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Still Unequal

May 18, 2020
by Caroline Miller
Fiorella Valdesolo, Gloria Steimem, men seeking cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery, vanity
4 Comments

Courtesy of google.com

Recently, I opened my Facebook page to find a picture one gentleman had posted of  Ivanka Trump. It showed her as a teenager, her hair a dark brown, and her nose longer than seen in recent photographs. He was suggesting her current face wasn’t her natural one. The jibe saddened me. Mocking a woman’s appearance is a low blow, in my opinion, particularly if the insult comes from a man.  

Curious about the photo, I googled others of Ivanka Trump as a teenager. The few I found showed little difference between her appearance then and now. If she’d had surgical refinements, they were minimal. Perhaps the Facebook image had been photoshopped. As for her hair, well… We all know few natural blondes exist outside Sweden.

In an earlier blog, I complained that a woman’s appearance shouldn’t be important. Unfortunately, men set the standards, and women take pains, literally, to meet them, resorting to treatments that may involve breast implants, butt implants, tummy tucks, and plastic surgery. The latter comes near to medieval torture in that it “involves separating the skin on the lower jaw from the muscle layer and hoisting it upward, thereby addressing the laxity of the jaw and neckline…” (Face Lift, Take Me Away, by Fiorella Valdesolo, Town&Country, May 2020, pgs. 78-79.)

Women are called the fair sex because appearing to be fair is required of them. Mocking their efforts, therefore, strikes me as decidedly unfair.  Nor do I accuse those who strive for perfection as being vain. Brave, more like, considering what some of them go through.  

Fashion changes with the time, of course, so I take comfort in seeing cosmetic standards now being applied to men. Technology is the reason. Men see their images scattered across the web, on dating services, social media, YouTube, and now Zoom. In the past, portraits of those limpid jowls may have connoted experience and prowess. Today they suggest someone lacking virility. As a result, men are being pressured into taking the same extreme measures women have endured throughout the ages. One plastic surgeon candidly noted the number of men he sees in his clinic of late has jumped from 2% to 20%.  (Ibid, pg. 79.)

That males have succumbed to sacrificing themselves on the bonfire of the vanities strikes me as enormously fair. Yet an injustice remains. In the case of facelifts, they suffer less than women.  Their skins are thicker, so they experience fewer bruises. I don’t know what to do about this inequity. Perhaps I’ll send Gloria Steinem an email.

 

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4 Comments
  1. Darrell Barker May 18, 2020 at 9:41 am Reply
    Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. Ecclesiastes 1:2
    • Caroline Miller May 18, 2020 at 9:58 am Reply
      I might ignore Ecclesiastes but I'd never quarrel. :)
  2. Pamela May 19, 2020 at 11:00 am Reply
    I don't have any issue with calling ANYONE male or female who is as ubiquitously in the public eye out for having as severe and noticeable plastic surgery as Ivanka has had. The photos absolutely were NOT photoshopped, as I recall well seeing her again with her new face and altered voice (likely from the nasal reconstruction). I don't begrudge anyone for making changes that they embrace for themselves, but she is touted as a great beauty, and it's store-bought--and she chose it so she should own it. I can't believe you aren't seeing the difference in her appearance!?!? I agree with the rest of your observations--these days being in the public eye generally means more appearance alterations and radical vanity-care than most of us would ever even know. As a once aspiring performer, I've seen it all! :-)
    • Caroline Miller May 19, 2020 at 2:06 pm Reply
      On the question of cosmetic alteration, I yield to the expertise of one who was once an "aspiring performer." My best effort at a beauty regimen is to wash my face. As for Ivanka's countenance, young and older, I did admit there may have been some tinkering. On the other hand, at 83, with vision problems, it's also true I might see the world with fewer flaws than someone younger. That's the blessing of old age, I like to think. :)

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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