For the past several days, I have been on the longest
road trip for me so far, driving through several states on the way to DC for
what I expect to be an exciting and challenging semester. Such a trip certainly
requires hours spent driving and the calmness of the middle-of-nowhere scenery
allows me to work my brain and think about some issues that have come to my
attention lately.
For example, recently in the mainstream news
outlets there have been several stories on teens resorting to plastic surgery
to escape bullying. Well, that’s just the sort of thing to get me riled up and made
me stand on my soap box.
I understand (and know from personal experience)
how cruel bullies can be. They are experts at making others feel bad and completely
despise everything and anything that makes them unique, that makes them who
they are and separates them from the rest. The role of bullies is to ensure
that everyone around them is miserable, just as much as they are, with the hope
that this will help them be superior in some way.
Even though a person could potentially be bullied
about anything, it is particularly disheartening to see the established notions
of beauty providing fodder to emerging bullies in schools and at the same time contributing
to the low self-esteem of those bullied. Somehow, the little imperfections that
make us who we are and distinguish us from others become signs of “ugliness”
and deviations from what is deemed beautiful. Instead of accepting them as
examples of how unique and diverse the human race is and absolutely loving
them, we are constantly told through various outlets that we need to “take care of
them,” and polish them, and make them more acceptable. Is it surprising then
that many teen girls resort to plastic surgery to fit that mold of being
beautiful? Again, that reminds me of Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies. I truly hope I never have to live in a world where every
sixteen-year-old undergoes surgery to make her/him perfect and beautiful. What a
boring, full of sameness world that would be.
One of the reports I read mentioned that following
the plastic surgery, the young girl no longer experienced the same level of
bullying. It never said that the bullying stopped. It appears that in today’s
schools, one is either the bullied or the bully. And a bully will always be
able to find reasons to bully, no matter how many surgeries one undergoes. To
stand up against bullies, we should not encourage plastic surgery among teens;
rather, we should emphasize the importance of uniqueness and being different
and demanding that the media stop brainwashing women (and men) by plastering
unrealistic images of some ultimate beauty or perfection.
And just for the record, I have no intention of
fixing my imperfect teeth.
-
Krasi
