So supermodel Gisele Bündchen may or may not just have had plastic surgery at the Clinique du Parc Monceau (it sounds very lovely, non?) in Paris to fix her "sagging breasts." (Hey, it happens).
She also may or may not have worn a burqa as a disguise while entering the clinic, which has understandably upset folks for whom it is a cultural and religious symbol.
Girlfriend has had a busy week.
Now, I don't consider myself a hater, and I'm not into shaming her (or anyone) for her choice to have surgery. I also don't think that just because a celebrity is a public figure that we should get an all-access pass to her life. But if Gisele did indeed have work done, I think her choice to (try to) keep it a secret has some interesting implications related to contemporary beauty ideals.
Because by today's standards, Gisele is already off. the. dial. Legs for days, slim-but-with-boobs!, Amazonian tall and athletic enough to have considered a career as a pro volleyball player. She's already got in spades what women are told to want and strive for.
And according to the internet, Gisele has spoken out widely against plastic surgery.
"No way (will I have surgery.) Actually, I asked my mother the very same question and she said 'It's taken me 58 years for me to look like this. You think I'm going to ruin it now?' She looks great, so I hope I will look the same."
Roger that. But maybe Gisele has changed her mind--after all, two kids and hitting 35 can make a gal do things she never thought she'd do. However given Gisele's outspoken criticism of plastic surgery, my guess is she prolly wouldn't have 'fessed up to it if she hadn't been caught out. Which is her right. But IMHO that would've seriously kicked today's impossible beauty standards up a notch. It would have left many women most likely feeling 'less than' and thinking--even more than usual--I Don't Know How She Does It.
And isn't there already enough of that going around? A new study in the British Journal of Psychiatry reports that girls are dissatisfied with their bodies as young as age eight. Plus new stats linking heavy social media usage to poor body image are staggering and everywhere (A teaser: "Researchers found that women averaged two hours per day on Facebook, which was about 40 percent of their daily Internet use, and the data showed that more time spent on Facebook led to more self-objectification. While on Facebook, women weren’t only comparing themselves to peers and friends, but also to their own personal photos—which could be equally dangerous.")
I get that demystifying beauty ideals may not be Gisele's Higher Calling (um, just the opposite, in fact) and that she's under no obligation to show us what's behind the curtain...but still, I find myself wondering how it all would have gone down if she had disappeared for a few weeks looking fabulous...and then shown up again looking even more inhumanly fabulous...all the while maintaining that she'd never touch what the good Lord gave her.
Guess we'll never know...and maybe that's a good thing.
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