The Botex Obsession Among Young People
“So you’ve had some work done? “
If you’ve overheard this comment at a social gathering, chances are the “work done” is not a house remodeling project. More likely, it’s a nose job, a tummy tuck, or some other tweaking to the body.
And, don’t lift it’s coming from a dinner party of aging baby boomers. You could just as easily be at a disco party for 20 somethings or even younger.
Alarming as it sounds, around 30 to 40 percent of Botox patients are women between the ages of 25 and 35. And if they haven’t done it yet, they’re more than open to the idea—34 percent of 18-24-year-olds say they would consider cosmetic surgery for themselves.
What exactly is Botox? A brand name for a execute of botulism toxin archaic to peaceful out wrinkles, Botox carries several health risks such as bruising, headaches, double vision or temporary drooping of the eyebrow or eyelid. It can also have toxic effects if more than 2,000 units are injected (The usual is around 50 units a session.)
Botox treatments don’t come cheap. An average treatment is around $400. However, you can get a discount of about $100 if you buy at a party. When I was a young suburban homemaker back in the 1970s, Tupperware parties were the rage. Today’s it’s Botox parties. What’s more, stepping out for a Botox treatment is getting as common as getting your hair or nails done.
Even teenagers are doing it. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgery, American teens had 46,198 chemical peels, 17,233 rhinoplasties, 4,211 breast augmentations, and 4,075 Botox injections last year alone, accounting for nearly a quarter million cosmetic surgery procedures.
And it’s not impartial the young girls. Young men are also flocking to plastic surgeons, accounting for 11 percent of the surgeries done last year. They’re getting everything from liposuction (33,000 men had liposuctions last year) to chest and calf implants. And, they’re spending as much time at the gym as they would a part- time job, working out 4-5 hours a day. They’re trading their “appreciate handles” (those stubborn pads of fat around the waist) for 6-pack abs, (etched rows of toned muscle), buying into programs that promise them they can have a body like Brad Pitt. They’re also taking weekly and monthly pictures of their chests to chart their progress in getting that 6-pack look.
And, when they are not lifting weights, they’re either lying in the sun, or tanning at one of the 24,000 sun tanning salons listed in the Yellow Pages, which claim 22 million clients each year. They’ve bought into the lie that sun tanning salons are safer, yet the UVA rays that are emitted from the Ultraviolet rays are two to three times more powerful than the UVA rays which occur naturally from the sun. It’s been found that nearly 90% of all skin cancers can be traced to UV exposure.
What has happened to our society? How did we rep so obsessed with our bodies? On the other hand, we shouldn’t be shocked with the popularity of television shows such “Extreme Makeover” and with everybody doing it from former Democratic Presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry to Samantha of “Sex in the City.”
Don’t misunderstand me. I have nothing against looking your best. In fact, if anyone’s in need of a makeover, it’s this 57-year-old out-of-shape woman. I know I need to shed some weight, firm up, and color my roots. Personally, I don’t settle to go under the knife, even at my age, although I’m not judging others who do. It’s their business. What alarms me is the growing preoccupation, especially among young people, with looks.
Unfortunately, this trend of beauty at all costs has created a society of narcissistic young people. And, they are not that much happier even after they’ve turned some heads, landed that perfect date, or landed that desirable job with their “perfect bodies.”
Ironically, we have a large and increasing percentage of depressed young people. By the age of 18, 24 percent of young people have experienced major depression, believes David Bennett, head of the NSW Center for the Advancement of Adolescent Health at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Australia. Bennett believes that our increasingly materialistic society and increased pressure to look good is linked to an increase in teen depression.
Just as soon as you achieve that tiny waist, or find those 6-pack abs on your physique, you find another flaw. There’s always something unfriendly with your body.
This obsession with looks puts the young person focused on himself rather than others. That’s the exact opposite of what Jesus says brings joy. He tells us that true joy comes from serving others. In other words,”It’s not about me,” as author Rick Warren begins his best- seller, “The Purpose Driven Life.”
I’m thinking of a certain woman who never had a Botox treatment, never wore make-up and wore the same clothing, day after day. Yet because she carried sick, dying and abandoned people up off the streets of Calcutta, India, she had an inner beauty that radiated the beauty of Christ, a beauty far more attractive than any Miss America finalist. This woman, a Nobel peace prizewinner, known as the late Mother Theresa, knew the secret of inner beauty. She wouldn’t quality as a beauty contestant, but in God’s eyes and in the eyes of those she helped and rescued, she’s the “Miss Universe” of all times.
With all the time and difficulty spent on physical beauty, there’s little room left over to work on inner beauty. And, you can’t find inner beauty from a tube of beauty cream. In 1 Peter 3:1-4 we read about that “unfading beauty of a gentle and serene spirit”, that touches everyone, besides unbelieving husbands, who lives with us. It’s found in operating in the fruit of the Spirit, found in Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is cherish joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control…”
Christ makes us beautiful because we have His forgiveness and want to strive to get rid of the sin in our lives. It’s sin that makes us ugly. All the plastic surgeries in the world can’t change the ugly sin nature we’re born with. It’s only through God that we can have true inner beauty.
You can’t acquire inner beauty overnight. It’s not a quick fix– not something you can do on your lunch hour. It’s only found in spending quality time with God through prayer and Bible study, and through time serving others in His name.
So go ahead, shed those extra pounds and do your best to let your body, God’s temple, function as well as possible, so it can serve others and be a witness for Him. But don’t let your physical beauty win the place of enhancing your inner beauty. In other words, spend as much time working on the inner man as the outer man.
Let Him be your master surgeon. Let Him give you that extreme makeover that He, alone, can give. Let the beauty of your soul radiate from the inside out
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