Living in the world of 2016, we as a society see a lot of repair in all different ways, whether it’s repairing a car, a phone, a relationship and even one’s self. Nowadays it is completely normal to repair a human’s body without question. We see this kind of repair all the time these days, on people we know, on celebrities we look up to, and even on a reality television show dedicated to plastic surgeries called Botched; but it has become such a normality in our society just like fixing a phone that we don’t even think twice about it. But do we ever ask why someone feels the need or want to repair themselves? When we repair cars it is so they will work again and take us from point A from point B. When we repair phones it is so they can work again to make phone calls, listen to music, or no longer have a broken screen. When we repair ourselves what is it for? We don’t need a better looking nose or a different pair of lips to function as human beings. So I ask what is the real connection between plastic surgery and repair? Is it more than just a physical repair? Whether it’s a nose job, a tummy tuck, a face lift, or a lip injection it’s all still repairing the human body and it is all plastic surgery. When people repair things it is because they want to fix them, return it to its natural state or enhance whatever it may be. As we know from Spelman’s novel, repair can come in many different ways, it can be physical, mental and emotional. Even though plastic surgery is strictly done on the tangible parts of the body,
I believe that a huge part in plastic surgery is the repair of one’s inner self. I believe that along with repairing the body with plastic surgery you are repairing the person’s feelings about themselves and the way they look to others and themselves. Plastic surgery is two kinds of repair and the two types relate to Spelman’s ideas of repair as well. I want to expand the idea of plastic surgery and show how much it really does relate to Spelman’s Repair more than people think it does.
I previously mentioned how plastic surgery is common in today’s society, like being the main focus of the popular reality television show, Botched. Most of us who watch the show do it for entertainment but do we really know what goes on and who we are watching? The names of the surgeons that star in this reality show are Paul Nassif and Terry Dubrow. Botched is about plastic surgeries that have gone wrong and the repairing is left to the two doctors. Although it seems to the two surgeons that it can be much more than that, according to an interview conducted with Paul Nassif and Terry Dubrow. In this video Dr. Dubrow goes on to say, “We are there to help them, save them, change whatever mistakes have been made and fix them.” (E! Interview). By using the word “fixing” we can assume that is another word for repair. Their jobs are to repair what others want to change about themselves.
For this paper I want to look at specific surgeries and focus on how they repair their patients physically and mentally. In most of the first time interviews between the patients and the doctors it is clear that the patients are very insecure and frustrated about what they are trying to fix. This leaves them wanting their tangible problem repaired along with their emotions towards the physical problem. Even though plastic surgery is strictly done on tangible body parts I believe that it does more than just repair the physical aspect of people, it helps people on the inside whether it be inner beauty, confidence of self esteem. I wanted to discuss the before and
after phases of these patients and their experiences with their surgery. For example, I don’t mean just pictures of before and after surgeries, I want to get direct feedback from the patients themselves. Their stories on the repair and why they wanted the repair in the first place.
I was able to pinpoint a specific patient that I wanted to look into from the reality show. The patient I decided to look into is named, Pam. Pam is the owner of a Crossfit Gym in LA who dove into a 4 foot area of a swimming pool when she was a teenager and realized what had happened when she exited the pool and there was blood everywhere, she broke the bridge of her nose. Her mother, worried sick had to find a surgeon, and fast to fix Pam’s nose. According to Pam from her episode on Botched (season 3, episode 7), “[the surgeon] ended up breaking the nose again and taking a lot of the bridge bone out.” The bridge of the bone is what is responsible for what your nose looks like on the outside. As Pam kept explaining to the doctors what else had been added to her nose, she included that a second doctor had added in a silicone implant to her nose. She then began to explain that the silicone implant looked better, but as time went on it started to shift, leaving the tip of her nose even higher. When she told the doctor about this implant it led Dr. Dubrow to tell the viewers that “Silicon implants in the nose were generally only used as a salvage procedure, where so much soft tissue and cartilage is taken from the bridge of the nose… today of course we have much higher tech…. that you can put there that the body accepts more reasonably.” The silicone implant left Pam with an unflattering upturned nose unable to breath comfortably, this left her relying on nasal spray to breath for over thirty years. In this episode it was made clear that this obviously affected Pams everyday life and the way she felt about her appearance and breathing situation, leaving her to drive miles when she ran out of spray. Since the incident only happened when she was a teenager Pam spent much of her adult life feeling self conscious about her nose and her love for fitness was strongly affected by not being able to breathe clearly while exercising. The only way that Pam was able to receive the repair from the two doctors was if she promised to stop using the nasal spray the four times a day she previously admitted to using it. Earlier on in the episode Dr. Nassif explained that “the nasal spray makes tissue more sensitive, it could rup easier, it can bleed more,” so the best way for Pam to receive the best repair is if she stopped using the nasal spray.
After Pam agreed to kick the habit, the repairing was about to begin. The doctors explained that they were going to reconstruct her entire nose, making it easier for her to breath again during the seven hour procedure. They while performing the surgery the surgeons were getting worried because her nose didn’t seem to be conducting the normal amount of blood. Dr. Nassif explained that sometimes when this happens the skin can die, after hours of surgery with his team, Dr. Nassif was able to reconstruct Pam’s nose into what it should’ve looked like to begin with. After her surgery and recovery, Pam explains that she is so happy to be back working out, especially without nose spray and continues to describe her new nose as “flawless”. The repair that was done to Pam was physical (her nose) and also mental (her confidence), it was also able to help her start working out again like she used to, getting her back into shape, which is the best repair Pam could’ve asked.
In conclusion, I believe that our wants and desires as humans are what trigger most repairs. For example, with these botched surgeries, like Pam for example, the first surgeon destroyed her nose’s appearance, her breathing, along with her confidence in herself. The second surgeon that Pam had altered her nose and her breathing and made the two even worse. This took a tole on her fitness life, her looks, and her confidence. Dr. Nassif and Dr. Dubrow help these patients and repair their flaws leaving them feeling relieved and overjoyed with their results. The repair that is done by the doctors is done because of the desire to repair. Without wants there wouldn’t be a need to repair anything to begin with, we wouldn’t be in constant search for something better, newer, or different including our objects, bodies, and emotions. Spelman makes it clear in her novel that we humans repair things because they are broken and unable to function. My beliefs and interpretations differ from Spelman at this point in her novel. We can leave things broken, we do not have to put anything back together again, it is not the brokenness that leads to repair, it is the desire to fix that brokenness that leads to repair. We leave things broken sometimes because not everything that breaks needs to be fixed, it is the things we truly value that we want to bring back to life.
The illusion that plastic surgery isn’t a kind of repair is the idea I am trying to break. After reading Spelman’s novel it is clear that there are many types of repair and society needs to understand that “it’s not just cats or toilets or phone lines that break and need fixing.” (Spelman 56). This is essential to plastic surgery because is about fixing people, inside and out. Many people see plastic surgery as a waste of money and time and find it ridiculous but it is about repairing the outer and inner image of a person which can repair their selfesteem and build a stronger inner self. People do not think twice when they have to fix a car or phone but why is it such an issue when we want to repair ourselves? We want to repair ourselves because whenever anything we have breaks or tarnishes our immediate response is to get it fixed, change it. That’s what we want to do with our bodies, and our souls. We only get one body that everyone sees and interacts with and we want it to function and be the best it can be so we look for any repair we can get. The forms of that kind of repair can come through anything even wearing make up,
going to the gym, seeing a therapist, and even plastic surgery. Needing to be the best version of ourselves that we can be is just human nature, so therefore, seeking repair in ourselves is just human nature as well.
Acknowledgements
I would like to begin by thanking my peers and my professor for taking the time to read
my essay and help me edit it and perfect every last sentence. I appreciate the time they have taken out to carefully inspect my essay and make sure it was including everything it needed to include. I would also like to thank my roommate, Alyx for reading my essay so many times to make sure that I didn’t leave anything out that she knew I wanted to include. I would also like to thank my friend Gabby for helping find grammar mistakes that I couldn’t quite catch. Without all these people to thank my essay wouldn’t be the one I am so proud to call mine today!
References:
Botched | E! News. (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2016, from
http://www.eonline.com/shows/botched
Monn, D. (2014, August). Don’t botch Botched. Plastic Surgery Practice, 24(8), 6. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=udel_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA385 260387&asid=81dd9f7585eb964731d020701d531300
Raplee, J. (1999, June). Saving face: rapid prototyping in the operating room ranges from planning of bone cuts to the customs fit of implements. Mechanical EngineeringCIME, 121(6), 52+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=udel_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA549 56274&asid=f43cb9349d85b38387b3a1d4ea045145
Spelman, E. V. (2002). Repair: The impulse to restore in a fragile world. Boston: Beacon Press.
