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July 8, 2008, 2:39 pm PDT
Miss Amanda Plastic-Surgery-Wannabe...
I tried, I really tried to put myself in Amanda's place, to empathize with her. While normally, I can twist my head around to see at least something of where the other person is coming from, in her case, I just can't wrap my head around it. She's not happy with her appearance? TOUGH! JOIN THE CLUB!! For every Jessica Alba, there are at least 10 others of us schlubs - ugly bags of gelatinous goo on legs. If we all put that much of our sense of self into our looks, we would likely pass the gun around and shoot ourselves dead, because most of us don't look half as good as Amanda does right out of the box - just as God and biology made her. She doesn't look like Jessica Simpson? Give me a break.... Good skin, clear eyes, healthy teeth, the right number of arms and legs, bi-laterally symmetrical, generally height/weight proportional - most of us would be thrilled to be able to check "YES" on every one of these boxes. But Amanda has something extra - facial features and proportions that fall within the narrow mathematical set of ratios that scientific research has determined constitute universal norms of human female beauty that transcend race, ethnicity and culture. She's not just a good biological specimen, she is an aesthetically very agreeable one.
Good God! What more does she want?!! She has a scar on her lip? That just proves she isn't computer-generated. (Even so, Dr. Phil's show doesn't broadcast in High Definition so I had to take her word on that; I couldn't see the alleged flaw on my plasma.) That she says she is willing to risk being turned into a troll by some knife-wielding butcher, rather than live on with her present appearance, is very disturbing to me. If she doesn't get some therapy soon, she will be in serious trouble when she is my age of 57 and like all of us, clearly shows signs of going to seed. Or worse, after she has, like the Jackson kids Michael, Janet and LaToya, undergone two or three botched plastic surgeries too many, and she looks not only older, but fit for a carnival freak show to boot! THAT would really be a tragedy.
Amanda... you are beautiful just as you are. If you don't FEEL beautiful, so what? I don't feel beautiful either. I'm a 57-year-old, 6-foot 3-inch, graying, bald, somewhat paunchy, knuckle-dragging quasi-australopithecine who can best be described as a cross between Dr. Phil and Homer Simpson. I look like nearly every high school kid's dad whom they are a little ashamed to be seen with. And who the hell cares?! I occasionally look somewhat wistfully at my pictures of myself as a 20-something stud-muffin, but I don't dwell on it, and damned if I'm going to throw good money at getting hair plugs and lipo and pec and ab implants, etc. I was a stud-muffin, now I'm a bag of gelatinous goo on legs - Sic transit gloria....
If you can't feel as beautiful as you are, it becomes doubly important that you find a way to feel worthwhile regardless. Beauty has a short shelf-life anyway. Statistically speaking, female beauty is thought to peak between the ages of 27 and 33. If you think you have problems with your appearance now, wait until you get up one morning, sometime near age 50, look into the bathroom mirror and see not yourself, but your mother staring back at you! (My "Oh My God!! I Look Like My DAD!" moment hit me at about age 48.) That is the crossroads - when your self-image faces the reality check - when you transition forever from "pretty woman" to "distinguished matron." Into middle age, your mental health requires that your sense of self-worth be founded on other than external appearance. Right now, Amanda, appreciate that you look nearly as good as you will ever look and very pretty indeed. It will be best if you learn to love it while it lasts and resist the temptation to screw it up with unnecessary surgery.
I don't mean to beat up on plastic surgeons... OK... I guess I do mean to beat up on plastic surgeons. So many seem to be mercenary, slicing, dicing, silicone-stuffing ghouls who exploit and extract obscene profit from peoples' emotional insecurities. But they fulfill a valid medical purpose, to correct physical deformations due to birth defect or serious injury. Amanda, you clearly suffer from neither.
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Dr. Phil opens up his mailbag to answer your burning questions! Amanda has been wanting plastic surgery since she was 16, and now that she's an adult, she's asked her sister, Angel, for birthday money so she can get liposuction and breast implants. She’s even considering dropping out of college so she can save money for the many procedures she wants. Angel worries her little sister could become addicted to cosmetic surgery. Next, will Michael’s plastic surgery nightmare change Amanda’s mind? Unsatisfied with the results of his first rhinoplasty, Michael found a world-renowned plastic surgeon to perform his second. When he got home, he documented the horrific result -- the tip of his nose turning black and falling off. See why he’s had three surgeries so far and plans on more. Then, Amber recently learned that her husband, Ron, had an affair. She says can't stop thinking about the other woman and doubts she'll ever get over it. Why does Ron think the affair had a positive effect on their marriage? Plus, meet a wife and mother torn between her career and her family, and don't miss a ravishing audience room makeover by Robin! Talk about the show here. 
