Heidi Montag, is a well renound television actress known for her beauty. Several years ago she decided to undergo extensive plastic surgery on her body, including her face and breasts. She portrays the qualities of a cyborg for using technology to change her body, a shape shifter for changing her image, and a femme-fatale for her beauty.
"I was made fun of when I was younger, and so I had insecurities, especially after I moved to L.A. People said I had a "Jay Leno chin"; they'd circle it on blogs and say nasty things. It bothered me. And when I watched myself on The Hills, my ears would be sticking out likle Dumbo! I just wanted to feel more confident and look in the mirror and be like, "Whoa! That's me!" I was an ugly duckling before."
-Heidi Montag
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/14/heidi-montags-10-plastic_n_423855.html
Here are additional photos of Heidi Montag during her plastic surgery.
Plastic Surgery Photos
Why do you think someone who is already considered attractive would go to such lengths to change her appearance? What does this say about societies standards of beauty? Do you think our standards of beauty are artificial and unachievable without plastic surgery? Do you think she is more shapeshifter, cyborg or femme fatale?
Quinn McCann
Caleb Zaydak
Andrea Marcus
No matter how attractive someone is, they are always trying to be or look better. Some women do not see how beautiful they truly are because they have been looking at the same appearance for their entire lives and they feel like they are just ordinary. Obviously some women have a problem with being just ordinary. They want to strive to the next level to be extraordinary, like Heidi did. Heidi in my eyes is most like a shapeshifter because she transformed a very good portion of her body. I think everyone has their own aspect of beauty and their own insecurities to go along with them. A person could be the most beautiful human to one person and the ugliest to the next, so to say just one statement about beauty and plastic surgery is not enough. I think some plastic surgery is great and makes a person a work of art and for others not so much. Plastic surgery is done because a particular person wants it done and if they feel better about themselves after then that's all that matters. Heidi has more confidence, but I personally though she looked just fine before her surgery. Women need to realize that they beautiful just the way they are and if they don't then they can do whatever they want with their body because it is their body and their money.
ReplyDeleteHeidi Montag should have found her own definition of beauty, instead of looking to her critics and society to tell her what is beautiful. Critics will criticize everyone, so Heidi changing her body will do nothing to stop them. Heidi should have gone to see a therapist if she had such a negative self image of herself. Only then if she still felt terrible about her body should she have gotten plastic surgery. At the very least she should have gotten just one surgery first, then determined if she wanted the others. She also should have listened to her husband. His opinion should matter to her above anyone elses, because he should have her best interest at heart. He should see her inner beauty. Society's version of beauty is too unattainable. I do not believe that there is anyone in the world that every single person thinks is beautiful. Someone would always have a problem with them. Everyone is beautiful in their own way, and they should not listen to what critics say about them.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why Heidi Montag even decided to get plastic surgery! She was gorgeous before and once she had surgery she looked faked. Her boobs are obviously too big for her body and don't make her look hotter at all. There was no reason for her to do the surgery in the first place. Yes every woman has self-esteem issues and accepting who you are is a battle within itself. Changing yourself just because someone doesn't like a quality about you isn't a good reason to change. We are all made differently and those differences make us each unique. Why change them? To be beautiful is possible without the use of surgery. Montag is more of a cyborg to me because she has different parts to her body than what she did before.
ReplyDeleteI think Heidi Montag did what she believed would make her to feel better with herself, and once we have resources available (medical and financial) there are no reasons for not to use them. I would consider normal someone decides to increase the boobs (of course, without exaggeration!), improving something in the face, like the nose for example if it bothers you, or anything else. But I believe women are exaggerating a little bit, looking for perfection in everything and I don't think this is healthy. They are always trying to feel beautiful (having their own concept of beauty) considering the face of someone that they think is beautiful, the curves of another woman they consider adequate, and so on... which means that sometimes women create something so perfect that it seems hard to be achieved (almost impossible) without plastic surgery. I think Montag is a cyborg because of so much transformation (and I am not sure it if worth ), because she was beautiful before all of it and she was more natural. I also think she should have considered her husband's opinion - although we know that at least a great part of women are worried specially about what they think of themselves, even though men think they are fine. I believe that Montag can be considered a femme fatale too, because she looks sexy - but I would say that this is because she considers herself sexy now... so, if someone believes that a plastic surgery will make her or him to feel better, maybe it will. But who considers to have a plastic surgery should above all, consider the risks... does this unachievable beauty worth the price of your life? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteI see a strong correlation between Heidi Montag and the body builder/creatine junkie from two posts ago. She looked very pretty before. She had an natural and healthy look. But because of her insecurities that were, in part, due to fabrications people made about her apperance, she decided to use unnatural means to go overboard on her appearance and now she is fake looking. This is similar to the meathead in the Lenevue's group's post because I think a reason that many body builders get so big is to compensate for some kind of insecurity. They feel that if they are so big and so strong, that they must be the best. Of course, this is a large generalization but I know that it applies to some of them. I think she was more attractive before the surgery. She looked natural, and that is the best look. After her surgery she looks fake. She looks like some porn star bimbo who got work done to sell their bodies. Personally, if she would open her mouth and say something I would have a very hard time taking her seriously because her decision making must be impaired. She must be stupid to think that those huge silicone bags are attractive.
ReplyDeleteThe question was: Why do you think someone who is already considered attractive would go to such lengths to change her appearance? It's simple. One she is very insecure and two she cares what people thinks of her. That's the problem with today's society! Who cares what people say or think about you as long as YOU know your beautiful that's all that matter. But I guess in Heidi Montag's case she didn't even think she was beautiful so I guess she had to do what she had to do. But she could have at least weighed her options and if she did decide plastic surgery was absolutely necessary then DON'T OVER DO IT.! To me she looks less attractive than before. Mainly because she looks fake and stupid. With that being said I would say that she is a cyborg because she has new parts that wasn't originally hers but also a shape shifter because she has way more confidence now than she had before.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I think she looks better before the super fake looking plastic surgery. I dont understand why people go to such lengths and monetary investments to put themselves through these procedures. The fact is, these people dont look more attractive. They end up looking inhuman and unrealistic. The fact that these super celebrities have to get more and more attractive shows that society puts up unrealistic expectations for the women in society. If the average person sees these already attractive women having plastic surgery, it says to them that they defiantly are not attractive enough and that they are not good enough as they are. this leads to problems with eating disorders and self image that cause serious psychological and physical harm to the women of our society. So if we want to change the way society looks at itself, we have to start at the top. Start with the celebrities.
ReplyDeleteI find it very disturbing that she decided to get plastic surgery because she was so beautiful. And personally, I no longer find her attractive. I realize not everyone is familiar with her TV show The Hills, but i watched from beginning to end and she lost a lot of her friends after her surgery. Not because of her looks, but because her confidence changed. She was an extremely confident person until she started dating her boyfriend, then got plasrtic surgery and gained a false, manipulated self-confidence. She was a femme fatale but shape shifted into a cyborg, physically and mentally. But truthfully, I feel really bad for her. Yes she's rich and privileged, all before being on televison, but being in the public eye probably forced her to have an altered image of her self. She was a beautiful girl who completely changed her body and looks literally plastic. What message does this send to the young women who watched her show? And, i hate to say it, looked up to her. In my opinion, even if you have extremely low, almost non existant self-confidence, getting plastic surgery that severe is not worth the "fake" confidence you'll gain...especially since younger women look up to you (Heidi).
ReplyDeleteRarely do I look at a woman post plastic surgery and think she looks worse. Actually, this might be the only case. Although she may have made these changes because she was insecure and had no self-confidence, I still don't understand why they needed to be so extreme. She was definitely a physically attractive woman before the surgeries but, afterward, she can't even be considered real. I would guess that the dull expression on her face in the post surgery picture is stuck there, and it's just awkward. Speaking of awkward, the two extrusions on her chest are a little ridiculous too. With that being said, I still don't really blame her for the bad "role models" young girls have these days. If you think about it, someone had to have inspired her to look like this, so the fake, "barbie doll" look has deeper roots than our generation (although we have definitely caused its rise in popularity). Honestly, I don't think our societies perception of beauty is near as artificial as this picture suggests. Just read the previous posts, almost everyone agrees that she looks worse. It would have been very interesting to have known what Heidi was thinking before these surgeries. Who was she actually trying to impress? For the part of society that actually cares about this, the majority despise Heidi for the drastic changes, so clearly the changes didn't better her public image.
ReplyDeleteI would consider Heidi as more of a shape shifter than a femme fatale. The pressure on her from people and especially the competition in Hollywood forced her to take such a step. According to her statement she was very conscious about her looks. I think she looked attractive before and even after the surgery. It mostly depends on what you think a beautiful woman should look like. A person looking beautiful to me might not be as beautiful to another person. A person can be beautiful without having to use artificial means.
ReplyDeleteI believed that the Lane Bryant model was beautiful even though she had curves, but ABC did not show that ad because she was not as perfect as the other slim and skinny and sexy models. Therefor e the perception of beauty is being set by the media in which Heidi got caught too and made her to take a step which I believe was unnecessary because she was beautiful as she was before.
I feel sorry for Heidi in the way she grow up with people making fun of her chin, but that is no reason to change your physical appearance. I believe everyone one time or another is teased growing up about the way they look. Children at that age don’t really realize what they are saying and how that affects others. However, once you become an adult, the teasing, most of the time, stops. Heidi’s picture before the plastic surgery is extremely beautiful and most guys would cut off their arm to be with a girl like her. It’s possible that the people who were making fun of her chin were jealous of her and her looks, so poking fun of her was a way for them to make themselves feel better. On the other hand, I believe Heidi’s decision of getting plastic surgery is one of the most insecure things that she can or, in fact, anyone can do. Everyone was made in their one unique way and changing your physical appearance just tells everyone that you are not happy with yourself and you are conscious of what others think of you. Heidi’s appearance now looks very superficial and manufactured and I feel very sorry for her because she was a beautiful girl before the surgery.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely consider Heidi a shapeshifter. She changed her appearance in many ways so that she could look exactly how she wanted to. And I would agree and say that I feel sorry for Heidi as well. Most likely, people were just jealous of her and her success, so they had to try to publicly humiliate her. That happens with almost all celebrities. All famous people will have people that don't like them and will do those things. But I feel sorry for Heidi because she did not realize how beautiful she really was without all the plastic surgery and felt like she had to go to extreme lengths to feel confident in herself. Sadly, this is the world we live in. Most people feel forced to do stuff that would make themselves more appealing for other people. It is driven by this false stereotype of what beauty really is. On the other hand, I feel like people like Heidi Montag further push the stereotype of how society views beauty in the wrong direction with their pursuit to look "perfect". Here we see and extreme of someone going to great lengths to fall under society's standards of beautiful. However, almost everybody changes their appearance in some way. Another question is, where do you draw the line between just trying to look nice and actually becoming fake and overdoing it?
ReplyDeleteI think that what Heidi did was more for publicity than for anything else. The reason everyone knows who she is now is because of her extreme surgery. Although I think this is the main reason she did the surgery, I also think that there was some truth in how she felt insecure. Everyone in today's society has a problem with themselves. When we look in the mirror, a majority of the time we are looking at the flaws in our appearance, I know I am guilty of doing it as well. We need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves or the way we look and just be thankful for the things that we were blessed with. Heidi is setting a bad example for younger generations because if we look at her before pictures, a lot of people would think that she is extremely attractive. Not everyone is born with beauty like hers and to go and change it just because she may not have the absolute "perfect" body in her mind is just a shame.
ReplyDeleteHeidi Montag is a shapeshifter no doubt. However, I feel she took it to an extreme. I feel that plastic surgery is not a necessity, especially when Heidi really didn't even need it. I believe plastic surgery should be for those rare situations where it is practical, such as someone who experienced breast cancer and through the emotional ride would like to have plastic surgery to feel like a woman again, or even if someone needs liposuction for health reasons. It shouldn't be for just when someone doesn't like a feature on their body and decides to change it. Everyone has imperfections and features they don't like; so what is she trying to say, everyone should run to the nearest plastic surgeon and fix that feature? Absolutely not, that is ridiculous, and crazy. We are not made to be perfect and we are not expected to fix those imperfections, however we are to see them as something that makes each one of us unique and I feel the way we adapt and accept these differences is what makes us strong individuals. Plastic surgery for Heidi, definitely made her less attractive, and in my eyes less of a femme fatal. Just because she fixed one part of her body that people criticized,doesn't mean that they won't just criticize something else now. As soon as that happens, does she plan on changing that too? I feel that she let the image of what she wanted to look like, based on people's opinions, take over who she is, and that is sad. She let the public persuade her in what her body should look like and that is unfortunate. Can body building be compared to plastic surgery? Sure, it can but to a degree. I think the purpose to why one is doing it, is what the deciding factor is and to what extent, which it is taken.
ReplyDeleteThis shows how extreme body transformations are changing the way society thinks about beauty. Heidi Montag was claerly naturally pretty but felt ugly in a world where unnatural beauty is what is seen as attractive. In a normal situation she probablly would have flourished in her beauty and not had these issues, but because the world of Hollywood today is so obessed with perfection that any small things that would normally make a person uniquely attractive are seen as major flaws that cause insecurity. Thus this in no way femme fetale as she is giving in herself to fit society's ideals. It is moer shape shifter or cyborg as these apply to her changing her form to appease society. I definitly think this is some female equivalent to steroids though as it is a female's way to make herself feel empowered just as steroids and bodybuilding do.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how beautiful a woman is, she always wants to be more beautiful. This may be caused by people’s desire to get better. I think such idea is not wrong but I do not agree with what Heidi did to her body. She was beautiful. But after the extreme plastic surgery, I do not think that she is more attractive. Honestly, I think she got lost in her plastic surgery. I understand why she wanted to do the surgery. I totally agree with her to do the plastic surgery if she can face the past after the change. However, the confidence she had by plastic surgery is superficial. She is still not confident with herself except the appearance. The real confidence should be what Adele said about herself: “I don’t make music for eyes. I make music for ears.” Confidence doe not only means the one you have from your appearance. Heidi only used technology to lie to herself that she is confidant about who she is. Thus, I think she is a cyborg rather than a shape shifter and femme fatale
ReplyDeleteI can kind of see Heidi Montag's point on how she reasons with herself over all of this plastic surgery. Whether this was the right decision though, I would have to disagree. It is much better to accept who you are as a person, and live through the ridicule, rather than just give in and completely change the person that you are. On the other hand, if anyone was placed in the national spotlight and ridiculed on a constant basis, it would be hard to not think that something was wrong with you, and thus want to change something with your appearance. The sad thing is that this is what can happen in our society with the idea of what is beautiful. Everyone has their own perception of what exactly is beautiful. The bigger problems lies in the fact that if someone does not fit this standard, they can be set up for ridicule from the surrounding public. Celebrities are especially susceptible to this. Lastly, for me, it is clear that Heidi is a shape-shifter. She has completely altered her physical appearance to fit to what everything thinks is right, without listening to her inner self.
ReplyDeleteHeidi's transformation seems to make her more of a cyborg than either femme-fatale or shape-shifter. Heidi was a femme-fatale before her surgery, her natural beauty was enough for "old world" standards. I partially consider her a shape-shifter because she did change her shape, permanently. Heidi is more a cyborg because of all of the artificial components that now comprise her stunning physique. In our time it is questionable what physical parts of a person are natural and which are "enhanced" via plastic surgery. Heidi is very well a barbie-doll now, before she was a genuinely attractive woman. But this a product of our society, our megalomania as humans; we never stop pursuing our idealizations of ourselves. A real question that we need to ask ourselves is "at what point to does our pursuit of 'good' become ill-mannered and irrelevant?" For every technological breakthrough and enhancement, there seem to be at least two or three problems that are by-products of the discovery.
ReplyDeleteI consider she's a shapeshifter due to her incredible change of her breast. Honestly, I can't agree that she becomes more beautiful after her plastic surgery of her chest, they are super abnormal for me. And also i don't think most of the girls would like to have this kind of breast and let alone to be proud of them. The possible reasons of her having the surgery to maximize her breast are , first, as she said above ,she's pretty insecure about them, seems without bigger chest she would not feel confident when in front of people and plus, people made fun of her breast when she was younger. If this is the real reason for her to have this big change i would say she's superficial and shallow ! Yes, our society did form some wrong concept about beauty, yet there are still not of girls don't have those big breast but still can find their own beauty from anywhere else. She's easy influenced by the public and her self-esteem is fragile. And second reason i consider is because she wants to make herself famous by doing this awkward thing! Because when we see this picture of her huge breast, we will no doubt think it is abnormal and weird, and we are curious why this crazy woman wants to do this , who she is. Thus she can easily catch people's eyeballs.
ReplyDeleteI just realized that my comment did not submit. Originally I was going to agree with Brynli that, Heidi should've gone to a therapist rather than a plastic surgeon to agree with her insecurities. I think she looked way better as her natural self, her features distinguished her among her peers, and made her uniquely beautiful in my eyes. But after reading some later comments agreeing that she was beautiful to begin with, I realized that she really didn't think so. Then I started thinking that maybe she is happy with her bigger boobs. She wanted to make that change and she did, whether she was feeling internal pressure about her body, or whether is was the influence of the media about her body, she decided to make that change. I agree that the media has certainly influenced people's perceptions of beauty, but as we all agreed about the Lane Bryant ad, beauty is in the ey of the beholder, and Heidi is the one who had to make that distinction for herself as to whther or not she felt beautiful or was beatiful. Maybe the changes she made to her body and face made her feel more like the woman she wanted to be, or maybe she feels she went to far. But ultimately when she looked in the mirror she wasn't satisfied, or wasn't happy. Brad made a good point that she was subjected to more ridicule and judgement than those of us not in the limelight, but at the same time, this was her decision to make about whether or not she felt beautiful at theat moment. I agree with everyone else that she is definitely a shape-shifter, and a cyborg because of the changes she made, but I would also argue that she is also a femme-fatale, because whether we agree with it or not, she saw what she wanted, and she went after it, which in my mind is very femme-fatale-esque.
ReplyDeleteShe looked like a nice girl. Now she looks like a sex object. Why anyone would rather look like a sex object than a nice girl is beyond me.
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