Waxing Philosophical on The Cult of Beauty, Whitewashing and Big Noses ...

I often joke that I live in a place where there's more plastic in a square mile than there is in an international Tupperware convention. But when I really think about it, it's not funny. The cult of beauty in Pereira (and probably all of Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela, in particular) is, for lack of a better word, frightening.
Women and men (though mostly women) go under the knife without a second thought. Qualified plastic surgeons abound in Colombia, and it's now a big international business. 20% of Bogota's tourism in 2009 was plastic surgery bound.
So what's the problem? What's the big deal about wanting to "improve" your looks?
This is where it's really hard to pinpoint that unsettled-stomach feeling I get whenever I hear about yet another "routine" surgery. But here it is (and I wish I could say "in a nutshell.")
Besides the fact that I really believe that plastic surgery is a Band-Aid for a slew of insecurities the person has (It's THE manifestation of total self doubt), it does something that is heart-breaking in the way of homogenizing diversity, leaving us with perky boobs, butts, and "button" noses, erasing anything remotely interesting about a person's looks. As if that weren't enough, I have a few thoughts on other things that really bug the hell out of me when it comes to plastic surgery.

Nose jobs: Nose jobs erase ethnicity. Think about Barbara Streisand and that very amazingly Jewish nose. Now picture her with a button nose. She's gone. She's become "plane Jane" and effectively erased her ethnic heritage. Other celebrities with big noses who simply wouldn't make the cut without them: Gisele Bundchen big-nosed Brazilian beauty, Penelope Cruz with the Spanish schnozzle, Jennifer Aniston with her Greek beak, Anne Hathaway with her hooter, Serena Williams with her African-American probiscis (No, there are no "a" nose words that I could find).
I could go on. But I'll spare you the nose synonyms.

Boob jobs and butt implants: WTF? That's all I can say.

Face lifts: Half the women I know who have them look incredibly surprised, all the time. Surprise! You forgot to age with grace.

Okay. It's clear I could go on and on and on, but the point of this is to bring it back to the book cover controversies of late. Being part of the book industry, I believe that there's a magic in this business. I believe that literature in all its forms somehow bucks societal expectations, pushing the envelope, surprising us with such magical gifts like: The Book Thief, The First Part Last, Gilead, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. And both readers and writers get to feel like we're part of something bigger when we read (or write) a book that creates non-cliche characters; when we're surprised by a cast of humans that we can relate to -- of all colors, shapes, sizes, religions, races, ethnicity, insecurities, big noses, flat chests and butts, unkempt hair and more. So when our main character is a person of color and the cover of the book has a white person (hence whitewashing) because of lame-ass market studies, error ... whatever, it's like Massachusetts turning Republican: WAY DISAPPOINTING. (OK. Had to get my political jab in there.) But really, we expect more of the publishers because they're the ones leading us through the muck, taking risks on magic, and then pbbbbbt: Cover disaster.

It seems to me that the in a cult of beauty, true beauty is lost. And when our publishing houses buy into that beauty prototype and what "will sell," we feel sad, disappointed, and kind of hang our heads wondering what happened to our intrepid leader? What happened to the house that had the balls to publish A Clockwork Orange, knowing that it might not sell but should simply be out there in the world for people to read. (Okay. Yeah. It did sell, but the publisher had NO idea it would.)

I guess what I'm saying is we expect more.
So it's time to deliver.