I Want a Famous Face

Plastic Surgery is evil and people are stupid

By Arial Plumpkin

Recently, I was flipping through MTV and came onto one of their new reality TV shows called I Want a Famous Face.  The premise for this show is apparently a documentation of a young person undergoing radical plastic surgery treatment to look like their favorite celebrity. The episode that I saw involved these two idiots that wanted to look like Brad Pitt.  Admittedly, they were kind of ugly and there was an improvement after the plastic surgery treatment but enough is enough.  The amount of reality TV shows that glamorize plastic surgery is truly appalling and the fact that all of these people are showing up on these type of shows prove my point that people are stupid.

Although on their website, MTV states that they did not pay for any of the surgery performed on the participants of I Want a Famous Face and did not have any influence over their decision, the fact that I Want a Famous Face is on the air shows this network’s irresponsibility.  The fact that they are airing such a show combined with their objective of creating sex symbols out of jailbait is a reflection that MTV has given up any attempts to act responsibly.  This is a shame, considering that the vast majority of its viewers are teenagers that are highly influenced by MTV’s programming.  If one is to condemn fast food companies for blatantly advertising to children despite the negative health consequences of its menu, one should also condemn MTV for promoting plastic surgery to a teenage market.

Plastic surgery seems to have become somewhat legitimized over the last ten years and the reason why still alludes me.  Although plastic surgery may not be as dangerous as it had been a decade ago, it still is an unnecessary and vain act.  I will always support reconstructive surgery, which provides plastic surgery treatments to individuals that have been in accidents, however I can’t support plastic surgery.  Even though America is a free country and people should be able to choose whatever they want to do with their bodies, I question the glamorization of the plastic surgery industry that is present through these reality TV shows.

According to the news, Kate Winslet cried when she heard that a participant of I Want a Famous Face had undergone plastic surgery to make their body look like hers.  If this doesn’t show you what a vacuous show I Want a Famous Face is, then I don’t know what is.

Additionally, many of the participants feel that undergoing plastic surgery will be the only thing that they need to become a star.  Considering that reality television has, for some reason or another, created a new and strange type of celebrity, their notions are not misguided.  However, these people seem to not understand that obtaining the type of celebrity that they want requires more than obtaining a tummy tuck or getting breast implants.  Maybe I Want a Famous Face should be taken with the same grain of salt required to view other MTV fare like Becoming, but the fact that it incorporates a life changing action like plastic surgery makes it morally reprehensible.  I’m not trying to sound like a prude and people are obviously free to act in whatever manner they feel is best for them but I still consider I Want a Famous Face to be one of the most degrading and awful reality television shows on the air.

About the author:

Arial Plumpkin is a student at UCLA where she has become enraged by the amount of plastic surgery that she sees on a day-to-day basis.  Although, many feel that she is easily swept into passionate but tiresome rants about a number of issues, you have to admit that plastic surgery is pretty damn evil.