tabloids

Are You Even Human?

January 20, 2017 by Lucy Bryce Leave a Comment

Upon researching the topic of plastic surgery there were real- life stories that I found hard to believe. I began to question the authenticity of something that seemed so ridiculous.

The idea of someone altering their appearance to achieve a desired goal is a concept that I find strange to being with so when someone has surgery with the aim of looking like a cat, I go as far to question their sanity!

The new and improved take on cat woman, erm?

Jocelyn Wildenstein, a wealthy socialite and ex-wife of a billionaire art-dealer has reportedly spent over $4 million throughout the years on plastic surgery in an attempt to look more like exotic wild cats (yes you read that right! Cats!?) Because of this obsession, Jocelyn is often nicknamed “Cat Woman” in the media. As part of her 1999 divorce deal with her husband, the judge ruled that Jocelyn could not spend any of her alimony from Alec on plastic surgery (which gives an insight into how obsessed she must have truly been).

Here’s what Jocelyn’s transformation from a young, natural looking woman in what she believes to resemble a wild animal:

(Jocelyn Wildernstein’s transformation, 1970, 1998, 2003, 2008)

In 2011, it appear Jocelyn may have had a moment of realisation! She was last seen looking more human leading the public to believe she may have undergone some form of corrective surgery. Her lips looked smaller and her forehead/ eyebrows reduced and more natural. (Although her appearance was (and still) is drastically altered with non-human like features).

I wonder if it was something she’d always wanted to do? Or whether she woke up one day with the idea of being a cat and had the means (money) to do so.

Obsessed with surgery, pick up the cooking oil! (Not)

The initial reason I began researching the topic of plastic surgery was due to a video that I was made aware through twitter almost four years ago! I remember friends talking about it and my social media feed going insane!

It was all centred around a woman, Hang Mioku who was refused any more plastic surgery in Korea as doctors told her she had a psychological issue after being obsessed with silicone injections just wanting ‘soft’ skin. This rejection lead her to injecting cooking oil in face, leaving her permanently disfigured.

Here are some tweets from 2013 of people airing their initial shock at the story!
tweet tweet

(Tweets from 2013 regarding the story)

She was a former model with a pretty face who was left with a permanently disfigured from her DIY beauty treatment. After already injecting an entire bottle of black market silicone into her face, Hang resorted to using cooking oil that left her face severely swollen and scarred.

Video below from an American News show (TomoNewsUS) reporting on her tragic story:

Her disastrous attempt at perfection was featured on Korean television and viewers donated thousands of pounds to pay for corrective surgery. During her first of 10 operations, surgeons removed 60g of silicone oil (60g!!!!) and other foreign substances from her face and 200g from her neck. However, Hang remains forever more disfigured and says she desperately wishes she could have her old face back.

Hangs sad story should be a lesson to anyone who is thinking of taking plastic surgery into their own hands! Leave it to the professionals!

Thank you for reading this post! More updates will be posted soon

BOTHCED! Past the Point of No Return

January 18, 2017 by Lucy Bryce Leave a Comment

Is there a line when it comes to going under the knife?

There are countless celebrities who undergo surgery each day. Many flying under the radar having menial nip-and-tucks here and there that me and you aren’t even aware of. But sometimes celebrities just can’t help themselves and go a little too far. One procedure goes wrong and BAM! Stuck in the constant cycle of trying to correct their ruined appearance. Lots of these extreme botched procedures and altered appearances provoke extremely negative responses from an online social media audience.

An example that I’m sure many of you will be aware of is Pete Burns. He was known for his openness about his surgery mishaps, and spoke freely about undergoing over 300 operations in order to fix his botched surgeries. Despite the vast amount of time times he had been under the knife he still continued to state how he “was in love with his appearance ” yet somehow also felt “just like Frankenstein”. A confusing paradox from the deceased singer.

(Pete Burns – before and after)

Before his recent, tragic death in October 2016 due to a heart attack, he appeared on the Channel 5 show “Celebrity Botched Up Bodies”. Botched is a popular documentary TV show that interviews celebrity personalities that have either had countless surgeries (and gone too far away from what now may be perceived as a ‘normal’ alteration) or had surgeries that have gone wrong and had drastic consequences.

Here is a trailer for the latest series of the show:

On the show, Pete stated that he first got plastic surgery 20 years ago, when his single “You Spin Me Round” became a success. Then proceeding with four nose jobs, cheekbone implants and countless alterations to his lips.

His rise to fame and consciousness of his appearance in the public eye provoked his first nose job (as it was crooked due to being broken in a previous year). Speaking of his first procedure, he shared: “I realised I was going to be a visual entity and that I had to look good.”

“When you’re young, self-conscious and standing in front of a camera and the photographers are whispering, ‘Can we turn his head to the left?’ you think, ‘I’ll do something about it’.”

When things don’t go as planned:

He then underwent a rhinoplasty to fix it! But the procedure went wrong… He told Channel 5 how he “woke up covered in blood. There was so much blood it was unbelievable”.“He’d removed most of my nose and there was just two nostrils and a little bit of bone in the middle. I nearly fainted.”

The star then underwent more surgery to attempt to fix that cosmetic failure, where he claims – that it was just the first of “probably 300”. Pete states that the “amount of surgeries I’ve had are absolutely minimal compared to the reconstructive surgeries I’ve had”. A very worrying thought that brings into question the addictiveness of cosmetic alterations.

(Pete Burns lips- Channel 5’s Celebrity Botched Up Bodies)

On the show he also recalled the time he was performing on stage and realised there was a problem with his lip fillers. He then went back to the surgeon to get excess fluid drained. “At least a pint and a half of yellow steaming fluid was vomited out of the lip.” (An unsightly thought that makes me feel faint thinking about it).

To make the situation worse, Pete said the filler started spreading to the rest of his face, leaving holes in his skin which would ooze yellow fluid. He successfully managed to sue the surgeon for £450,000 in an out of court settlement after the infection spread to rest of his body with his lips possibly requiring amputation.

Reliving the horrific ordeal, he explained: “I’ve had a major operation a week for two years to remove it from my cheeks where it had migrated, my Adam’s apple, the back of my eyes…They couldn’t do anything about the liver and the kidneys. I had to excrete that out.”

From bad to worse:

The signer discussed how he became clinically depressed and how the ordeal drained him of two years worth of his life.

Things continued to dramatically declined for Pete as he developed blood clots and pulmonary embolisms in his legs, heart and lungs.“I got these black marks on my skin and I thought they were bruises. The next thing my driver came in and I was unconscious, not breathing.”

He was rushed to hospital and told that he had less than two per cent chance of survival! He was put on blood thinners and after 10 days, doctors managed to save him. But despite his brush with death, Pete was undeterred, stating “What I’m trying to achieve with my surgery is my own personal satisfaction. It’s narcissism at its extreme.”

When societal pressures become too much:

Why do celebrities succumb to the pressures of striving for perfection? Especially when the situations they put themselves in are so life-threatening!

Many people are unaware of the pressures put on celebrities to look good. The attempts that they put themselves through to achieve this ‘perfection’ are extremely dangerous and as you can see, sometimes life threatening. Yet, the public chose to ignore this fact (or may even not be aware) but are extremely quick to judge and ridicule. Pete Burns is often used at the ‘butt’ of a joke and is seen frequently tweeted about on Twitter. Here are some examples:

“I don’t understand how people can get cheap plastic surgery, then be all heartbroken and shocked when they unwrap and look like Pete Burns” – @Tigercha5e (twitter)
“Watching Pete Burns interviews, loved the music but finding the surgery truly disturbing, awful to see and incomprehensible – why???” – @Judyelon

It’s not only Pete Burns who receives negative backlash from an online audience, child actors such as Amanda Bynes and Lindsey Lohan have been victims of a negative response from the online public too:

Amanda Bynes:

“Do you think if I got addicted to the narcotics after surgery I could be like Amanda Bynes” – @masonwymerr
“Amanda Bynes usta be so pretty… until she went and had a s**tload of plastic surgery done” – @EPluribusWiggum

(Amanda Bynes left after surgery, right minimal surgery)

Lindsay Lohan:

“@lindsaylohan not even surgery could save your face hunny” – @wreckedari
“@lindsaylohan tooo much surgery “ – @AntoniomoonL

(Lindsay Lohan post surgery)

Thank you for reading this post! More updates will be posted soon

“Life In Plastic It’s Fantastic”

January 10, 2017 by Lucy Bryce 3 Comments

As Barbie famously proclaimed: “Life in plastic it’s fantastic”

But is that the reality?

There have been countless times that I have been shocked by what the tabloids produce in their headlines. And I’m not talking about the shocking political stories, or the next debate regarding global warming… I’m talking about the disastrous experiments that ‘normal people’ are participating in an attempt to morph into celebrities through plastic surgery. A headline at which my common repose is just to release an exasperating sigh of “oh, no not another one?!”

You must remember last year when Jack Johnson took over our television screens, headlines and twitter feeds as the latest to attempt to look like celebrity. He underwent countless surgeries to look like David Beckham, the resemblance was uncanny (not). Don’t remember? Lucky you! Here is a quick recap; he spent £20,000 on procedures on his cheeks, chin, eyebrows, teeth, lips and tanning injections in an attempt to achieve his desired ‘Beckham look’. And who wouldn’t want to look like David Beckham, the former England captain was even crowned People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2015.

Johnson appeared on a number of popular TV shows to debut his ‘new and improved’ look, including popular day time TV show This Morning. He discussed how many doctors have turned him away from gastric band requests as they see he does not actually require one. But despite the fact he is £20,000 in debt, he plans to spend a another £30,000 more!

He states on the show “I do love myself, I just want to look like David Beckham. Who doesn’t? No one can say he’s ugly or unattractive. Even people who aren’t a fan.” But if he truly loved himself why did he feel the need to change into someone else, rather than loving his own appearance?

Check out this video below where he discusses his surgery live on This Morning:

Many people took to the social networking site Twitter, to voice their anger at the ‘waste’ of benefits and how it is a sham that he was allowed to go this far in the first place:

It doesn’t stop there …

This is not the first time (and probably won’t be the last) that someone has attempted to mimic a celebrities appearance.

Back in 2013 we saw Toby Sheldon in the spotlight after spending $100,000 US dollars on surgery in order to look like Justin Bieber . Sheldon who is 14 years older than the Canadian pop-sensation spent 5 years having numerous surgeries including face fillers, a chin reduction and even eyelid surgery (who even knew that was a thing?!) in an attempt to look like Bieber. The super-fan even appeared on the plastic surgery horror story series Botched.

Sadly, in 2015, Sheldon was found dead in a motel room in San Fernando, with his death being recored due to “multiple drug intoxication”.

(Sheldon left, Bieber right)

‘Celebrities’ can come in all shapes and sizes

Ordinary people are more frequently aspiring to be like their idols and in the case of Grant Coulson, moulding himself to look like a real-life doll. A recent article printed by the newspaper The Sun , it documents how the unemployed 25 year old “has already had fillers for acne scars paid for by taxpayers but now wants further work on his face”. Coulson has claimed to doctors that he has difficultly breathing to persuade them to reduce his nose size and states “that it is looking likely I will get it”.

(Article headline from The Sun newspaper from 3rd January 2017)

Why is this happening?

It has hard to pin-point exactly why ordinary people are undergoing these expensive surgeries and procedures that not only dramatically effect their bank account but that can also have dangerous and life-threatening consequences.

One psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman explained to Yahoo how “Consciously or unconsciously, people think that if they look like a particular celebrity, it will bring them the power a celebrity has, the power to attract people, to be a heartbreaker, to have guys or girls swooning over them.”