My friend Irene got a boob job. I suppose as soon as the bandages come off and the oozing stops, she'll look very much like the images that encouraged the operation in the first place. We've always had divergent concepts of beauty. She never leaves the house unless she's fully made up. I barely manage to wash my face and comb my hair most days. She took me once to a department store cosmetics counter for one of those free makeovers. Irene and the counter lady (some European chick with a funky name) ooohed and aaahed over me, telling me this was an easy routine that would only take five minutes each morning. I couldn't figure out how they came up with that since I sat in the fucking chair for over an hour while Eurochick glopped her commissioned wares all over my face. I got home that day feeling like the man in the iron mask and immediately ran for the sink. Irene was, of course, disappointed but resigned to my dismal failure as a makeup goddess.

This was the day we talked about her tits. She told me that she was getting breast implants. I tried to contain my revulsion at the idea. I guess the eyes rolling into the back of my head and the retching sounds gave me away. What's the big deal? That was her question to me. So I began to tell her how sad I thought it was that there's an entire generation of men who've come of age jerking off to plastic tits on over-exercised, under-fed bodies. How women have succumbed to this and see their bodies as inferior products, something to be "fixed."

I told her that I was disturbed by the growing numbers of women who shaved, powdered, douched, enlarged, nipped, tucked, lipo-sucked. Well, you get the idea. I explained that I thought the perfect man is one who adores the imperfect woman. One who is happy to lose himself in soft, fleshy mounds of breast and who inhales unperfumed snatch with gusto. I told her how I thought it was much sexier to have swollen lips from sucking cock than from collagen injections, how blush on the cheeks from a good morning screw was about all the makeup any girl should care to put on.

Mostly I tried to tell her how absolutely beautiful she was. Her breasts were gorgeous. I'd seen them many times over the years we'd been friends. Delicately curved, each dotted with a small rosebud nipple. I told her what a pity it would be to butcher them, to deform them. She just took a long sip of her iced tea and told me very matter-of-factly that her mind was made up. I knew her well enough to believe her. We didn't discuss it again.

She's at home now, wrapped up with some sort of elastic bandage thing that makes her look a bit like Elsa Lanchester. I'd brought over a copy of "The Birth-mark" for her, still trying to make my point, even after the fact. I was just about to pull it out of my bag and slap it down on the bed when I noticed how unhappy she looked. I asked if she was all right and she started to cry. She told me it was much more complicated than she thought it would be. I stuck my book down into the bottom of the bag as far as it would go, ashamed that I can be such a bitch sometimes. I just sat there holding her hand. I told her yes. It was all much more complicated than we thought.

From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com


That's so beautifully written. I want to show it to all my friends who want surgery now.

The line about swollen lips made my day too, I just can't stop smiling. :)
-Amanda

From: [identity profile] meester-gone.livejournal.com

Beauty in the eye


Truly, both men and women have their own concepts of beauty. I'm a man who sees the reflection of the personality shine through to either enhance or detract from the natural beuaty of a woman.
Sounds like you are trying to support your friend either way, and that's all you can do as a friend.
Kudos to you Catelin. Be yourself, let her be who she is. :)

From: [identity profile] dalibor.livejournal.com

two-mind me


I was just getting set to write a seething diatribe against silly cones (that's one of the few things I hate with an irrational passion) when I read the end...

Don't blame everything us guys. It's often your perception of what we think. It's true, we got pics in our head, and what turns us on one-on-one is often an entirely different matter; and often there's this comment from highschool times still rankling, girls comparing their boobs and making disparaging remarks... just stories I've heard (about small/sagging/huge/medium, etc. ones).

Back here the only ones that get boob jobs is prostitutes (prostitution being legal, you don't get many strip bars here). I know how fake boobies feel, and it's about as erotic as inflated rubber balls. Still, I'm sorry for her...
ext_53723: (Default)

From: [identity profile] catelin.livejournal.com

Re: two-mind me


"Silly Cones" I love that! I don't think the blame for the media-created ideals of attractiveness falls more heavily on one side of the gender line than the other. I think men get the same pressure. Everyone seems to buy into it equally. But I do agree with you that each of us usually forgets the stereotype in our personal interactions with one another. We find different shapes, sizes, and forms appealing in spite of the hype. The individual transcends the masses...and that is ALWAYS beautiful.

From: [identity profile] blackhellkat.livejournal.com


sigh....that struck a nerve. I am always a little sorry for these women that are so naturally beautiful yet unable to see themselves as such. I had aunt that was afraid to leave the house without applying make-up...it always seemed to me that it was a curse worse than prison.
ext_53723: (Default)

From: [identity profile] catelin.livejournal.com


Yeah, the makeup thing can get a little weird. I knew a girl who got up every morning two hours before her husband did so she could "put on her face." I don't think he's ever seen her without it. To each her own, I suppose. I'm just too lazy to bother with it most of the time.

From: [identity profile] verian.livejournal.com

Lovely piece of


writing. Did you use a tripod to take that photo and special film to make it sepia?
ext_53723: (Default)

From: [identity profile] catelin.livejournal.com

Re: Lovely piece of


Ha!! Sorry to disappoint you but the art director decided my hips were too boyish...they called in the body double.

From: [identity profile] verian.livejournal.com

Same thing happened


with the Arse of Michael Douglas in "Basic Instinct" and Julia Roberts body on the poster for "Pretty Woman". I'm sure you have very nice hips but these director types seem to think that they know what the public wants when the public isn't even sure.
.

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