If I read about another celebrity who states, 'I'd never have anything done cosmetically' I will eat my hat. Both smug and annoying it suggests those that do are somehow lesser. Some people are blessed genetically, but why be so quick to judge those who seek a little help.
The rise in popularity of these non-invasive cosmetic procedures is not too dissimilar as getting your hair coloured, or your nails done, or getting a fake tan for a night out to cover up your blotchy pale skin. If every woman stopped colouring their hair we would all see the difference.
If people get some cosmetic assistance what's the problem? It's their body and face. I'm thinking of someone suffering from depression who's spent too many hours with a furrowed brow making them look permanently angry and wants to try Botox just to soften the lines a little. Is there anything wrong with wanting to look a bit fresher and happier?
The lines on our faces create a map of your life and it might be interesting for others to look at, but when you see your reflection every morning it's not always a pleasant sight. If filler under your eyes means they are less sunken, then it means less time putting on make up to conceal them and less people saying, 'Oh my god, you look exhausted.' When actually you are not exhausted, you just have dark circles genetically.
These treatments, which are simple, relatively affordable, fast, and now ubiquitous can make people feel better about themselves. Just ensure you go to a reputable clinic with proper certification; there are cowboys out there with accompanying horror stories.
This same celebrity was dismissive of women who undergo breast augmentation surgery. If someone goes for ginormous implants I admit they can look weird, but what about a woman who has had breast cancer and needs breast reconstruction and implants? That woman is just trying to reclaim her body ravaged by a disease. And what about women who choose to breastfeed, not for a few months, but perhaps a year or two, with each consecutive child. The toll on the breasts is often not spoken about and tacitly accepted. After breastfeeding, the breast tissue atrophies leaving empty sacks where there were once ample bosoms (not in all cases). And sometimes the nipples can droop. Are women expected to just love and embrace their bodies? How can they when, often, all we see are pert, pneumatic breasts on giant billboards?
Working in Asia, I see women who are practically half naked, in shorts, with their legs out and their hair perfected. You will not see a hairy leg in sight; laser hair removal is big business. There's massive pressure on women to look a certain way and I can see, just by scanning a room that most have bought into the beauty concept, including myself. I take care over my appearance and want to look good for my age, it's something that was drilled into me since I modelled from the age of 16. When I look at old modelling photos, I see how lighting can transform me into someone other. I know it is an illusion, but it is still intoxicating to look at and has made me understand the allure of image and surface.
On the day of the shoot I was tired but it was airbrushed away to make me look in my 20's, I was 36 at the time.
When you walk through an airport billboards are screaming at you to buy expensive products so you, too, can look like the airbrushed perfection they are selling. It's a fabricated manipulated con but the images are impossible to ignore sticking in our consciousness in a pernicious way that can make women, especially, feel wholly inadequate.
If we lived in a society were we saw a diverse range of faces and bodies: old, wrinkly, black, brown, yellow, saggy, short, tall, thin, fat, oblong, this silent quest for perfection, that many of us tacitly accept and unwittingly pursue, would not be so pronounced. There is pressure, on men and women, to look good. If you look good life will be better - that's the theory. It would be preferable if the emphasis were more on how you behave, your personality and how you treat others. Unfortunately, how you look matters - at every level of our lives, professional and personal.
But let's not be so dismissive of people who undergo such cosmetic procedures? Just don't over do it because who wants to look like a clown. Getting a small dose of help, now and then, is just fine.