Cosmetic Surgery and Just Cause

The media is still learning on that one.
It's gotten better but there are some glaringly bad examples.

 

As far as body mods go, if I was younger and richer, I'd look into stretching my arms and legs to be taller. I'm 5'7.5" with a 6'4" father. My brothers are all taller than me by a minimum of almost 3 inches. Otherwise I'm pretty okay with my basic looks. I'm not pretty, but I'm a fairly attractive person...

My sister had a nose job when she was in her 20's. To me, it was silly, her nose was kinda like Sybil Sheppherd's(sp?) with a cleft in the end. She called it butt-nose. Honestly it looked better before, but she was immediately happy about it, and it seemed to give her confidence, so who the heck am I to crap on that?

 

I hear you there (I'm 5'7" as well, only the leg-lengthening procedure is a solid placeholder on my to-do list within the next few years. Not anything extreme, just 50cm (meaning 50 days' time), or roughly 2 inches. That would put me at the national average for males in the US, or roughly 5'9." Being short sucks.
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I think you mean 5 cm (2 inches). 50 cm would be 20 inches, which is quite a jump in height.

Also, the leg lengthening procedures are extremely painful and take a long time. Bone pain is some of the worst pain you can have, and that sort of procedure will cause your bones overall to weaken somewhat, as the stress distribution will change due to the change in dimensions, and it will take quite a while of progressive load bearing for the bone to reorganize into a structure nearly as strong as it was previously. This means that if you do any weightlifting or encounter any sudden, high-magnitude forces (a bad landing from a jump, for example), you may end up with a fracture much more easily. For me, that risk is enough that I'd rather just stay as short as I am.

I've considered breast implants very briefly at points in the past, but I don't think I could justify the cost or the "need." However, a tattoo was on my "need" list for a few years and remained there, so I had it done.

 

Okay, that explains why that M16A2 looked so huge. I thought I was tripping balls for a second. I know they're called "The Musket" for a reason, but damn...

/it's 2014 and we're still using M16s

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Cosmetic surgery, like a lot of things in life, sits on a sliding scale. If group X doesn't like you because of A condition, then turning A into B is going to alienate you from group Y.

Just as you can't be too short and too fat, you can't be too tall or too skinny without standing out. Everybody wants to nudge themselves toward the middle or to the current fad.

Example: I dated an Asian girl for a while. Her mother was one of those poor souls that got her eyes Westernized (rounded out) in the name of looking more white. Kinda sad.

Example: A lot of the playas I work with get their wives breast implants because they want their women to look like the trophy pieces they went through when they were single.

Example: Got a friend missing a leg. One of their little chuckles about cosmetic surgery is that all you have to do to fix someone that is unhappy is take away something away.

I generally think less of people that get procedures done because it reeks of insecurity. If your nose or tits or wrinkles are haunting you that much, you need a reality check.

It's a turn-off. Some dude will show me a picture of his wife and tell me she just had bags stuffed into her chest and it makes me sad. Who needed that to be happy? And why?

I see celebrities on TeeVee that have been nip/tuck'd into grotesque leather Muppets. How many genuinely attractive people ruined themselves with unnecessary skin tucking?

Of course, I say all this as a guy of average height, average weight and average looks so my perspective is a little skewed toward the "Meh" side of things. I'll never be beautiful.

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TFP ...And Now You Know Message:

Regardless of what you look like, somebody, somewhere, wants to fuck you.

 

Pfft, the camera adds six inches.

No, seriously. Ask anybody.

 

Relevant:

 

Yeah, but 4' of that is teeth.

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Ugh, this threadjack is ALL your fault.

 

Must... ignore... Baraka...

Back on track:

Cosmetic Surgery and Just Cause:​

I'm totally okay with people getting liposuction. If you're morbidly obese and wanna vacuum out 10-50 pounds of I-Hope-It's-Not-Butter from your waistband-snapping FUPA, I say do it.

I'm cool with deleting extraneous stuff. Tits killing your back? Breast reduction. Third testicle messing up your Tour de France goals? Even Steven. And, for fuck's sake, cut your skin tags.

 

Off track again.
Since Wolverine is 5'3" in the comics maybe he should have been played by Emilio Estevez or Michael J. Fox instead of Hugh Jackman who is a foot taller.

 

Yeah sorry, I meant 50mm. Since you add 0.667mm (two thirds of a millimeter) per day, 75 days would equal about 50mm or two inches, as per this timeline on makemetaller.org. And there's a 21-day healing period with no walking, then 2 months of stretching, walking and getting back to normal. I guess it all depends on how motivated you are.

Also, it doesn't weaken your legs:

"Once a patient has recovered from the procedure, and as long as they have lengthened less than 7.5cm, there is no evidence or scientific theory that suggests that their legs should be any different to someone whose legs were naturally that long.

There is scientific evidence to suggest that muscles stretched beyond 7.6cm risk permanent damage because this will take them beyond the elastic limit of the soft tissues, and it is recommended that no limb is stretched beyond this amount, although it is technically possible.

Once a patient has recovered from LL, their legs are as strong (and in some cases stronger) than before. This is supported in scientific studies, and through the personal testimony of veterans of this community who have successfully completed LL more than two years ago."

From the makemetaller.org FAQ. Apparently this procedure has been advancing significantly over the last decade, as the internet proliferated and demand rose sharply.

Still though, you're certainly right that it's painful and not without risks.

Yep. On that same ship they were phasing them out with M4 carbines, but even those apparently have a high susceptibility of failure and jamming due to dust and other common environmental conditions. I think the Army is in talks right now, trying to decide which mass-deployable field weapon to replace the M16 and M4A1 rifles with.

You're assuming people only do this out of insecurity or some kind of fear of not belonging. Beauty is a resource and a valuable social tool that lends all kinds of automatic perks. Sure, you can build a reputation on sheer credibility or charisma or something else, but as soon as someone walks in who also has a similar amount of those things but is better-looking than you, you just lost the upper hand. Being able to instantly manipulate peoples' views on you without even trying is extremely valuable. Mind you, neither me nor (apparently as you say) you are ever going to be that good-looking - and will likely not need that kind of sway in social situations, I'm just saying. Some do.

And also, this is similar to saying, "I generally think less of people that modify their cars to make them more flashy, elaborate, louder, faster, etc. instead of just leaving them stock because it reeks of insecurity." Or, it's a hobby for them. Or, they just like knowing they have the power under the hood just in case. There are plenty of reasons beyond insecurity, really, and plenty of ways to benefit from various upgrades in any aspect of life.

This I agree with, but then again I prefer slimmer athletic types with small, perky, aerodynamic boobs anyway. Besides, the smaller the boobs, the less susceptible to gravity they will eventually become, avoiding the whole sagging issue. Lots of social circles place high value on huge boobs and round butts though, so I guess it's sort of a status symbol for some people, and probably feels like some kind of great privilege for them when they're fucking their buxom trophies. Whatever makes them happy I guess.

Well yeah, people always like to throw the horror stories out there about people who didn't know when to stop, usually involving some kind of obsessive mental disorder combined with some jerkoff hack-job surgeon. I think avoiding this kind of fate is largely a matter of keeping perspective on where you are, where you want to be, and how much/what kind of work you actually need to get done in order to get there without going overboard and becoming a disfigured caricature of yourself.

Haha yeah, this has been a long-argued item of contention among fans, I've seen it on almost every forum I visit... Most people seem to generally agree that Jackman's Wolverine is nearly ideal in almost every way except for the height thing. Oh well.
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Ok so my next door neighbor is transgender. But sometimes he's dressed as a man. Sometimes she's dressed as a woman. I don't want to offend, but it's weird pretending there are two people when clearly it's one.

 

Total hogwash. Issues with the weapon are 95% operator error in maintenance (not enough lube, shitty mags) and 5% improper spring packages, worn parts. I've spent the last decade plus behind one and they're totally groovy.

I get the whole Gattaca thing. Guy with the big chin and broad chest gets the corner office regardless of whether or not he knows his job. Thing is: I haven't really seen that in any of my jobs. Or the military. I guess performance is a bigger factor in some industries. You can totally compensate for mediocre looks by dressing well, talking well and knowing sounding like you know your subject matter area. Hell, look at the mugs that lead the country. Looks matter more if you're on TeeVee a lot, I guess.

Cosmetic surgery is like putting a NOS sticker and a wing on your Honda Civic. Hitting the gym, buying fancy sneakers and chugging protein is like putting a NOS bottle in your Honda Civic. We're talking about cosmetic surgery, right? I didn't realize that The Six Million Dollar Man bionics were a topic in this thread. If we're talking about replacing our arms with robotic crab pincers with laser blasters, where do I sign? I would absolutely love to replace my chicken nuggets with advanced myomers.

Just as being an overweight male in many African countries is like walking around in a suit made of $100 bills: Ridiculous but taken as sign of success and wealth.

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Great thread, BTW. I am glad you're posting at the TFP.

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Yeah, I don't think trans people should play the "You didn't use the right gender pronoun for me!" game when he/she/it clearly has a dude's body and is wearing a dress or is an androgynous creature in a sweater with a 'fro, etc.

It isn't discrimination, it's simple confusion.

 

I am finishing up a doctorate in physical therapy, and I understand how bone remodeling works - Wolff's Law states that bone will remodel in response to the stresses placed upon it. Altering the dimensions of bone over a short time period alters the way forces are distributed, and until the bone adapts to those forces (which takes quite some time), they WILL be weaker. Especially after a period of non-weightbearing, which causes you to lose bone mass as well, as the bone removes its own adaptations to forces that are no longer occurring. The same happens to people who do not do resistance exercise, have a fracture, or have had a period of non-weightbearing. This is part of why people develop osteoporosis later in life - fewer stresses put on the bone, so it removes its structural adaptations and becomes weaker.

 

I don't know her story but I'm guessing she's in transition.
I'd just address her as a woman all the time unless she asks you not to.
I've always found the best solution if I'm not sure is to ask.