[source]
Melanie Berliet went undercover for Vanity Fair to learn a bit about the multi billion dollar US cosmetic surgery industry from the inside. She visited three plastic surgeons and asked what she should do to her face and body. One surgeon suggested US$33K worth of work. Melanie is 5 foot 9 and weighs 54kg. This is what happened…..
plastic surgery. I also suspected that plastic surgeons might tell me
otherwise. To test my hypothesis, I went undercover. In the process, I
hoped to learn something about what happens inside examination rooms
across New York City and, by extension, the United States. Are
teenybopper idols and those who emulate them freely choosing plastic
surgery? Or is plastic surgery choosing them?
Now the doctor and I stand in front of the floor-length mirror while
he deconstructs the “before” me. “As a Caucasian woman, you probably—if
you were doing lipo—would want this brought down,” he says, pointing to
my “banana rolls”—his clever name for the part of my rear end that
peeks from beneath my underwear lining. “And again, you know, in jeans,
to most people … on white women, you guys like to get this down. And we
like to see it down.” I gulp, realizing that I’ll never be able to eat
my favorite fruit again without thinking of my own ass.
Dr. Rapaport pinches me from
shoulders to knees before concluding: “You look absolutely nice, but,
even if I were a blind guy and put my hands here”—he seizes my
sides—“there are little lumps. This could be brought down just to give
you a little bit better of a curve.” These lumps, I learn, are my
“waist wads.” To his credit, Dr. Rapaport does note that my “waist
wads” are “borderline.” But, he says, “I’ve done supermodels with much
less than this. To them it was important. To each his own.”
Having reviewed my figure to his satisfaction, Dr. Rapaport
recommends liposuction on my outer thighs, love handles, and banana
rolls, which will set me back about $8,000. He also raises the
possibility of sucking the fat from my inner knees but does say after
more pinching that they’re actually “quite empty.”
The good news is that the lipo can be done at the same time as my breast augmentation. There’s something else: “Your breasts are definitely asymmetric. They’re not bad.”
Ultimately, Dr. Rapaport suggests silicone implants—one slightly
bigger, for my dwarfed left breast—to bring me to a full C or a small
D-cup. The cost for these is $13,000.
“Do you want me to talk about your face?”
No, I don’t wish to invite further blows to my ego. But what comes out of my mouth is: “Yes, I do.”
How Matt Moran Really Feels About Fast Food
What I Eat When
Top Comments
To be completely honest, I would LOVE to have this done to me, like, actually go under the knife. At 5 ft 1 in, and 64 kg, im bloody sick of myself, and my parents are most certainly not helping. Actually, neither am I seeing as I've been scrutinizing myself about my weight since I was 11.
I can't believe I actually said that. I want to go under the knife. And I'm bloody 14. Wait, no, I can, because I do.
sigh...she needs a psychiatrist, not a plastic surgeon.