Fatal self-esteem under the knife

Out of all the things my grandfather could have passed down to me – his baseball equipment, his old train set, his record collection that must have contained 1,000 classic records, he gave me his

Out of all the things my grandfather could have passed down to me – his baseball equipment, his old train set, his record collection that must have contained 1,000 classic records, he gave me his nose.

It’s not that bad, but if ever asked my least favorite physical feature, that would be it. Most of my cousins on my mother’s side are cursed with the same facial accessory. Even though I hate my nose, given the opportunity, would I change it?

Olivia Goldsmith, author of the novel “The First Wives Club” (later adapted into a movie starring Goldie Hawn) probably would. Goldsmith, however, didn’t have a nose she disliked, rather some loose skin on her chin.

After opting for plastic surgery, she had a heart attack after complications resulting from anesthesia used in the surgery. After going into a coma, she passed away a couple days later. I guess Goldsmith would have rather died than have an abnormal chin.

In 1996, Goldsmith told the Associated Press, “I wrote ‘The First Wives Club’ in true indignation. It’s not right. You choose a woman who bears your young and then you discard her for a younger, taller, thinner, blonder model.” She continued, “We are expected to raise the family…and we have to have thin thighs. Nobody can do it.”

Was Goldsmith trying to make herself into Superwoman? If all went right with her plastic surgery, would she be ready for liposuction with a bottle of blonde dye in hand?

Goldsmith seemed to be buying into the very idea that she criticized in her novel. Personally, I would rather have some loose skin on my chin than be welcomed to the pearly gates at the age of 54.

Curious to find out some statistics on the likelihood of this tragedy, I went online. On a medical Web site it was reported that for every 5,000 liposuction procedures from 1994 to 1998, one patient died – making 94 patients in all!

In a time when cloning sheep by the name of Dolly seems like a piece of cake and parents are able to name their little girl by the 2nd trimester, how much pressure is there on for people to feel like they must fit into a cookie-cuter image, like any Barbie at the Toys R’ Us? Humans are not meant to be perfect.

After all, imperfections are what make you, well… you. Would Nikki Taylor have accomplished what she did if she had chosen to get her famous mole removed from above her lip before she started her modeling career?

Would Marilyn Monroe have been as sultry, sexy and voluptuous (she was a size16 at one point in her career) if she would have weighed her options and thought of lipo? What about Jay Leno’s chin?

As for me? I would rather have the family heirloom in the center of my face (or even some extra skin on my chin) any day, then to be put under the knife and cross my heart and hope not to die.


Rachel Summers can be reached at temple_news@hotmail.com.

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