““Beauty has no obvious use, but civilization can’t do without it.” Freud
Hmmm. No one examining American society from the outside would buy into beauty not having an obvious use.We’ve sacrificed time, money, and even lives on the altar of the beautiful. The message for most is: ugly is ugly.
Cosmetic surgery, injections to suck out or plump up have almost become a rite of passage. Not so many years ago, one of my students received new and improved breasts for her 16th birthday. A few times during class I had to remind her to stop looking at them. What I didn’t say was everyone else was staring at them enough. But what used to be procedures no one would dare admit to undergoing are now grocery store chatter.
We’ve fixed noses, breast, lips, chins, thighs, tummies, tushies, cheekbones, eyelids—if there’s a body part, there’s a treatment.
What is it inside of us that refuses to like what’s outside of us? If we could see our souls when we looked in the mirror, would we want to or be as anxious to radically alter them as well?
