Are You Only a Sum of Your Body Parts?

We live in an era where fake is the new real. I swear to goodness that I can barely tell the difference. Some women have gone completely overboard in the “enhancement department.” With brand new lips, hair, breasts, butts, thighs, hips, cheekbones and even VAGINAS they are beginning to look like caricatures of their orignal selves! Don’t get me wrong, I love enhancements for special occasions! I love long, gorgeous, fake eyelashes for a party probably as much as a Kardashian (wait, maybe not quite that much!) I ooh and ahhh over bright, colorful lip gloss and bronzer! Sigh. I can admit that I am an ultra feminine girly girl. When I am on a movie set, music video set or at a photo shoot there is nothing more fun than getting all glammed up. The thrill of transforming into a more dramatic version of your every day self is exciting.

Playing Barbie

But guess what?

I love that it is temporary. I love my regular face, too! I love to take the thick camera makeup off and I love to unclip the hair extentions and lay my natural curly head on a pillowcase at night. I could never be like Ice Cube’s sister from the movie “Friday” and sleep with my head in my hands for fear of messing up my weave every night! I see some women that are “in costume” so often we forget what the real them looks like. That is slightly disturbing. You can’t possibly enjoy wearing a mask all the time. Can you?

Wipe off the makeup!

I will never understand women being genuinely upset with the bodies and hair that they were born with. We CAN NOT spend our entire lives trying to look like someone else. The process is entirely self defeating. You will never be satisfied with the outside until you have leveled with your insides. Happiness does not come from external sources. Of course you may find temporary pleasure in transforming into a glamorous version of yourself, but that will never be the same as true acceptance and happiness with oneself.

Am I perfect?

No. Like every woman, at times want to change or alter certain physical characteristics. Sometime you wish your hair was thicker, your thighs were smaller, or cheekbones more defined. I even at one time went under the knife for a post breastfeeding correction. One side remained a devastatingly (at the time) FLAT C cup and the other side a fun loving, athletic and perky full A cup! Sidenote: Don’t ever exclusively breastfeed your child on one side. I don’t care how much they prefer a side. Suck, suck PASS is the name of the game. Oh the agony of a child who will scream and cry for left breast only! LOL! The stuffing socks things didn’t appeal to me neither did the Victoria Secret chicken cutlets that got sweaty (eww!) So after about two years of trying that, so I chose surgery for correction. It was my personal choice for that time in my life. I’m not addicted. I’m not poking and prodding every year so, clamoring to get fillers, bigger lips, larger cheeks, higher brows and whatever else these women are addicted to injecting every few months. The worst trend I’m seeing now is illegal butt injections! Not only are they illegal, but WTF is REALLY in them? Have there been long term studies showing what they will look like in 30 years? And the fact they are so cheap is also disturbing. Nothing good can come from cheap plastic surgery. If you are going to alter something that REALLY bothers you, make sure that you do it the SAFE way and that you aren’t doing it to fit in with a crowd or to look like Nicki Minaj. That’s scary. If you feel compelled to permanently alter your looks, make sure it’s not something emotional that is causing you to want to change something physical.

Do you REALLY need all that?

Some people are born with real deformities such as missing limbs, teeth that are impossibly crooked and hard to chew food with, children with cleft palates and other stigmatizing physical impairments that can cause a lifetime of suffering. Plastic surgery is a way for these people just to operate normally (whatever that may be) on a daily basis and for this I am thankful they now have that option. But this is not the case with most obsessive surgery patients.

What about now?

I personally am not the same woman I was in my early twenties as I am now in my late twenties. I even have completely natural nails now! I have also learned that no surgical procedure is worth your life. I will NOT trade my sleep in for extra hair extentions that flow to my butt; it is not comfortable or sane! You and I are not a sum of our body parts. This vessel is only temporary. Think of it as a test. This test is to see what good you will do in this lifetime with exactly the resources you are given. Dont obsess over perfecting something that is deteriorating from the minute you are born. Keep it healthy, keep it clean and keep your vessel running. Why? We need you in the world. There is lots of work to be done. So many people that need your talent, skill, wit and energy. Redirect that energy! Whether you were born with long straight hair, short kinky hair, tall and thin, short and round, big butt or small butt, curly hair or short…be proud that you are YOU. You are an original. There is only one you. Wear yourself proudly and keep that soul beautiful for lifetimes to come.