We are all plastic

You might have heard. Renee Zellweger has taken the lead in a new drama that is currently being played out on the small screens and minds of society.

The drama: her face has changed. Her role? Scapegoat – that old Biblical tradition of putting the sins and responsibilities of an entire (global) village on a goat, which was probably only too happy to be cast out, far away from such narrow minded imbiciles. I think Renee should feel the same.

To catch you up, Renee stands accused (although that would take someone actually standing up and not just tweeting some snarky comment behind her back) of altering her identity through modern science. (which to me is the equivalent of accusing Stephen Hawking of cheating).

Does Renee look different? Yes.

Is it because of some chemical fillers and the like. Probably.

And?

What’s news here?

…that we are obsessed with youth? That we have no room in our media or hearts for anyone who looks old or in need of an upgrade?

…certainly not the fact that women like to “enhance” (see cosmetic advertising for accepted glossary) their appearances? We are already so dramatically altered, on both a biological and chemical level, that we are not even genuinely sure if our smiles are real and our feelings fake (Are you happy to see me or is that Xanax?)

…surely it’s not new that an entire wing of medicine exists for this exact purpose or that Hollywood stars frequent their waiting rooms more than Oprah’s couch? Let she who is without plumpers, fillers, tighteners, concealers, lifters, slimmers, uppers, downers cast the first stone, I say, and run for cover for the lightening that will surely strike her down.

 I saw my fair share of plastic surgery/purgery in LA. And probably a lot more that I didn’t recognise. Subtlety is apparently key, but only if you are under 50. In Asia, women are equally obsessed with pencilling in their eyebrows and whitening their skin. It’s not new and its certainly not news. So much is altered through makeup, under the skin and on a chemical level. Soon our DNA will be ironed out for any kinks and wrinkles. And we will welcome it. Make no mistake. Because that’s also in our nature – to use the tools at our disposal to carve out the reality we desire. We just have a lot more tools, needles, petri dishes and lasers than Cleopatra did her milk-bathing days.

So what did Renee do wrong? 

What was her fatal flaw?

She broke the unspoken rule that says, “Do it, but don’t let us see it”. It’s okay to look “fresh and young”. It’s not okay to have photographic evidence that allow us to compare how “tired and natural” you looked on your last public appearance. It’s very high school. It’s like when the head cheerleader invites you to the cool party and tells you that all the girls will be stuffing their bras. And of course they don’t and poor little shy “braceface” Renee gets laughed down and pointed at. And everyone looks on.

We are all plastic. Fake. Unnatural.

I think society’s fatal flaw, its hamartia, is to think that we are natural creatures who do normal things for survival and posterity. There is too much evidence to the contrary. We gave up that right when we started killing off the only environment that we know, for sure, that can sustain us. And yet we continue to poison our own wells. The 65% water that filters through our bodies is not even fit for drinking. Luckily, hypocrisy is the one thing we seem to carry with us on our evolutionary journey. So we can always backtrack at any moment. Until we can’t. (Which is probably yesterday anyway.)

As for Renee and the media frenzy around her “Weird Science”. No, it didn’t make her exit the experimental chambers looking like Kelly Le Brock, but it sure as hell revealed society for the broken monster is has become.

Pity such a media frenzy wasn’t reserved for another woman whose looks have dramatically (some would say irrevocably) altered over the years and look set to get worse – Mother Nature. Now there’s a woman who could do with our media attention and some serious scientific analysis.

PS. I think what society is trying to say to women is…

By all means plump up your chest and hide your flat little vices

but don’t over pump lest they look like flotation devices

and your fault lines really must be concealed

but a heavy hand will only let your true flaws be revealed

at all times hair should be long and flowing

skin should be dewy and glowing

at all costs don’t let the skin sag, bulge or droop

to these levels a good woman should never stoop

because when all has been pimped, plumped and done

there really isn’t a law, not even gravity, that can’t be overcome

 Musing on the journey we are taking as a society and where my path veers off.  

PIC: “The Scream” or plastic surgery? You be the judge.