Women are jealous creatures, no two ways around it.
Oh, you got a great new haircut? Awesome. You look great. *Books hairdressing appointment immediately*
Whether it’s new shoes, weight loss, job promotion, or a surprisingly good looking date; those initial warm snuggly feelings of You Go Girl are usually followed by the sting of jealousy.
And the easiest way to manage that is to go out and chase a similar win. I see those shoes, Becky, and I raise you this fabulous suede side bag complete with this knockoff Fendi fluffy keychain, mmk? And so on.
But what happens when someone you know gets plastic surgery..and looks fabulous?
From my perch in the anti-surgery camp, it has always been my stance to tsk-tsk any celebrity who goes under the knife.
It’s always so obvious, so destructive, and usually – so unnecessary.
But as my peers and I slide down that slippery slope to 30, more and more are opting to smooth out the wrinkles in their egos (and their foreheads).
Just a wee bit, mind you. The odd jab of Botox here, the subtle breast lift there. Women I know who have self-consciously crossed their arms across flat chests for the last 30 years, are suddenly appearing confident and open. Others who were madly trying to cover up creased faces with fringes now appear relaxed and at ease. Slowly but surely I’m starting to fall of my self-righteous perch.
You see, something happens when it’s your friend getting the work done. Maybe it suspends an element of judgement. Or maybe – and I hate to admit this – you just know them well enough to see the positive changes in their personalities after getting it done.
Now say hello to jealousy surgery.
Mamamia Out Loud on plastic surgery. (Post continues after video)
Fresh off the press this week is the news that former Baywatch star Nicole Eggert got DD breast implants in the 90’s – because she was jealous of co-star Pamela Anderson.
Baywatch producer Michael Berk spilt the beans to the Hollywood Reporter this week, noting Eggert copied Pammy’s famous chest because she ‘felt the pressure’.
“Nicole Eggert felt a little bit competitive with Pam,” says Berk. “She had a beautiful athletic body but didn’t have big boobs at all. Maybe she was feeling a little bit of pressure. There was a holiday weekend and for a couple of days she called in sick afterward. Then she showed up back on the set having gotten a boob job.”
Looking at the pair on the show, both Pamela and Nicole were both lithe, brown, beautiful – but sure enough, Pammy won out in the chest department. It was her one-up on sporty Nicole.
So how is it any different for the rest of us, when our friendship circle decides to start modifying their face and bodies?
Will we also fall prey to the green eyed monster?
We all have our cross to bear when it comes to body gripes.
Me? I hate the bags under my eyes. They are omnipresent, unshifted by sleep, or fancy eye creams, or frozen green-tea-teabags (and trust me, I’ve tried that method extensively). It is quite simply part of the fabric of my face and something I’ve learnt to get used to.
But all of that changed a few weeks ago when my good pal Tara* revealed to me that she actually had filler injected into her eye bags, effectively ridding her of them for almost a year. I was flabbergasted. Having never dabbled in Botox or the like, my naive understanding of the whole exercise was to freeze, not fade.
But, having conducted my own (VERY ENTHUSIASTIC) research, she’s bloody well right. These subtle injections lift up the delicate skin under your eye, and reduce darkness and puffiness.
There I was. A devout anti-surgery-stalwart, Googling ‘under eye injections’. The jealousy was real.
At the end of the day, the social psychology behind jealousy-driven or peer-pressure inspired surgeries boils down to a simple concept: safety in numbers.
For many women, the idea of ‘fixing’ or altering something about their bodies is marred only by the fear of something going wrong. Or someone judging them. Or appearing vain to their peers.
So, it makes logical sense that once one member of the circle admits to a cosmetic procedure or surgery, an unwritten code is broken. The floodgates are opened, so to say, and the rest of the group feels a certain sense of urgency to fulfill their body mods, too.
But one-upping your girlfriend with a wicked pair of heels sure is a lot different than toting a new pair of DDs, my friend.
For starters, shoes are much cheaper.