13 novembre, 2006 16:28

An addiction to beauty

In today's world and with enough money, we all have a shot at being beautiful.

In "Beauty Junkies," New York Times Styles section reporter Alex Kuczynski holds up a mirror to America's cosmetic-surgery complex. She shows who is selling physical perfection and who is buying it.

Kuczynski argues that we have become addicts looking for our next fix to keep us young and pretty. We value beauty as something we, especially women, are expected to have in addition to smarts and success.

She is not immune to the pull. Kuczynski details her Botox injections, her liposuction and an unfortunate lip-filling incident that causes her to miss a good friend's memorial.

Best are the parts where she profiles the players in the plastic-surgery world.

In the chapter "Harvey Weinstein's White, White Teeth," she deflates an egotistical dentist who claims he worked on the movie mogul's teeth and brags he'll produce a movie soon.

Kuczynski listens when doctors tell her at 25 that she could use some eyelid surgery and when another tells her that her eyebrows aren't doing her any favors. As much as she knows about the industry she, too, comes to believe some so-called work would make her feel better.

Eventually, Kuczynski decides the cost of trying to fix her body is too high. But that uplifting message is overshadowed by the dark view of a society obsessed with looks.

A plastic surgeon sums up that emptiness over lunch in Beverly Hills. He tells Kuczynski that women in Los Angeles live in a world that is about looks. Once those fade, things get ugly.

"(I)t gets desperate on a deeply metaphysical level," he says. "I've seen it get very dark. They wake up one day and realize that they are nothing but a shell of skin. They didn't do anything on the inside. And I don't care how many yoga classes you go to, they won't be able to cope. They're not equipped. And they don't know why."