Blog 34: Comfort Food

The article that I read on Common Place today was about plastic surgery, and titled "Comfort Food." I chose the Society category and saw the sentence, “Plastic surgery is the new ice cream and people are eating it up.” This sentence caught my eye and sparked my interest. I think it is a very interesting metaphor. That one sentence pretty much says it all. It surprised me how one sentence could be so short and sweet, but so full of meaning.

The article talked about different reasons why people get plastic surgery: medical, to please themselves, but mostly to please someone else. It discussed how we live in a world that expects perfection when we all know it’s unattainable. The pressure from society to be perfect drives millions to get plastic surgery. It discussed two women who are obsessed with plastic surgery, Heidi Montag, a celebrity from The Hills and a regular woman who appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Jenny. It also made it clear that plastic surgery is not only for women; many men are also lining up at the plastic surgeon’s office.

I would say that this article is very timely, compelling, and relevant. Timely because it is a current issue; something we are dealing with in the here and now. It’s compelling because the author used scientific findings such as statistics and real-life examples to back up her argument. The article is relevant because living in society this is an issue we all deal with. Since Common Place is mostly read by college students I think this is a good target audience for this subject.

One of my personal experiences that relates to plastic surgery is when I got my tonsils and adenoids removed recently. When I was at the surgeon’s office for my consultation and to do some paperwork, one of the forms on the clip board surprised me; it was a form for a plastic surgeon. The form listed so many procedures; ones I never even knew existed. From what I gathered from skimming over the form it was there in case you wanted to get plastic surgery done while they had you under for your medical surgery. To this day it still bothers me that I was even presented with this form.