Many images in today’s glamour magazines and online sites are unrealistic; the photos have been manipulated to give people flawless features and make them appear “perfect.”
In real life, even some cover models and celebrities don’t look like their pictures. How many times have you seen a female celebrity return to the public eye within just a couple of months after giving birth without looking as if her body ever changed
Obviously, that’s not realistic for most new mothers. Most don’t have the means to employ a team of personal trainers, nannies, and chefs to help them regain their former physical selves.
The images in today’s media put unrealistic pressure on people, who then place unrealistic pressure on themselves. Yet even when someone tries to meet unrealistic expectations through plastic surgery, they’re criticized for “having work done” or for not just being happy with who they are and how they look. It’s a lose-lose situation.
Unrealistic Images Sell Hope
The truth is that unrealistic images sell hope by trying to portray an ideal happiness associated with a product or service the advertiser wants you to think you need.
Fashion magazines offer perceptions. Their advertisements use Photoshopped pictures of flawless models in extraordinarily beautiful settings to make you feel attached to the advertised product. While you may see and think of beauty when looking at those photos, getting you to feel beauty often has the opposite effect.
That message carries over to plastic surgery when patients believe that, by looking more like the person in the advertisement, they will also have the idyllic life portrayed. If those images have you hoping to be something you never were, then your expectations will likely never be met—irrespective of the plastic surgeon, the procedure, or the cost.
Regain Some of What’s Lost
Plastic surgery can help you regain some of what’s lost over time. In the face and neck, for instance, plastic surgery can turn back the clock seven to 10 years, depending on the patient, procedure, circumstances—and genetics.
For a woman who has lost a few pounds post “mother mode,” we can help her look more like she did before she had kids by returning some breast volume and lifting and repositioning the breasts, tightening some of the stretched or loose skin in her abdomen, and tightening the separation of the six-pack muscles that occurs. Those are realistic results.
But suppose a forty-year-old mother of three, who is now out of shape and significantly overweight, wants to look like a five-foot-eleven-inch Czech cover model. In that case, a few procedures will help her realistically perceive herself.
The More Realistic Your Expectations, the Better
Regarding plastic surgery, the more realistic your expectations, the better your outcomes. People who realize that the images in glamour magazines and online are often manipulated have expectations more in line with what plastic surgery can deliver.
For instance, while weight loss can often make a person feel better, and other people may view the person as healthier because they move better and look happier, many people who lose weight still see their former selves when they look in the mirror. Instead of seeing someone who has reached a significant health goal, they see sagging skin or lack of muscle tone.
When that happens, plastic surgery for skin removal and body contouring procedures can help. Of the people who come in for a procedure, the most satisfied are those who are less concerned with the scarring that will occur with these procedures.
For them, it’s more about mental outlook. The main concern is to remove extra tissue so that clothes fit better and are less irritating on unwanted skin folds—the end goal in a weight-loss journey and an effort to feel better about oneself without any comparison to what magazines and other media may represent as “perfect.”