The Nose Knows: A Struggle in Self-Acceptance
Last week we shouted out Caitlin Boyle of Operation Beautiful’s amazing efforts to change women’s body images for the better. Naturally, it got me thinking about the struggles I face when it comes to accepting my physical self.
Beak, schnoz, smeller, sneezer, snoot, snout…whatever you want to call it, that’s what I perceive to be my biggest physical flaw. Lest I provide a picture of myself (no, the woman featured here is not me), I’ll let you know that I have a relatively large nose. It has quite the surface diameter and is flat. My mom jokes that when I was younger I used to “press” my nose, which caused the flatness we see today. Pictures of my grandfather and his flat nose prove that she is, indeed, lying.
I think my biggest insecurity when it comes to my schnoz is that every woman in my family has had a nose job. Some were done for medical reasons and others strictly cosmetic, but it has often put me in a predicament of whether I should undergo the same. If I ever complain or joke about my nose, my mom replies with “that can always be changed!” Don’t get me wrong, my mom isn’t a rhinoplasty pusher by any means, and believe me, she has told me an infinite amount of times how beautiful I am as is, but her consistent comment that she supports a change always throws me for a loop.
Some days I have all the confidence in the world. But there are others when I feel terribly self-conscious as I stare at passerbys with their teeny tiny noses and silently wish I had the same. At the end of any day, I pride myself on being a positive person and I think that fully accepting myself is part of that. I am happy with who I am, but does that mean I’m not allowed to stress about my nose size every once in a while? Does contemplating a change make me any less positive or self-accepting?
-Lynden Halpern
GIRL TALK TIME: Are you happy with your body? What’s your biggest insecurity? Would you get plastic surgery?
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16 Comments
Post a CommentI agree with doing what makes you happy.
I am saving up money to have surgery myself
It’s my life and I deserve to fix what makes me unhappy
Do what makes you happy!
If I could get plastic surgery, I would get the fat sucked out of my love handles and put it in my flat pancake shaped booty.
I would never get plastic surgery. I would be happier if I could lose aroung 10-20lbs.
No way for plastic surgery. Happy with what God gave me. I could lose a few lbs though. Around 5lbs.
I’m most self conscious about my lower half – stomache and thighs because everything I eat goes straight there! I have never been the one or will ever do plastic surgery, but everyone is different. I just think if a person would do it, it should be for her or himself and not for anyone else.
Like you,there are days when I love my body and there are others when I hate it. My biggest insecurity is the size of my breast(or should I say ti tis). They are too small for me. I am a 32-a. I would def love to get them done. Not so huge that it becomes an exaggeration but at least I want to bump it up to a 34-A
Just an FYI when looking for bra sizes – A-size cups are still A-size, and the number (32, 34, etc.) is only the width of your chest below the cups (like around the top of your ribcage). (Surgery changes the cup size, or letter-size.) Since it’s important to have a well-fitting bra, that might help somewhat.
Im pretty comfortable with my body except for the fact that i think my boobs are too big, plan on getting them reduced….
I feel ok unit im around my friends.. they’re all perfect n barely weighing 100lbs. If I had the $ I would totally get plastic surgery.
For years I thought that I had a big nose. That my body didn’t fit me at all. Many years have gone by, and now I’m happy with my nose and with the rest of my body. All that matters is that you love yourself, no matter what your body is like and forget what other’s think or say. You are the one who has to live in your body, no one else!!!
i am happy with it but it can always look better. i would consider plastic surgery. i see nothing wrong with improving oneself if it will truly make you happy.
P.S. I don’t think that your mother’s statements that it “can be changed” should throw you for a loop, considering that you said that she only says this when you complain or joke about it. If YOU’RE the one who brings it up, she’s just reminding you that if you dislike it enough, you can have it changed.
It’s great to be comfortable with the body you were born with, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t still decide to get a cosmetic change when something unflattering may take precedent over your other features and you can’t change it by yourself (the way you can get in shape by eating better and working out). I’ll note that I don’t like the idea of surgery or procedures to look less like an ethnicity or race, and I’ve strongly disagreed when my best friend, who’s Chinese, has considered things like eyelid surgery to make her eyes look “less Asian.” However, when there’s an actual aesthetic flaw, I can understand deciding to have that fixed even if you’re comfortable with yourself. I was recently dating a guy for a few months who really had a terrible nose (this was from the side; I think a flat nose would be much less offensive), and while at first I was very happy with the rest of his positive qualities and I was able to overlook it, I still can’t understand why he wouldn’t get it fixed. (Especially since he commented once that he does have a deviated septum or similar impairment, which he thought also may have caused food to “taste better” when he chewed with his mouth open…something I was not fond of.) Like my mother said to me, it was great that he was confident enough about it to be happy with himself the way he was, but I still feel that when something was actually very unbecoming (like his nose), he didn’t have to look at it all that much himself (how often does he look in the mirror?), while someone with him a lot (such as a significant other) ends up having to look at it quite a bit. I don’t expect anyone to be “perfect” and I certainly know I’m not, and generally I’m completely all-for being comfortable in your own skin. Yet even when I was happy with him in general, I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t want to fix an obvious asthetic “flaw” to make himself look so much nicer. For myself, I AM planning to look into correcting scar tissue that caused a bump from the 3/4 view when I got my nose broken in high school about 12 years ago. I just want it back to the way it was before, and especially since it bothers me most in pictures, where I’m turning partway towards someone, and especially in pictures with my sister since we used to have nearly the same nose, I want to look into having it done before my sister’s wedding that they’re planning for late spring.
I was 41 years old when I finally decided to “get my nose done”. I’ve always hated my nose and was VERY self conscious about it. It was the first thing that popped out at me when I looked in the mirror. When I was a teenager a grown man made the following comment to me, “you’re very pretty, but you have a big nose”! That moment (and a few others) stuck with me. The decision to have the surgery was the best decision I’ve made! I’m no longer self conscious about my face and my self-confidence had finallly been lifted! Nothing beats that feeling! I say “go for it”!
I had a nose job about 20 years ago, and I love the results. It was money well-spent, and I am very happy I did it. I don’t look that different, but just different enough that people thought I was in love, or well-rested, or whatever. They knew I looked better, but not why. So I told them! I see nothing wrong with “tweaking” anything you’re unhappy about. I saved up for a few years, did my homework and got very good surgeons, and I’m still thrilled when I look at my “new” nose.