"You do not need a lobotomy but only because beauty culture has basically lobotomized us all already, by reducing the complexity of psychic life. (At least, that's how psychiatrist Maurice Partridge once described the effects of the barbaric brain surgery.) Feeling self-conscious? Skip the inner work get a facelift! Dealing with irrelevance in the office? Don't question the prioritization of labor above all get a facelift! Struggling to recognize yourself as you age? Forget reckoning with your mortality get a facelift!"
"This fantasy is reflected in the figures: the number of facelifts performed in the United States increased an impressive (or depressive?) 17% since the start of the pandemic. Google searches for facelift doubled over the same time period. [Plastic surgery] patients are now 10 years younger as compared to pre-pandemic, New York-based plastic surgeon Dr Robert Schwarcz revealed in a press release, and are coming in their mid-30s instead of mid-40s."
Beauty culture pressures women into elective surgery by promoting facelifts as remedies for insecurity, age anxiety and professional relevance. Cultural messaging and celebrity disclosures have lowered the perceived age threshold, with patients reportedly about ten years younger and searches and procedures rising since the pandemic. Observers describe this trend as a cultural lobotomy that simplifies inner life, offering cosmetic fixes instead of psychological or existential work. Statistical data show a 17% increase in U.S. facelifts and doubled Google searches, while surgeons report patients arriving in their mid‑30s rather than mid‑40s. The trend raises questions about risks, motives and societal values.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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