No meme!

[smokingboot]

No, too embarrassing! I cannot do that meme everyone's into, despite my desperate desire to be cuddled and flattered right now.

It has provoked some interesting thoughts though. Recently, a chum who's on the show was discussing cosmetic surgery with me. She knows a salariman's wife with considerable expertise on top notch under the knife enhancement. Apparently now is the time to do it, before the rot sets in; prevention is better than cure etc, etc. Friend is suggesting we go get a free consultation on what might best assist us. I am sanguine, ready to consider this a waste of time right now...and then I check out my skin and teeth. Uh-oh. the latter will only become important in dealing with Statesiders, cos they do seem to fixate on the horrors of British dentistry or lack of it. Why are our teeth so bad, I wonder? Bleaching those suckers looks more and more likely, but I really don't see myself wearing a retainer or resetting my jaw to straighten my overbite. And my skin...no, I don't want to turn this into a long post.

I read back and find I have found four instances of the word 'No' in this post. For now at least, I'm treating it as a decision made at the back of my head. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with cosmetic surgery - people should be happy with the way they look, and if that's what it takes, so be it - but don't feel the need right now, plus I'm too busy plus I've no money. And my honey is afraid I am going to be 'consulted' right into unnecessary unhappiness about aspects of my face/figure.

TV's a narcissistic world, we can look at ourselves for too long. Other people's creativity is the cure. So for non-neurotic makeovers, check out awesome_places and the latest post on art_nouveau. Stunning!

Comments

[clawbeast.livejournal.com]

Worth noting that bleaching can lead to sensitive teeth and in turn onto enamel work. I can ask a friend who is a dentist and works in same building as me if you would like more info.

[cyanidemigraine.livejournal.com]

its a scary meme to contemplate isnt it? what if no one was to reply? thats my very real fear for my journal *grins*

good to see you last night, shame your going before friday night *boo hiss*

[falco-biarmicus.livejournal.com]

Bleaching teeth.....

I did this before my first wedding (at which point I could be talked into just about anything). I had a gumshield made and had to pipe one third of a tube of special tooth bleach into the upper shield, and a third into the lower shield, before putting them on at night. As this was a rather bad time in my life, I had taken to drinking a little in excess. I stumbled upstairs one night, grabbed the tube and emptied it into the top shield. I was under the impression that I only had a third of a tube left, so I reached for a new tube to open for the lowed gum shield. To my horror, I found that the nearly empty tube was still on the side, and I had just piped a whole tube of bleach into the upper gum shield. I tried to dig the stuff out, but in my drunken state my efforts where somewhat ineffective. I woke up in the morning foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog!

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

You do not need any kind of surgery. Nor should you ever have any form of botulism injected into your forehead. If you really give a toss about your teeth (which I think are fine) home whitening kits are in Sainsburys and cost £5.

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

Your beautiful skin is something I've often envied. I know you hate your freckles, but really they're very lovely and give you a wonderful natural (almost schoolgirly) kind of look.

Can I also add my voice to your thought re cosmetic surgery? You really really don't need it. Okay, I wouldn't tell you if you did, but I certainly wouldn't post to tell you that you don't. You have aged better than anyone else I know, and I bet if you asked a cross section of people who didn't know your age they'd all think you were in your mid-late thirties.

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I like British teeth. They're real teeth. The American obsession with enormous, perfect, glowing white teeth creeps me out. The teeth creep me out. When I was a kid, the only people who had teeth like that were old people with dentures and a few others who had good genes or the right kind of drinking water. They're not natural. They're like something out of Poe:

But from the disordered chamber of my brain, had not, alas! departed, and would not be driven away, the white and ghastly spectrum of the teeth. Not a speck on their surface - not a shade on their enamel - not an indenture in their edges - but what that period of her smile had sufficed to brand in upon my memory. I saw them now even more unequivocally than I beheld them then. The teeth! - the teeth! - they were here, and there, and everywhere, and visibly and palpably before me; long, narrow, and excessively white, with the pale lips writhing about them, as in the very moment of their first terrible development. Then came the full fury of my monomania, and I struggled in vain against its strange and irresistible influence. In the multiplied objects of the external world I had no thoughts but for the teeth. For these I longed with a phrenzied desire.

[larians.livejournal.com]

Early - mid thirties in my opinion and as I recall that it was most of the Nesters put you at.

I don't think you need anything doing and frankly the idea of it is a bit scary.

[ravenrigan.livejournal.com]

Don't you dare. I'm much older and more raddled than you, and I'm going to grow old disgracefully!

They wouldn't have given you the job in the firstplace if you wertn't fabulous!

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

The whole American vs British teeth thing is damn weird. In the States they place waaay more emphasis on regular, expensive dental work. Having braces etc to straighten your smile out is common while I suspect here in the UK many people don't think its worth it just to straighten a few teeth that work perfectly well wonky. So far as I see it-it all comes down to how (and why) you smile.

Certain 'American smiles' scare me. A lot. Its ultimately the 'American media/beautiful people smile'. In the states you have an emphasis on that 'beauty queen smile'-open your mouth and display as much of your teeth as possible-so of course if they are not shinning white and perfectly straight the smile wont 'work'. British smiles are usually done with the mouth closed and the corners turned up a little.

Now-the psychology of it is interesting. Showing your teeth in the animal world is actually a sign of aggression-its a way of saying 'I can eat you alive-watch out!'. So its actually not a smile at all. American dentistry and beauty pageants are inadvertently doing terrible harm to Americas relationship with the rest of the world by creating a subconscious impression that even the most caring and gentle American is, in fact, a wild beast that wants to eat you.

Ultimately this a 'media smile'-the average person on the street is encouraged to get one, but thankfully doesn't practice it in its full flesh eating glory-they actually still use their eyes (see below) to smile at the same time. If you also get botox though, half the natural movement of your face that you need for a more natural smile gets frozen out and people actually have to be brazen enough to look you in the eye to see if you are really smiling or not.

So-whats a real smile? I was very privileged to have worked for many years teaching art to people with a range of disabilities-some of whom could only communicate with their eyes. And thats where a smile really lives-in the eyes. I like it when people smile with their eyes. Its warm and makes immediate emotional contact. It expresses multiple layers of feeling (from sad smiles to sheer joy).

Now-you smile with your eyes (well, from what I saw on our meeting in London last year). I like that. But the industry you are in is increasingly getting more carnivorous by the looks of things, and if you need to impress some media people a British smile will not go down the same way. Its not a measure of likability or emotional contact-its a measure of plastic 'beauty' and your ability to be top carnivore. Its like the designer suits and swish business cards in the film 'American Psycho'. You don't give them your business card because you think they might like you and want to keep in touch-you give it to them to show yours is better/more expensive and they are therefore trash compared to you.

If you want to be part of the 'beautiful people' that smile is essential (as is learning to hug in as cold and as distant a way as possible with minimal body contact while you look over the persons shoulder and mouth how much you hate them to someone behind them with a knife). People will envy you and do the same smiles and hugs back to you.

If you want to be liked, trusted or admired-stay clear of the plastic beauty temptation, or only take it a little way along -whitening a smile a little but not showing the world how white it is all the time, looking after your skin and body but avoiding more extreme modification. Thats my take on it-for what its worth.

[bytepilot.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous girl, sweet darling boot, whose very presence turns my blood to fire and my knees to water* you are already beautiful beyond words.

*Thus causing steam to emerge from my ears