Insane in the Membrane

In my line of work, I'm usually surrounded by older women (and men) who have done everything they can to look younger, slimmer, curvier. I've become quite used to cosmetic surgery, and if I might say so myself, quite adept at spotting a good job from a bad one.

In a way, I've become desensitized to the practice because I spend so much of my time amongst those that routinely try to shave off a few years or a few pounds the easy way. Given how many surgeries some women get, and while I haven't lost nearly as much sensitivity as they surely have, I am usually not surprised of the various crazy ideas that some people have to change what they are to what they think they once were, or should have been.

The problem is that people get cosmetic surgery because they want to change those aspects of themselves which are out of their control. Their bottom lip isn't as puffy as Angelina Jolie's. Their boobs aren't big enough. They're wrinkling at what they feel is too young of an age. Sadly, the results of plastic surgery, even when performed by the most capable hands, always looks the same. The more that is done on one face, the more similar that face looks to all other faces. They all take on the Michael Jackson look. Shiver.

At any rate, I've stopped complaining about it, which for me is usually a sign of approval, but in this case it is not. It's just not that big of a deal. It's sad, and I feel poorly for those who don't feel comfortable in their own skin. I'm reminded of that comment by Jean Kerr:

"I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want --an adorable pancreas?"

But sometimes, there's an indication of some greater problem. I'm sure by now you've heard about HYMEN REPLACEMENT. What is truly disturbing about this procedure is not that it's merely pretending to replace the hymen which is a lie in and of itself, but the reasons that it's being performed. At one point, a doctor says:

"These [Muslim] women can...adopt our mentality and wear jeans. But in the moments that matter, they don't always have the strength to go against their culture."

What this is really saying is that the only thing that matters is that we not only no longer value virginity, but that we should no longer value religions that promote chastity. This is not just a Muslim issue, although it is clear that while the public mistreatment of women happens more frequently in Islamic countries, it's really men (qua vicious men) that are mostly at fault. Men who love their fantasies more than their wives. That fantasy may come in the guise of chastity, or it may come through a more vicious reality: pedophilia. Look at what another doctor notes:

"I have colleagues in the United States whose patients do this as a Valentine's present to their husbands..."

Oh, I long for the days when a face-lift was done in private because of the shame--the days when a boob job was still controversial. Why would a man want this of his 'beloved'? Because he has a fantasy about removing the innocence of a girl, of deflowering the pure of heart and body. There is no other explanation. He is pretending his conjugal mate is as innocent as a child, and this is utterly disgusting. Especially because the women who are giving this 'Valentine's gift' to their 'husbands' have so little respect for themselves and their lover that they would aid and abet this crime of innocence. This is pedophilia, and it's on the rise in our world. Child porn is protected as free speech. Capitalism has given our 8 year olds sweatpants with "JUICY" written across the butt, and parents have bought it and into it. Fathers are too weak to question why their pre-teen daughters are wearing micro minis to school or the mall, until the day they get mauled. Women want to be 'like a virgin'. Men want to 'like a virgin'. At least the article got this much right:

"[men are] the biggest of all donkeys"

Women are not free of guilt, though. With hymen replacement they are changing something that they actually had control over. They chose to lose their virginity. And even for those women that punctured their hymen due to childhood accident or rape, chastity of mind and heart is much more obvious and important than chastity of the genitalia. Not properly understanding chastity of the body has it's dangers: PERHAPS YOU'VE HEARD OF THE GROWING PHENOMENON of young girls only willing to be lesbians or only perform oral sex (or worse) because they 'want to save themselves for marriage'. This ploy is one of the various methods that Planned Parenthood uses in their plot to sexually activate our children and then kill their children. This is not chastity. This is like stealing your food and clothes because you want to save your money to tithe more to the Church.

We, both women and men, together, need to absorb and live the THEOLOGY OF THE BODY, to overcome society's Theology of the Bawdy.