Celebrities have set trends in fashion and hairstyles for decades. People see a style of clothes or hair worn by a glamorous celebrity, rock star, or debutante and soon a quarter of the country has to have the new look. What is less clear is whether people try to emulate celebrities’ actual faces and bodies. Can a celebrity’s physical appearance be copied? The answer may surprise you.
Who wants to look like a celebrity?
…Apparently most people that seek cosmetic surgery. A recent survey of plastic surgeons performed at the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery shows that as many as half of all cosmetic surgery patients described their wishes in terms of a famous person. In other words they asked the cosmetic surgeon to give them a facial feature or body type of a well known actress, actor or musician. Not only do we crave to learn as much as we can about the rich, beautiful and famous, apparently many of us want to look just like them.
Can cosmetic surgery give you the face and body of a celebrity?
…Yes and no. While talented plastic surgeons can create works of art with the human form and do some amazing and incredible transformations, there are limits to what can be done. In one respect when a person requests a certain facial feature—like Angelina Jolie’s lips or a Jennifer Lopez derriere—the cosmetic surgeon has a fairly specific template from which to follow. While much of cosmetic surgery is about envisioning and trying to attain an ideal feature, when a patient requests to have a feature that can be seen in a magazine, the vision is much more real. The goal, in these cases, is much more concrete.
On the other hand, cosmetic surgery is restricted by the patient’s natural tissue, features, and biology. Plastic surgery is not the same as prosthetic makeup—you cannot simply add or take away more tissue in every case. Each feature needs to have an adequate blood supply, the skin must be thick enough to defend against infection and regulate temperature, and surgical scars need to be hidden. In very basic terms, it is easier for a plastic surgeon to give someone Beyonce’s legs if they already have the same basic structure in their lower limbs.
Make me a star!
The other problem is when patients ask to look precisely like a celebrity. Instead of asking for a certain body part or facial feature, some patients wish to become Eva Longoria Parker or Matthew McConaughey physically. In these cases, the psychological and technical issues tend to make the plastic surgeon cringe. Aside from the psychological basis and implications of a person wishing to transform into someone else, a cosmetic surgeon must have a frank discussion with these patients. Realistic goals need to be set. If the patient is suitable for this kind of aggressive surgery, it should be made perfectly clear that the results may not be exactly as expected (for all of the biological reasons like blood supply and bone structure, etc.).
Should a person try to emulate a celebrity?
This is a question for ethics professors and psychologists. However if you are considering celebrity emulation, consider why you want to look like a particular celebrity? If it is to be the best you that you can be, that is a laudable pursuit. If you are trying to become someone else, why are you unhappy with you? Further, what if a celebrity’s image changes? The media darling of this week is the rehab tabloid queen of next week. Plastic surgery is a big change—it is important not to lose yourself as you start to look like someone else.