In an industry where more is better, why should we feel sorry for talentless folk who try to become famous this way?

Jan 15, 2015 15:48 GMT  ·  By
Andressa Urach was left with holes in her thighs after the fillers rotted the tissue
   Andressa Urach was left with holes in her thighs after the fillers rotted the tissue

Plastic surgery is a topic that never stops being interesting or even downright fascinating; even though it’s no longer taboo and every Joe or Jane can now afford to go out and get whatever procedure they want and would make their lives better, in one way or another, it still catches the eye. It still holds headlines.

We’re not going to get into what drives people to go under the knife, whether it’s for health considerations or purely aesthetic reasons. We shouldn’t judge anyone who gets work done for either reasons, because it is their body and their choice, and we have no right to project our judgment onto them. Because it is ours.

However, I feel this conversation plays out differently in the case of someone who got a lot of plastic surgery with the sole goal in mind of being famous, and who is now crying crocodile tears in the media, preferably after a massive botched intervention, begging for our understanding and sympathy.

They did it for fame

That would be the case of Miss Bumbum 2012 finalist, a former glamor girl named Andressa Urach, but you can find examples among US celebrities as well – look no farther than reality star Heidi Montag.

Montag underwent 10 procedures in a single day, just so she could have a new story to sell to the media, that of her transformation into a real-life Barbie girl. When interest in it faded, which was bound to happen at one point, she flipped it around and attempted to gain public sympathy with a “woe me” tale of how she would have never gotten the surgeries had she known the complications that might appear. Specifically, she was referring to how her implant would fall out through her skin if she chose them too big, which is obviously exactly what she’d done.

The fact that her surgeon had died in the meantime meant that there was no one to contradict her when she said she had not been properly informed. It is unfathomable that a board-certified plastic surgeon, with only celebrity clients, would overlook this very important step in the process.

Urach too has had some very nasty experiences with plastic surgery: after her stint on Brazil’s biggest butt “beauty pageant,” she started to polish her appearance and ultimately got fillers injected into her thighs and backside. They made her more famous, more popular, more bankable.

On the downside, those fillers rotted her tissue and she was told she had to have them removed before they killed her. In the process, an infection took over and she went into septic shock, and today, she’s left with gaping holes in her thighs. Literally.

A sad tale, a warning for all – but pay up first!

Today, the first interview with Urach since her emergency hospitalization came out, in which she speaks from her mother’s home on her recovery, her ordeal and her new meaning in life, after she “died” and begged God for another chance.

I don’t doubt that what she’d gone through must have been incredibly painful and horrible, or that she’s still in a lot of pain. I also don’t doubt her when she says she’s sorry she could ever be this vain as to blatantly ignore warnings from doctors telling her that “enough is enough.”

What I do not buy into is this obvious attempt at getting public sympathy, as if she’s the survivor of some terrible disease or accident. She even brands herself a “survivor.” Just as badly as she would have hated us for judging her when she got the fillers (her body, her choice and all that), she is now asking for our sympathy, empathy and attention.

Ironically, she does this while cashing in, because I assume she didn’t just give an exclusive interview without asking to be paid first. Montag has long admitted to being paid for all the media appearances she’s ever done, since day one, when MTV’s The Hills put her on the map.

No sympathy

Famous women (and men) who get ridiculous amount of cosmetic work for the sole purpose of being famous and who suddenly wake up to find out that all those things they chose to ignore when first told about them can and do come true, don’t deserve sympathy. They get a lot of it, but they don’t deserve it.

Turning themselves into surgery freaks was their choice and they should own it and its consequences. Moreover, they’re trying to manipulate the public for profit because, even if they do believe the things they say, they’re still saying them for money.

Their stories are indeed cautionary tales, because they serve to prove the danger of being too extreme with plastic surgery. They should only be taken as such.