Louis Theroux: Under the Knife (Documentary) of Plastic Surgery
Please note that this video is definitely NOT safe for work (NSFW).
You will see exposed breasts and some other surgical things that might make you feel uncomfortable, including some pretty up close and personal surgery done on the breast with metal clamps, and fat sucking out of a tube.
I basically cringed at 14:40 and in some other parts onwards.
I felt extremely uncomfortable watching that and ended up fast forwarding a bit, but that’s probably why I am not a surgeon. 🙂
(That, and the whole steady hands, needing a brain and the patience to study for such an education)
Watch at your own risk.
Please don’t say I didn’t warn you!
SOME OF THESE “FLAWS” (ALL NATURAL!) CAN BE FIXED WITH PROPERLY FITTED CLOTHING
In the video, I cringed at seeing this “new” rebuilt belly and bellybutton on a surgeon’s secretary (frankly it freaked the #*@!$ daylights out of me), but it made me wonder if people know how to dress their bodies.
See, at 16:36, the same secretary talks about a bulge that she wants to smooth out on her sides (love handles, as one might call them), and I wish I could tell her to just wear mid-rise or high-rise pants.
Stop wearing low-rise, or super low-rise jeans. They don’t do anyone any favours, even the ones with sharp, skinny hipbones.
It would solve that “bulge” she’s so concerned about.
It’s completely normal to have “bulges” (we are human, not plastic models), and they exist, even on very slim bodies like mine. I just wear mid-rise pants or higher to hug everything in.
Better clothes can really make a difference.
A well-fitted bra with proper straps for larger-chested women, can make them look and feel so much better with proper support.
PLASTIC SURGERY IS YOUR OWNÂ PREROGATIVE
My philosophy has always been “Do what you want, spend where you want.”
I understand after being slightly swayed by readers in the past, that plastic surgery does make people feel mentally better, the same way that when I wear nice clothes, it instantly picks up my mood.
I myself however, still can’t get behind it.
I don’t like saying “never”, but I’m fairly certain that this is one of these “never ever will I do this” things.
Even if I had breast cancer and had to have them lopped off for my health (I’d just pad my bra! 😉 ).
I have a fear of knives, surgery, and doing things to my body that aren’t very natural, so that has to be taken into account.
IT ALSO DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU CONSIDER “PLASTIC SURGERY”
Kate Middleton (Duchess of Cambridge), has bee venom injected into her face, like a natural Botox and Kim Kardashian for instance, doesn’t count Botox as part of plastic surgery (it’s in this video that she says that).
Sure she looks “better” in the second photo, more smooth-skinned and less like an orange Oompa Loompa, but that could have been achieved with less tanning (which is what happened, 3 years later).
When you see her speak and move in a video, it gives me the shivers at how blank and emotionless her face looks. A bit like a robot.
I partly agree with her, but it’s still scary to not see someone’s face move naturally with wrinkles, although Kate’s visage isn’t quite so plasticky.
I feel like it still all falls under the realm of enhancement because there’s a needle involved for beauty, but who am I to judge?
SOME OF THESE PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW WHEN TO STOP, OR AT LEAST HAVE MORE HONEST DOCTORS
I think I’ve covered this in my post: The New Normal: Beauty & The Beast.
…but seeing these people move and talk on a video, makes me even more certain that they should stop when they’re ahead.
EVERYONE HAS FLAWS, BUT IT’S ADMITTING AND ACCEPTING THEM THAT IS THE KEY
I am really on the side of aging gracefully in this case. Perfection is not attainable, it’s a futile endeavour that will just cost a lot of heartache, time and money in my opinion.
I’m 100% happy to be me, and with everything that comes with being me.
I have a few things that is not considered an “ideal” body by society (smaller chest, a small belly bulge that isn’t perfectly flat but is natural), and I am 100% embracing these so-called “flaws”.
(I don’t see them as flaws, hence the quotation marks. I think my belly is rather cute, it even makes faces!)
I have more bonuses than flaws and that includes my brain and personality (a bonus for some, insufferable to others).
In all the years I have had a few boyfriends who told me (nicely, and as indirectly as possible) that I should do more crunches to get rid of my belly, ultimately, they were the ones who ended up getting ousted from my life, not my belly.
“She’s here to stay because she expands beautifully to let me eat like a pig at a buffet and then retracts a bit to tell me she’s hungry. If anything, you’ll be the one who’s going to disappear!“, I told them, and promptly kicked them to the curb.
As for my smaller chest, sure, I’ll bet there were guys who wished I had double D’s or something, but I’m thrilled to have gotten rid of them (the guys, not the breasts) instead of trying to go under the knife to get a bigger chest to look curvier.
I hear that there are problems with bigger chests — sagging gets worse as gravity takes over, back pain, off-the-shelf bras don’t fit well, tops get all weird in the front…..and I have 0 of those problems.
Grass is greener and all that. Plus, I am aware we will all get old and sag sooner or later.
I’ve long accepted since the age of 18 that I am simply not the girl for any guy who didn’t want the whole package as-is.
(..and thank goodness for that.)
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY? OR IF YOU COULDN’T WATCH IT, SURGERY IN GENERAL?
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I’d like to hat tip Pat Louie for this link.
17 Comments
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Melete
A very lovely woman of my acquaintance, one of the first successful woman entrepreneurs in this city, died because of a tummy tuck. She went in to get her belly flattened, contracted a bacterial infection from the surgery, and croaked over forthwith.
What a loss! That put the kaibosh on my yearnings for “work.” Ever since then, I’ve felt it’s better to come to terms with your maturity than it is to die trying to be something you’re not. Having worked hard at the coming-to-terms project, I feel comfortable saying I’m old, even if it gives others the heebie jeebies. I keep myself clean, decently groomed, and healthy and leave it at that. I can accept myself for what I am…and if others can’t, well, that’s their problem.
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dealwithmoney
I don’t think I would have plastic surgery myself, but I don’t judge others who choose to do so. Then again, I am 28, so perhaps some might say it’s easy for me to say that. There are definitely things about my body I don’t like, but still. I just don’t believe in unnecessary surgery. There are many famous people I found attractive before and their surgery was a disaster. Even though I don’t judge others, I typically prefer people pre-surgery. Leave things as they are.
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kara
So I’m 45 which seems to be much much older than the general age of the other commenters. I’ve also lost a significant amount of weight in the past 6 years (over 100 lbs). And honestly, I”m sensing a bit of “holier than thou” in the comments and the post.
When I was 18 and in decent shape and wasn’t 50% or more gray wiry hair and my boobs didn’t sag and I didn’t have loose skin from weight loss and I wasn’t seeing discolored age spots on my hands and my face, I too made all kinds of pronouncements about how I was going to “age gracefully” and so forth.
Yeah. Well, it’s a helluva lot harder to be so sanguine about bodily changes when you look in the mirror and it seems like overnight you’ve become “old”. I don’t feel old .. but I look in the mirror or I look at myself and I see the crepey, wrinkled skin on the back of my hands that reminds me of my mother’s. I see the age spots around my eyes (despite wearing sunscreen my whole life). I see the gray hairs that aren’t just gray, but wiry and stiff and a different texture from the rest of my head. I see how my jawline sags and my neck is vaguely resembling a turkey neck.
People who are young never think they’re going to get old in a way that isn’t attractive, And they think that they’re never going to be tempted to “fix” things. And truthfully, neither did I?
And the urge to “fix” things isn’t there because I’m not trying to recapture my youth or LOOK younger. It’s because I FEEL YOUNG. And what I see when I look at myself doesn’t reflect how I feel and that sometimes makes me sad. Will I have plastic surgery? No probably not – I can’t justify the cost. But you know what? If I won the lottery tomorrow and could afford the best surgeon in the world who could make me look natural and not fake? Yeah, I’d have some of the loose skin removed. I’d have my boobs lifted. I’d have the saggy jawline tightened up. Because I’d love to look the way I feel … healthy and fit and young and ready to take on the world.
The middle years are really hard in a lot of ways. When you’re 60 or 70 you can embrace being old (or so I’ve been told). But when you’re not young anymore, but not yet old enough to be embraced for being old, it’s freakin’ HARD.
So don’t judge until you’ve been there. You never know how you’ll feel when you look in the mirror and don’t recognize the person you see.
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Vanessa
I finally got around to watching this today. Wow.
1- The boob doctor seemed SO irritated… Almost as if he didn’t want to be filmed or was in a rush to play golf or something. Definitely not someone who I’d want to operate on me
2- The receptionist? Wow. My jaw dropped at some of the clothes that she wore. Obviously, she likes the attention that she gets from having had work done… Not so much “look at my body” but “look at the surgery I’ve had!” so that felt… odd. Her co-receptionist was a bitch
3- The Russian doctor and his patient with matching face-lifts? Oh, my, God.
4- Louis Theroux is such a cutie XD
5- That girl who hired an image consultant to boss her around and “be her friend/support” and who stuck her in a slutty dress at the end? WTF!? That woman looked miserable in the beginning AND at the end. And her BF didn’t seem at all surprised about the surgery which made me wonder if that’s why they broke up? They split up one night and the next she’s hired an image consultant?
6- To tie everything together: The image consultant and the Russian doctor both talked about how their work/surgery was better than therapy because it’s an instant fix and yet their patients *did not* seem like well-adjusted, happy individuals before or after their surgeries!
7- The lipo was cool but I didn’t know that you… leak… afterwards. Ugh! -
fabulously frugirl
OMG, it’s crazy, this girl at 10:00 is getting surgery to fit into clothes?! What happened to tailoring the clothes to fit the person??!!
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fabulously frugirl
Is it weird that when I went to do my facials, I kinda felt like I was “cheating” and sorta undergoing some kind of “treatment”. They are always so painful, I think that is the most pain I can tolerate.
I agree that there is a lot that wearing the right clothes and having the right “structural clothes” like spanx, and the right bra, can help with.
I found it quite sad that the receptionist who was only 26 has already had so much work done on her body. It gives new meaning to “feeling comfortable in your own skin”, doesn’t it?
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Ban Clothing
whatever happened to growing old gracefully?
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Sonia
Funny thing is, dr. Linder was my plastic surgeon for my liposuction procedure. It was a personal decision that I made and I don’t regret it. I had issues with my stomach that even high rise jeans couldn’t fix. I wasn’t confident enough to wear any type of nice dress or shirt that showed I had a bulge in my lower stomach. The only thing I do regret is that it was a costly procedure. I used money from my military deployment that I could have saved. I’m now budgeting and saving for my future. I do respect your opinions on this. Thanks for sharing this video. P.S. I personally did not like dr. Linder. He was kind of an ass but good at his job. Typical Beverly Hills surgeon.
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Sonia
I still judge boob jobs though. Lol. IMO, I think smaller breast look better in everything. I strictly thin in terms of fashion rather than attracting a mate…
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Mrs PoP @ PlantingOurPennies
I’m the kind of girl that’s never even thought about dying my hair, so going under the knife seems way outside of my comfort zone. I don’t judge people who do, I just generally wish that they had the self confidence that would allow them to see it’s probably not necessary.
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Mochi & Macarons
I’ve dyed my hair plenty of times. I really liked it when I was younger, trying to look different, but now.. I can just say I don’t do it for 3 main reasons
1. It’s Expensive — have to keep going back ever so often
2. I’m Lazy — I hate going back to salons and thinking about my roots
3. I’m also Cheap — I don’t want to spend money on chemicals / dye for no good reason
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Cassie
At this exact moment in time there aren’t any surgical procedures that I’ve given more than a momentary thought and then shrugged off. There are a couple instances where I could see myself contemplating it in the future though. I’m definitely on the larger size chest wise to start with (28F), and I haven’t had kids yet. My mom was similarly shaped when she was younger, and after having a couple kids she’s currently sitting around a 32H. That kind of size definitely does come with pain, even if you do get used to it over the years. If I do end up with similar expansion when I’m older, I might consider a reduction for my own health. Similar story with the breast cancer side of things. Having had breasts from a very young age (11?12?), having them suddenly disappear completely due to an illness would be very difficult to cope with emotionally. If they were smaller I think it would have less of an impact on me personally. If I found myself in that situation I would probably consider reconstructive surgery.
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Mochi & Macarons
That makes sense to me. I don’t have much in the way of a chest to really miss it, which is why I’m a lot more laissez-faire about the whole thing.
28F > 32H!?!?!?! I .. I was at “wow double Ds are huge” in my head, but.. that must be some serious pain you get once in a while.
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Cassie
One thing to keep in mind is that the letter is a reference to the difference between the ribcage and the bust (kind of, not exactly), so it’s not like I’m walking around with watermelons here. You can definitely tell I’m on the larger end of the spectrum, but they hold my shirts out a bit so you never really get a good feel for how small my rib cage actually is. Also, DD=E and DDD=F, different countries just write it differently. Most of my bras are imported, so I usually have the D, E, F scale. It’s actually more common than you might think.
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Bridget
K so I’m watching this documentary now (thanks for yet another!!) and I cannot believe how much surgery his secretary has had! She’s only 26!! I’m 27 and I can’t think of any “bulge” or something I’d need to get liposuctioned. This is completely insane. And yeah, getting a “new bellybutton” is downright creepy. I’ve considered plastic surgery but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it. A friend of mine got a ton of work done and frankly, she looks awful. Furthermore, she’s not wealthy, just your average middle-class young mom and I think the procedures were just a gross waste of money. I have to agree with Kim though that botox is NOT plastic surgery — saying it is is like saying vaccines are the same as open heart surgery. That said, I’m not that interested in Botox either but I would consider this bee venom stuff…
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Mochi & Macarons
Yeah I was interested in bee venom because it sounds cool, but ultimately I am too lazy, cheap and very not into spending money on my looks that would involve needles and pain. 🙂
I think facials are as painful as I can take.
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Lila
Bee venom? Ah, first world problems! 😉
I had a nose job and I don’t regret it. I was in my mid-twenties when I had it done. It’s the only plastic surgery I’ve ever had and will ever have.
I consulted with 3 doctors and the last one was the one that I liked and he knew what I wanted to go for. So I picked him and I made sure to research his licenses, certifications before he operated on me.
He didn’t do anything extreme, actually he made very minimal changes yet the result was enough to where I didn’t feel self-conscious anymore. I feel so happy with my nose.
Why do people get their teeth cleaned, get dental veneers, dental crowns or braces? Why do women get their eyebrows waxed? Why do men shave? I just see plastic surgery as another extension of grooming. The point is to not get carried away. Plus it’s expensive. My nose job cost me $5,000.
I had to rest 2-3 weeks at home after the nose job. My Dr. wouldn’t allow me to drive for 2 weeks. He prescribed me a bunch of meds but I didn’t feel pain, it just felt numb and I didn’t take much of it honestly.
People can say all day long how looks don’t matter, to be yourself, to feel confident, etc. But society is very cruel to women who don’t fit a conventional look of beauty. I wish people wouldn’t judge.
A lot of times beautiful people and average looking people judge those of us that have had plastic surgery but they have no idea how cruel everyday life can be for those of us that were not born beautiful or average.