I would like to preface this article by stating that I do not claim to have a say in what other women decide to do with their bodies, their money, or their time. I also do not blame or look down upon others for not being comfortable in their own skin, as I have faced that very same feeling.
That said, I think the removal of buccal fat is unnecessary and harmful to the women who encourage or perform this surgery. Buccal fat, which helps mold the shape of your face, is the fat located between your cheeks and jawbones. While buccal fat is present in everyone, some people have more than others. Surgery to reduce facial fat in this area is known as buccal fat reduction.
As most women are aware, the process of gaining weight or looking older has been renowned as something to be slowed down or annihilated altogether. On social media platforms, the all-the-rage skincare trends often involve slimming the face or making the person in question appear younger. The obsession with perfection has plagued the minds of men and women for ages, and this trend is yet another insult to injury.
Too much buccal fat removal, according to plastic surgeons, can cause a person to look empty or prematurely older, especially if there wasn't much buccal fat to begin with. Such tendencies in plastic surgery uphold unrealistic beauty ideals.
With the idea of unrealistic beauty standards in mind, it brings to full effect the willingness people have to waste money and mental health in order to be "pretty". Did we not learn our lesson from cheap magazines stating that you could lose pound after pound, so long as you follow a strict, unyielding diet? And said diet, ultimately destroying your relationship with food, just to look like Vogue's latest cover model?
With body dissatisfaction linked to depression, anxiety, suicide, smoking, eating disorders, alcoholism, and drug abuse, as well as appearance-based discrimination linked to an increased risk of poor mental health, toxic beauty standards can have a profound and dangerous impact on people's lives and livelihoods. It's important to remember that everyone is different. Everyone has body fat, whether it's in the face or the lower abdomen. Everyone covets looks at one point or another. It's human nature! We all want what we can't have, but we have the power to work for it.
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