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.”