points by saying that if I were staying in the industry I would surely choose to stay at DSB (which of course is a huge if... so who knows, maybe it was true), and he scored some points by inviting me to the company BBQ in August. Then I left while we both still had points on the scoreboard. Whew.

Comments

Re: Yup

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

I agree that viewing plastic surgery as a cure for psychological issues can be very bad, but flexagon is right that parents have always passed insecurities to their kids. Also, the world judges you based on physical attributes. Saying that one should love themselves enough to not care what the world things, and that one should fine friends who don't care about the physical is fine and good, but it only works in 0.1% of people. For most of us, what the world things is important, on a conscious and subconscious level. And there are good people who are still flawed to the extend that they can't completely look past the physical.

Changing the way your body looks might give some small confidence...
Isn't that enough? If you have low self esteem, and there is something wrong with your body (according to societal norms), then fixing it may result in just a little more confidence. Sure, there may be insecurities under the surface, but you have to start somewhere.

Re: Yup

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

Isn't that enough? If you have low self esteem, and there is something wrong with your body (according to societal norms), then fixing it may result in just a little more confidence.

Well - the only objection that springs to mind on that is that some of these surgeries are very risky, lipo for example. So, if someone "doesn't need" lipo, in the sense that they are a size 6 or whatever and "look great, what's their problem" etc, if that person chooses lipo to "fix" their problem and dies, that's pretty sad.

On the other hand, I completely agree that confidence can start with the body and spread to other aspects of your personality in very good ways. People who are depressed often first show signs by not taking very good care of their bodies, and if they're forced to go through the motions of self-care, they feel better about things. Or the person who loses weight and with the extra confidence ends up deciding to dump their crappy S.O. and go back to school to get a better job.

It's important to balance the payoff against the risk I guess. I want a boob job, but at the moment the risk doesn't outweigh the desire for added confidence...nor the pain!

Re: Yup

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

Interesting ... I never thought of lipo as being dangerous. I guess I was being over-simplistic in assuming that if it was characterized as cosmetic surgery that it wasn't dangerous.

Re: Yup

[flexagon]

Oh, people can die from lipo. It's one of the very worst.

http://www.rense.com/politics6/liposuction_p.htm

You can get lots of other more recent links if you google "liposuction deaths".

Re: Yup

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

Well, I know you said I should google other articles, but the one you sent is highly suspect, and I haven't look for more.
Even they admit it: 'The surgeons and the journal admit their survey was not scientific but they say the results are still disturbing.'

'The researchers say more people are killed in the U.S. during lipoplasty than in car accidents.'
What they meant of course was per accident, but they didn't say it. And they don't reference where their 16.1 deaths per 100,000 accidents comes from, or what type of accidents it includes.

And then there is the problem that most of the deaths were from blood clots. Many of the people who have liposuction are very overweight, and are therefore predisposed to blood clots. Sure, the surgery dislodged the clot which found it's way to their heart, but that doesn't mean that the clot wouldn't have dislodged on its own three days later if they hadn't had the surgery.

Re: Yup

[artana.livejournal.com]

Actually, one of the absolute most fatal things about cosmetic surgeries is that it is easy for doctors with no actual training in the field to pretend that they are plastic surgeons. I watched a discovery channel broadcast. Of course, the biggest offender of this is Miami, but it is rampant through out the US. The surgeons rent their equipment or borrow it and then open a clinic.

If you start reading through the net for case studies, I'm afraid you'd find plenty. So, you go in for a risky procedure, with a risky doctor, in order to modify something that might not be your true problem. I honestly don't think a bit of self-esteem is worth it. And I have been a depressive in the past, so I know what you do to your body.