Testing, testing...just making sure it's all working here after the server move!

I believe I've seen a parody of this situation, with chapter titles like

"Why Does Mommy Always Look Surprised?"

Ah. There it is!

And of course, one can't pass up the serving of schadenfreude at awfulplasticsurgery.com.

This is going to wind up in schools being read to kids.. And one o' dem kids is going to go home and tell mommy about this great idea to fix her face.. I just want to be in the room when it happens..

no one really seems to care about the long term impact plastic surgery has on our species.

As men select mates based on appearnce, and ugly people can make themsleves look good, it will over time lead to an increase in unattractive people.

Which will over time lead us to one of those twilight zone episodes where everybody inevitably looks just like everyone else.

Which will over time lead us to one of those twilight zone episodes where everybody inevitably looks just like everyone else.

Or the one where everyone looks like a pig, and the pretty one is thought to be ugly!

o.O

Every day in every way, the world seems to be turning into Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL (remember Katherine Helmond's plastic surgery-addicted character?). Plastic surgery to fix genuine injuries, deformities, or disfigurements is one thing, but I'm not into having cosmetic surgery for every tiny little alleged physical "flaw." Admittedly, I've never been crazy about any procedures that involve rendering me unconscious and having sharp objects enter my body just to have a tighter tush or the like. Ah well, to each his/her own!

Amy, this is off topic, but I have following Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine. Everytime I see her in a video or perform on TV, I'm reminded of you! You two look alike, and her taste in clothing appears the same, too!

Good choice of a title, Amy.

Ever read this as a kid?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Qbbr2TzKJFk/SLM9LTsTyII/AAAAAAAABvk/qLEWlPeqU5Y/s1600-h/langwidere.jpg

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It's "Ozma of Oz" (107).

The character is named Langwidere.

From Wikipedia:

Princess Langwidere's most unusual feature is that she has 30 heads that are interchangeable on her neck — instead of changing her clothes every day, she simply changes her head. The heads, which inexplicably keep alive even when not being "worn," are kept in a bejeweled boudoir, and are described as all being very beautiful, running through all combinations of hair and eye colors (except for gray hair and red, tired eyes of course), skin tones, and even noses of different shapes to represent different ethnicities. Langwidere generally spends every waking moment of her life admiring whichever head she's currently wearing in a large mirrored hall, and "changing" heads whenever she wants to adopt a new look.

(What it doesn't mention is that each head has a different personality, and the one we see her using has a temper.)

Oops, I meant to type "1907," the date of publication.

Mommy may have a new head but, Poppa's got a brand new bag! good Gawd y'all! (channeling James Brown)

@Ally - disagree. Amy certainly out styles Flo. See the shapeless trash bags Flo has worn to last two awards shows as evidence. Amy wouldn't be caught dead in anything so waist-less.

Some womens bodies are absolutely destroyed by having kids, so I don't hold it against them if they want to fix a few things

Some womens bodies are absolutely destroyed by having kids, so I don't hold it against them if they want to fix a few things

Everyone around here seems to acknowledge that men are hard-wired to desire certain physical attributes. How can we blame women for trying to acquire them (if they weren't lucky enough to born with them) so they can attain the love and spoils afforded to the beautiful?

"Luj, that is hilarious. PS One of the guys who comments here, Jay J. Hector, was on "The Twilight Zone" as a kid."

That's a good thing he did. A *real* good thing. And tomorrow is going to be a real *good* day.

I don't think anyone's Mommy needs a nose job (if you hate your nose that much, why are you waiting this long to get it fixed?) But if Mommy wants a breast lift or tummy tuck to fix the damage to her body from having kids then I don't think anyone should hold it against her. I also don't think there needs to be a book about it--what 4 year old is ever going to notice if Mommy's boobs look perkier than they did two weeks ago?

I have no more problem using medicine to fix what time makes ail me, than I would using medicine to cure an infection. If we just want to let nature take it's course, why have Drs at all?

Do we need a book? No. If you make changes that are obvious to a kid you're doing it wrong.

"How can we blame women for trying to acquire them (if they weren't lucky enough to born with them) so they can attain the love and spoils afforded to the beautiful?"

It does raise a question, though. When everyone is beautiful, does beauty become prosaic? Even trite? Does the ugly woman then become desirable, out of novelty value?

no one really seems to care about the long term impact plastic surgery has on our species.

Attractive (and unattractive people) have been around since the beginning of time. The same with animals and plants. The definition of attractive changes with time and the person viewing her. If you walk into any porn store it shows the absolute diversity of what some people consider attractive. You have everything from white model type looks, to nothing but black women, to the big effing mama's, to barely legal, to big butt videos. And those are the one's off the top of my head. There are gay, gang-banging and dominatrix/domination videos as well. And I'm sure there are niche markets for amputees, small breasts, and similar desires.

As men select mates based on appearance, and ugly people can make themselves look good, it will over time lead to an increase in unattractive people.

No more unattractive than women who use the "Ugly Betty" standard of friendship and human connection. And makeup has been around since the Egyptians (if not longer). Would you also say that a women wearing makeup leads to deception?

My ex-gf always looked good to me, but basic foundation and a quick eyeliner changed her from plain to pretty great. But she took the time to care.

But if Mommy wants a breast lift or tummy tuck to fix the damage to her body from having kids then I don't think anyone should hold it against her.

If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?

<Ducking> -- sorry, couldn't resist.

This is going to wind up in schools being read to kids.. And one o' dem kids is going to go home and tell mommy about this great idea to fix her face.. I just want to be in the room when it happens..

I hope the little brat is unable to sit down for a week.

Society will only continue to go to Hell, when we expect everyone we meet to look like a 10 through plastic surgery.

As men select mates based on appearnce, and ugly people can make themsleves look good, it will over time lead to an increase in unattractive people.

All the more reason to invent something that actually rewrites genetic code to make the unattractive person and his/her offspring more attractive, if possible, so they won't end up dying alone and bitter.

And, as an aside, said rewriting can also be used to prevent gene-related maladies like Huntington's Disease and certain cancers.

Society will only continue to go to Hell, when we expect everyone we meet to look like a 10 through plastic surgery.

The Lone Ranger & Tonto are riding down into a box canyon. At the far end, the Lone Ranger notices an army of Comanche Indians, in full war-paint, frowning down from the cliff walls at him.

Turning to his left he notices a great number of very mad looking Arapaho Indians staring down.

On his right he observes a host of Cherokee Indians peering at him over the rim of the canyon.

Looking behind, he sees every Apache brave in the world slowly creeping into the canyon, blocking the exit.

The Lone Ranger turns to Tonto and says, "My, we're in a heap of trouble, huh?"

Tonto's reply, "Who do you mean we, Kemo Sabe?"

I still don't know of any woman that I've met that has had cosmetic surgery. Even at the projected standard of 17%* by 2015 it is still a relatively small percent.

Some things considered plastic surgery include gastric bypass, and lap band surgery. While they fall loosely in the category -- they have health effects as well. I have a deviated septum that they tried to correct in 1982. Technically that was plastic surgery because it would have evened out my nostrils.

All the more reason to invent something that actually rewrites genetic code to make the unattractive person and his/her offspring more attractive, if possible, so they won't end up dying alone and bitter.

Again, someone is projecting their eye onto the the beholder. I was reasonably attracted to my lady of thirteen years when I met her. When she passed -- I was devastated. In that thirteen years, I looked. I never strayed. I saw her heart and we stayed together the whole time. Yes, she wasn't as attractive at the end, but I never regretted any time I spent with her -- regardless of looks.

I am now single and am attracted to both some late 20 somethings. I also find a 50 year old lady attractive. I'm more interested in seducing her.

While a 20 year old may look at nothing but looks and sex as the criteria -- don't label and count anything out.

* www.livescience.com/7522-cosmetic-surgery-expected-soar.html

mpetrie98, the problem with tweaking the genome for disease, which I think is a good thing, is that it wont stop there.

Inevitably we'll wind up with a Gattaca like society, unless it goes too far and humans are forced to live in clean rooms as all the genetic tweaking makes our imune systems so weak that the common cold becomes fatal

Hey, I don't buy that this is all bad.

Look ahead. The genetics people are going to ask you what you want your kids to look like, not too long from now.

"look ahead. The genetics people are going to ask you what you want your kids to look like, not too long from now."

That terrifies me. Talk about losing out on genetic diversity. Not to mention, there is no possibility I could have thought of everything that makes my kids "them".

What about the kid with the crooked nose who becomes downright hilarious to "compensate". Are we going to lose out on comedy? On incredibly gifted actresses, for that matter?

Terrible idea. Horrible. "Don't go messin' with things you don't know nothin' about" and all that. The law of unintended consequences will wipe us out.

I look at it this way: Regardless of any tut-tutting I do, it's going to happen, so I'd better start getting used to it. I've known three women who have had boob jobs. With the first one, it was reconstructive after breast cancer, so she gets a pass regardless. The second one was a gal I knew who was seriously flat-chested, and it bothered her a lot. She got B-cup implants and it really helped with her self-image. The third gal was screwed up to begin with -- she got DD implants (too large for her build), went around wearing low-cut tops, and then got mad at men who looked. (And it wasn't a very good job either; she never actually owned up to them being implants, but it was obvious.)

My main concern about cosmetic surgery is that it will result in a single, uniform standard of beauty, which was what I was getting at in my previous post. I think that would create a socially enforced conformity, and it would be very harmful to society. I will admit, though, that right now it seems to be going the other way. We may get tired of the freak show, but it least they're independent-thinking freaks.

Inevitably we'll wind up with a Gattaca like society, unless it goes too far and humans are forced to live in clean rooms as all the genetic tweaking makes our imune systems so weak that the common cold becomes fatal

That is a possibility, or it could be like that twilight zone episode where every man and woman gets a certain attractive body type and clothing when they become an adult.

There are simply some people who are condemned to loneliness, due to their looks (I know at least one of them). It is a misfortune that nothing can be done. Even if the genetic tweaking comes too late to alter their looks, maybe if they get somebody of the opposite sex drunk enough, their offspring could have a better chance.

(I'm not sure such a strategy would work with a woman, as they are born with all their eggs already produced.)

Ever see the movie, "Looker"?

Everyone talks about blackface but what about the weird phenomenon known as whiteface? I mean Lil'Kim's interpretation of a blue eyed blonde scares the shit out of me.

http://www.rwdmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/lil-kim.jpg

Here you go Ppen

http://cheezburger.com/iworejungleboots/lolz/View/1963717376