No

by Jakob North

Created on: January 05, 2010

Kind of hate to say it, but no.  Health regulations?  Sure - of course, even!  Every product should have health and safety regulations.  As long as they are proven safe, however, we have no right telling someone what to do.  Certainly everyone should be more comfortable with their self-image, and it's a shame that cosmetic surgeries for anything but a tragic deformity or accident even exist - but they do!  We cannot tell someone they can't make themselves look a certain way.

Race becomes an unavoidable issue in this topic.  While having a pride in your heritage is wonderful (and something to be encouraged), the line we draw at "skin color" is probably just because we're not used to it - and is oddly a bit prejudice in itself.  People can tan all they like; sometimes they will come out looking foolish, sometimes they risk their medical health.  Yet no one cries out about race.  Surely everyone knows someone of predominately dark eyed race who has gotten contact lenses which are lighter in color.  Do you think they are ashamed of their own race?  How about dying one's hair blond when you are born a dark haired Asian or Hispanic?  Japanese Hair Straightening to get rid of one's natural curls?  These are all common practices, and not a sign of hatred of one's own race.  Merely a sign of wanting to look a certain way.  One must wonder if there would be this much controversy if people were changing their skin color to blue or purple - as long as they're not emulating an existing race, it is likely most people would stop seeing this as a loss of someone's "pure" race.

It is of course tragedy that so many people feel the need to go through drastic, even dangerous unnecessary cosmetic features.  Dying or styling your hair is one thing, but cosmetic surgery of any form is a sign of truly hating the way you look.  Isn't that what we should be focused on?  What drives someone to such an extreme?  Banning skin bleaching, unnecessary plastic surgery, or any form of drastic measures to look "better" will NOT have an impact the issue at heart.  There are a lot of people out there that just don't think they're good enough.  Taking away the option does not take away the motive.  If you feel strongly about the idea of someone wanting to go through such a procedure, you should focus on encouraging people to be happier with themselves, and to find more natural ways of looking and feeling good.  Banning any such procedure will not help their self-esteem, it will just make your uncomfortableness lessen.

Regardless, people can do what they want with their bodies.  As long as the method are proven medically safe, we are being obtusely pushy if we try to say otherwise.  Temporary hair color changes, or permanent tattoos.  Work out, or get flabby.  Bleach their skin, or have needless surgery, or if they have some way to permanently darken your skin. You don't have the right to tell them they can't, but you have every option to explain to them they don't need to.

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