We Don't Need "Fixing"

Though not front-page news, by any means, one interesting headline that has gotten some attention this week has been the news of a new book, titled “My Beautiful Mommy,” by author Dr. Michael Salzhauer. The novel is a children’s book, aimed at youngsters around ages four to seven, which explains the story of a mother getting cosmetic surgery (specifically, a nose job, tummy tuck, and breast augmentation) and having to explain the process to her small child.

At first, this definitely seems alarming. It does not seem like it was so long ago that cosmetic surgery was not the national phenomenon that it seems to be right now. However, with growing numbers of patients going under the knife, there are more and more people effected. Salzhauer explains (as detailed in a Newsweek article) his reasoning behind the book, which serves as a means for parents (specifically mothers) to be able to easier explain the process of their cosmetic surgeries to their children.

While it might seem that most individuals concerned with child development would oppose the advent of such a novel, that is not entirely the case. Child psychiatrist Elizabeth Berger, as explained in the Newsweek article, likes the idea of a children’s book. She believes that the process of cosmetic surgery can be very lengthy, and that it definitely needs some sort of explanation to young children. As parents may be absent, out of commission, and/or appearing like they may have been involved in some sort of violent acts, the availability of a book that can explain the idea of cosmetic surgery may not be such a bad thing.

However, Berger does acknowledge the negatives. She also worries that children will seemingly want to follow “mommy’s” example, and desire to get their own cosmetic surgeries done. I find this to be the most potentially harmful piece of this further normalization of cosmetic surgery. As it can be seen in several of my previous blog posts, beauty standards are inherently impossible to avoid in our lives (be it through media, culture, etc.), as we are being conditioned while we grow up to adhere to a strict set of aesthetic rules. I think that the idea of trying to normalize this behavior to children runs an extreme of risk of even further conditioning them to think along the lines of, “I must alter myself in order to be beautiful.” If “mommy” gets her cosmetic procedures done in such a seemingly normal way, then why wouldn’t her children feel the need to do the same thing?

While cosmetic surgery may not be going away, I do not know if it is wise to so easily provide children with even more reason to believe that their bodies and appearance need “fixing.” While I am not at all claiming that people shouldn’t be allowed to have whatever cosmetic surgery they so desire, we also should not work to condition people in our society any further to feel the need to always need “fixing” to be beautiful. We must work to prevent more and more of these messages from building up and in turn being conditioned into individuals, as it only creates people who feel aesthetically inferior for the rest of their lives…and that is a harm that cannot be cured.