Do real liberals demonize plastic surgery?

I’m going to let the following Facebook thread speak for itself.  This was all in response to the following image posted on the Being Liberal Facebook Page:

USA #1!

  • Greg StevensWhy is “plastic surgery” included in this mix? What’s up with demonizing plastic surgery? Will you be demonizing tattoos, next? What a weird “Puritan” streak to see on a liberal page….
    • Jake MulvaneyMy interpretation is we have money to spend on that but not to fix some of the other things. Could be wrong, just a rationalization.
    • Mari StricklandI thought it was relative to media inflated self-loathing that paves the path for many of the other crimes, illnesses and justifications….
    • Lucy RizzoMy interpretation is: High plastic surgery rates equals a superficial society.
    • James TarrMight have to do with shallowness or poor self-image. Who knows.
    • Stephen Smithplastic surgery says a lot of nasty things about who we are. No , I’mnot talking about reconstructive surgery and you know it.
    • Danielle GussDo any of you dye your hair? Have piercings/tattoos? Shave? Then you are modifying your body from what it was originally meant to be. It’s no different from plastic surgery.
    • Dylan Porterwrong Danielle completely different things
    • Izel Terronezim in the process of scheduling sex reassignment surgery and facial feminization surgery, and get really frustrated with this. and even if you want to only talk about things that are “less serious,” its still stupid, i mean, who cares? so youre mad the money goes there rather than somewhere else? why are you even on facebook? facebook is a huge suck of time and money that could go to cancer research or feeding hungry people.also, it seems pretty much all these figures are either not adjusted for population or just bullshit. so whatever.
    • Danielle GussNo Dylan, it’s not. Body modification is body modification. You didn’t like how something looked about you, so you did something to the body to change it. But, really, it’s their body and why should anyone care but them?
    • Greg StevensThe fact is, being liberal is supposed to mean that we don’t cast moral judgments on what other people choose to do with themselves, by themselves, with their own priorities and values. It means that we’re not supposed to call someone “sick” or “weird” just because they choose a recreation or activity that isn’t what YOU would choose. It means you’re not supposed to be so puritanical that you can’t handle some diversity in the way that people EXPRESS themselves.That’s what being liberal means. When you judge people for choosing to have plastic surgery — something that only impacts themselves — you are not being liberal.
    • Gianni Forza Azzurri FioriniIt means that how you look is more important than how you are.
    • Greg StevensGianni, how you look is part of how you are. And part of being liberal means you don’t impose your own personal moral biases on others: it means you aren’t dictatorial about what it means to be “normal”.If someone wants to have plastic surgery, it doesn’t hurt you. So how about you stop wasting energy coming up with “theories” about what is psychologically wrong with them, and simply allow them to be unique individuals who happen to value things differently than you do.Embrace differences and diversity, remember? Being liberal.
    • Danielle Guss@Gianni. And no, again it doesn’t. But judging is pretty easy, isn’t it?
    • Izel Terronezwhy cant that just be a part of who you are?
    • Laura Williams GarzaI take it to mean we care more about our appearance than things like education for our children.
    • Greg StevensLaura, that might be how you take it, but it’s not what the statistic actually means. Putting a raw statistic about plastic surgery into this mix is a really unfortunate prejudice: it is not   like crime, rape, prisoners, teen birth rates, or any  of the other items on this list. It is something that a person chooses for him/her-self, and that one might choose for any of a wide variety of reasons. It does not belong on this list.
    • Izel TerronezLaura, get off Facebook and start educating children right now. You can stop to eat short meals and go to the bathroom and sleep. Anything else is a waste of time, and you wouldn’t want to “care about that more than things like education for our children” would you?
    • Danielle GussI take it as utter bull more than anything. As a women and human being, I certainly wouldn’t want people telling me what I should do with my body and judge me for what I do. If I get an abortion, I’m a murderer. If I get plastic surgery, I’m vain and insecure. If I don’t shave my legs, I’m disgusting. If I take birth control, I’m a slut. If I’m skinny, I’m anorexic. If I’m fat, I’m a lazy, unattractive slob. See where this is going?
    • Chris Dalzell“Plastic surgery” category, I imagine, represents use of monies for non-necessary medical expenditures over curative or preventative medical treatments. Moreover, narcissism of the well-to-do (and its ubiquitous advertisement) has long-reaching, systemic effects on other areas, such as teenage eating disorders, birth rates, etc. It is completely germane. I, however, don’t see the point in the “divorce rate” category. The nuclear family can easily be argued to cause more societal ills than it cures.
    • Greg StevensChris: Having a statistic about “plastic surgery”, alone, says nothing about whether those expenditures are “over” necessary procedures or anything else. There is absolutely nothing in that statistic about whether those moneys “could” or “should” have been used for anything else. And unlike anyof the other categories, plastic surgery is something that a person chooses for him/her-self. It doesn’t hurt other people, it doesn’t detract from other people’s choices or lives in any way.The only  negative thing someone could say about plastic surgery is based on prejudice and puritanical morality: “I personally think that only vain people have it, so I’m going to assume that YOU are vain if you do! And I’m going to judge you for being vain!”There is nothing  liberal about that kind of judgment. It’s moral imperialism at its worst, and it’s presumptuous.

      Being Liberal means letting other people make their own choices about their own bodies, and express themselves even if you personally don’t “like” their choices for self-expression.

      So how about we have a little open-mindedness, a little “live and let-live”, on this liberal page?

    • Jessica StrunkI think plastic surgery is a symptom of our culture telling others they aren’t good enough the way they were born, so they have to shell out cash to be accepted. Which I think does suck. The media tells you that you should have a particular nose. Skinny. With big tits. And yeah… It’s not a good notion. Your choice, sure. But I feel it’s a reflection on our society, and how it put’s you in a position to feel bad about yourself.
    • Greg StevensJessica: You reallyfeel comfortable making the assumption that people who get plastic surgery always (or even mostly) do it because they feel insecure? And you really feel comfortable making a moral judgment that people should NOT take control over their own appearance if that is something that makes them happy? Come on… no matter how you dress this up, it’s Puritanism. You’re imposing your own assumptions and values on others, and there is no place for it when they are only making decisions about themselves.You know what Being Liberal means to me? It means living in a diverse and heterogeneous society, where some people choose to modify their own bodies, and other people do not, and people don’t judge each other for it.