The Cost of Vanity

Last Sunday, the 27th of March, a woman at 29, a businesswoman, died in an aesthetic medicine clinic, while undergoing liposuction. The news might have come as a signal of alarm to those who are enticed to beauty clinic medicines and procedures. The moral of the story is simple: “Not all beauty clinics are good.”

Why people become vain? If vanity is a chief driving force, then it must be a form of insecurity, if not due to a loss of self-confidence. Other clinicians claim that it is an external manifestation of depression. When you are tempted, not just by high-end designer logos, but also by clinical surgery, manipulation, and other forms of beauty medicine methods, for your face and body, then you must be one as the song says, “you're so vain.”

The downside is that, the more you become insecure in proving that you are more fortunate and endowed with beauty than others; and the more that you want to impress others to look highly at you and admire you as a “thing of beauty,” the more you are expected to end up draining your coffers by spending your hard-earned cash to improve the way you look. Vanity is one of those occasions when looking good leads to an empty wallet.

The social comparison theory

Experts in social psychology claim that we are constantly evaluating ourselves in relation to other people. It has two poles: The downward pole and the upward pole. You make yourself feel better when you view yourself as more fortunate than others. This is the downward pole. In the upward pole, you feel far worse about yourself when you see somebody more fortunate than you. Worse, you might even feel paranoid that someone is trying to outdo you. Upward pole in comparison theory can lead to vanity. The result: You find security and confidence by having those little symbols in your pair of sneakers and clothes. The high point: You end up having yourself sculpted through aesthetic procedures.

Your take-home message

Think of your own uniqueness as a person. Don't get insecure. The Desiderata clearly say: “… Do not compare yourself with others for you may become vain and bitter. For always, there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.” While you might think that you deserve to treat yourself by having some massage and maybe a foot spa, think twice before submitting your face and body to the plastic surgeon's knife. Think about these: “Who are you trying to please?” “Do you really need to validate that you look better than others?” “Is it really your gauge, that the more beautiful and stunning you look, the more you are to gain friends and allies?” “Is looking artificially beautiful, worth the financial sacrifice?”

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

“Someday when I'm feeling low and the world is cold, I will feel aglow just thinking of you, and the way you look tonight.” Jerome Kern (1885-1945) and Dorothy Fields (1905-1974), American songwriter and lyricist, “The Way You Look Tonight,” from the 1936 film, Swing Time