Would You Let Your Child Get Plastic Surgery In Order to Escape Bullying?
SodaHead Living
2012/07/30 00:47:24
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14-year-old Nadia Ilse is the latest teen to turn to plastic surgery in order to ward off bullies. Since the first grade, school bullies had taunted Nadia about the size of her ears, calling her “Dumbo” and “elephant ears.” At the age of ten, Nadia began begging her mom for otoplasty—an operation to pin her ears back—but her mother couldn’t afford the surgery.
Recently, however, the Little Baby Face Foundation stepped in to help. LBFF is a charity that provides free corrective surgery to children born with facial deformities. The foundation brought Nadia to New York City from Georgia and paid $40,000 for her to undergo otoplasty, as well as rhinoplasty (reducing the size of her nose) and mentoplasty (altering her chin.)
Nadia told CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta that the bullying “hurt so much,” and caused her to become withdrawn and antisocial. After the surgery she said, "I look beautiful, this is exactly what I wanted, I love it."
We’re certainly glad that Nadia feels more confident in her appearance. But is getting plastic surgery really the answer? Is it empowering for the victim? Or does giving in just let the bullies win? It may be a bit both. Regardless, it seems like this trend is here to stay.
What do you think SodaHeads? Would you let your child get plastic surgery in order to escape bullying?
Recently, however, the Little Baby Face Foundation stepped in to help. LBFF is a charity that provides free corrective surgery to children born with facial deformities. The foundation brought Nadia to New York City from Georgia and paid $40,000 for her to undergo otoplasty, as well as rhinoplasty (reducing the size of her nose) and mentoplasty (altering her chin.)
Nadia told CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta that the bullying “hurt so much,” and caused her to become withdrawn and antisocial. After the surgery she said, "I look beautiful, this is exactly what I wanted, I love it."
We’re certainly glad that Nadia feels more confident in her appearance. But is getting plastic surgery really the answer? Is it empowering for the victim? Or does giving in just let the bullies win? It may be a bit both. Regardless, it seems like this trend is here to stay.
What do you think SodaHeads? Would you let your child get plastic surgery in order to escape bullying?
Read More: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/health/mental-healt...
If somebody is teasing you about something, learn to love that something and joke about it yourself. That way the bullies won't find much fun in mocking you anymore and you win.
And yes bullying can go to the extreme, but if that's the case shouldn't the parents of those children be involved? The school? Quite often they can help out. I wouldn't tell the child to just 'get over it', it makes things a whole lot worse, but I would talk to them and help them love themselves as they are, rather than changing who they are.
(I like big ears, I always for it was cute!)
If you did you wouldn't have a reason to ask why.
I don't even think her ears were deformed. I think our society is just obsessed with barbie doll perfect features that something that isn't barbie doll perfect is a deformity.
At my Primary school we had a child who was born with "severe deformity." Her face was contorted due to a medical condition and she had to have 30 surgeries from birth onwards and was going in for more all through school to "correct her." It was mostly medically necessary, before you say anything. The thing was, everyone in our grade took it upon ourselves to protect her from any would be bullies. I'm sure we aren't the most polite or even a good generation, but the teachers were certainly pleased.
On the flip side, we had another girl, who for all intents and purposes "looked normal." She was absolutely hounded all through her school life.
I only say yes because I thought it was the only way to quit the bullying.... my parents wouldn't move. I have a big nose....kids would not leave me alone. My kids are lucky they did not get my nose...and their features are beautiful.
If my hypothetical daughter wasn't fully grown yet, she could very easily continue to grow in a way that made the surgical changes look bizarre, and I would hold myself responsible for her regret. Heck, plastic surgery at any age runs the risk of making you look like something other than human. Also, I think this sends the wrong message to an impressionable child: It's an implicit concession that the bullies were "right" that something was "wrong" with her, and that she wasn't already good enough the way she was. Not only might she be perfectly beautiful already, but looks are fleeting and fade with age, so I would hate to reinforce the notion that she should judge her own self-worth by how she feels about her looks.
That said, I wouldn't hesitate to fix something that's a genuine medical problem (like a cleft palate, as someone else mentioned), and I'd be more willing to relent if she had objectively asymmetrical features that would continue to haunt her well into adulthood (such as if one ear was huge and the other was tiny)...as long as there was little to no danger of making changes that conflic...
If my hypothetical daughter wasn't fully grown yet, she could very easily continue to grow in a way that made the surgical changes look bizarre, and I would hold myself responsible for her regret. Heck, plastic surgery at any age runs the risk of making you look like something other than human. Also, I think this sends the wrong message to an impressionable child: It's an implicit concession that the bullies were "right" that something was "wrong" with her, and that she wasn't already good enough the way she was. Not only might she be perfectly beautiful already, but looks are fleeting and fade with age, so I would hate to reinforce the notion that she should judge her own self-worth by how she feels about her looks.
That said, I wouldn't hesitate to fix something that's a genuine medical problem (like a cleft palate, as someone else mentioned), and I'd be more willing to relent if she had objectively asymmetrical features that would continue to haunt her well into adulthood (such as if one ear was huge and the other was tiny)...as long as there was little to no danger of making changes that conflicted with future growth. I suppose I'm being a bit inconsistent in a sense too: I'd certainly let her address acne issues and get braces to correct her teeth (even if her bite was unaffected), but going under the knife seems quite a bit more extreme.
On the subject of bullying, kids can be extremely cruel, and bullies will often find something else to attack their victims for if they "fix" the previous problem...perhaps something unfixable. I was bullied for a hundred and one things as a kid, from my abysmal sports talents to the way I thought to the size of my head...not exactly something easy to fix (I'm told I grew into it though ;)). It was extremely painful to go through daily torment for a decade without any friends to stand by me, and I still deal with social anxiety and subconsciously expect rejection all these years later. At the same time, surviving this experience and learning to make friends - without changing myself to appease anyone's sense of judgment - has made me immeasurably stronger and more confident of who I am. I can only imagine how much weaker I would be today if I had the opportunity for an "easy way out" and took it. If my kids ever end up in the same situation as this girl, I might be too wary of the long-term repercussions to let them take such an option.