Samantha Shaw will soon be able to enjoy putting her hair up and wearing earrings, two things she never wanted to do a week ago. Samantha just had otoplasty, commonly known as “pinning back” the ears. Before her surgery, her protruding ears made her the target of lots of hurtful questions by both children and adults.
As I was reading this news story, I couldn’t help thinking that this may not have been a good idea. I mean, sure, the little girl’s ears were extremely noticeable and now will have a break from being teased about her ears. However, kids are silly (some are mean-spirited) and will tease other children about anything they don’t understand. So soon, little Samantha Shaw will have to deal with being teased about something else.
And how will she handle that, the future teasing? Will she be able to cope with it and understand that there’s nothing wrong with her? Is anyone teaching her that she’s not the problem and that the problem is with those who tease her? Will her self-esteem be high enough that she’ll be able to brush off mean-spirited taunts? I think that’s the main issue here: self-esteem. You can nip, tuck, clip, remove, replace, implant whatever you want. You can change your body however you see fit, but are you doing it for the right reasons? Children, and adults, will find fault with others no matter what.
Instead of telling kids to stop teasing, and lead by example, we tell them that others need to do anything they can to change whatever we don’t like, or understand, about them. I could be naïve, but body augmentation at a young age, not for health reasons, seems like a poor message to send to children.
Your thoughts?
Related Articles
- Little Girl Hopes Cosmetic Surgery Will Stop Bullying (abcnews.go.com)
- Cosmetic Surgery: The Answer to Bullying? (abcnews.go.com)
- “Her ears look great. Throughout the checkup after surgery and when she got the bandages off, there…” (shortformblog.tumblr.com)
- Bullying: Complex Social Problem That Hits Parents Hard (livescience.com)
- Parenting Solutions: Teased (education.com)
Not seeing what she actually looks like it is difficult to really say for sure. Some kids do have such serious problems that some cosmetic surgery is necessary. It doesn’t sound to be the case here.
I would tend to agree with you on this. We need to deal with what’s inside of us more so than what the outward appearance is. When we learn how not to be victims then we can cope better with other issues in life and not always be looking somewhere else to place blame for our own shortcomings and unhappiness.
Lee
Tossing It Out
Posted by Arlee Bird | April 27, 2011, 12:55 PMHi Arlee,
I didn’t want to post her picture because I wanted to focus on my point that what she looked like wasn’t important. From what I read, she didn’t have any medical issues with her ears, so the surgery was purely cosmetic. That said, if you’re still interested, you can see her before and after pics here: http://tinyurl.com/455g93x
Thanks for commenting!
-bc
Posted by beautifulcurare | April 28, 2011, 11:10 AMIn light of what I’ve now seen I’m appalled. This is sheer vanity probably more in the mind of the parents more than the little girl. There was not that much wrong with her God given appearance and it stamped her with a specialness of being. I can understand surgeries in extreme cases like cleft palates, but a cosmetic surgery on something as minor as she was dealing with is utter nonsense.
Wow! Some people have too much money to accompany their own overindulgent sense of vanity.
Lee
Tossing It Out
Posted by Arlee Bird | April 28, 2011, 12:11 PMExactly, Arlee! I agree, this was a surgery in the name of vanity.
-bc
Posted by beautifulcurare | April 28, 2011, 9:40 PM