demimarielkari

You're having a dream. Things turn dark. Your limbs become heavy. A shadowy figure emerges. A blade gleams. A knife slowly comes at your face. You try to run, but your legs don't work. Your arms have no strength, as the blade nears you. Cold metal separates your skin...
In which reality is that not a nightmare?
I have an assignment for you, to do individually or in groups. It involves watching movies (and looking at boobies, if you like that sort of thing). You don't have to watch all the movies. I offer three pair; seeing one might suffice.
-BLAME IT ON RIO & STRIPTEASE
-PERSONAL BEST & STAR 80
-KING OF THE ANTS & SENSATION
I hear some gears whirring out there. Some of you are already noting that each pair has an actress who appears in both films. And there are probably a handful of cinephiles who have already connected the pairs. They are before & after films of actresses who had prosthetic breasts surgically implanted. Mariel's case is slightly different, in that her surgery was well-documented in the press as something she underwent so that she could land the starring role in STAR 80. At the time, she was already an established star. For demi and kari, they chose surgery at a time when they were relative unknowns, ostensibly to further their careers.
A choice that turned out pretty well for them, at first glance. The price they may have paid in damaged self-worth, sensitivity-impaired nipples, and perhaps a ticking time bomb of health problems, these are unknown to me.
If you've never had surgery, if you've never had your body carved into, then you're going to need an abnormal level of empathy to keep up with this conversation (or just a normal level for a person from a non-desensitized society). We have arrived at a point in our culture where "elective" surgery doesn't fill us with dread.
It bloody well should. Having our body cut open is, and ought be, one of the most primal horrors we can know. How many people you personally know have sought any number of alternative remedies, or chose to live with pain, rather than have any kind of surgery?
How does this horror suddenly evaporate, if we choose to be carved? And what are we so afraid of, that bodily mutilation seems, uh, reasonable?
Your assignment is to watch the movies, then break into discussion groups.
Guide questions:
1) Did these women become more or less attractive?
2) If "more", what was less attractive about their original breasts?
3) Have you ever left a woman with "before" breasts (or been left, if you have them)?
4) How would you feel about your mother having cosmetic surgery? Your daughter? What if your sister died, and the coroner suggested botox and breast implants for the viewing? If you're outraged and horrified by that suggestion, you now have some sense of how a sane person would react to living people allowing their bodies to be mutilated in the name of "beauty".
The bottom line is that women (and some men) are allowing an unspeakable horror to be perpetrated upon them, a horror with fatalities, because of fear. Fear that they won't be loved. Fear that they won't be desired. Fear of being alone.
Vanity is deadly too...but fear dwells deeper.
I've been re-sensitized enough that i adore "before" boobies, and go out of my way to shower love and appreciation on any woman with before-boobies who deigns to share them with a fool like me (especially little boobies...omysweet golly, i just adore little boobies...i mean, don't get me wrong, big boobies are Festivus morning...but little boobies just bring out the slavering beast in me...which is not to say i don't love a nice mid-sized boobie...i mean, that's a group of women who just don't get enough love, everybody yammering on about big boobies and tiny boobies...i'm sorry, what were we talking about?).
I've been re-sensitized enough that watching women with plastic boobies is a turn-off, and seeing the "before" images of actresses like demi and kari makes me feel a bit sickened, knowing what's to come.
I'm just an idiot, of course...even knowing what i know, demi in G.I. JANE is one of the most jaw-dropping images of feminine beauty ever. And i know that some boob jobs are so artfully done that i haven't known they were fake, and i've been attracted. And there have been one or two times in my life when i did not find post-breastfeeding boobies attractive. And i've struggled to find stretch marks as attractive as regular scars.
You live, you learn, and hopefully you get better.
By the way, have you seen UN MOMENT D'EGAREMENT, from which BLAME IT ON RIO was adapted? Oh my good golly, is it wonderful. Best French film i've seen, and it's not even out on dvd.
I love you all.