We have all heard the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but regardless of how common the saying is, we tend to judge books, people, cars, restaurants, hotels, etc., by their cover. This is especially true for people. Attractive people catch our attention. Unattractive people have a harder time
In 2013, there were more than 23 million esthetische operaties worldwide. Botox was the number one procedure of those 23 million. The countries that performed the most procedures were, in order, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Germany and Spain. 20 of the 23 million were operaties for women and 3 million for men. Some of the most popular procedures were Botox, borstoperaties, ooglidoperaties, and neusoperaties.
So why is uiterlijk, or appearance, more important than innerlijk? What is it that makes us invest so much money on our appearance, whether that is with kleding, make up, haarstyling, and esthetische chirurgie? Why is it that the really nice person who may not be so attractive isn’t the one we are eyeing when we go out to a bar?
Frankly, I don’t know and I also don’t judge. I know people who’ve had a bump from their nose removed, who want a borstoperatie because they just feel too insecure with no cleavage or because their breasts are too big, who had a moedervlek removed because of a terrible joke during infancy, who tried Botox because it didn’t seem like a bad idea. These same people I am talking about are beautiful and healthy people who only want a little bit of a fix-upper to boost confidence or better health.
There are also thousands if not millions of people who need esthetische chirurgie because of illness. Many women have borstoperaties after suffering breast cancer, or burn wounds, abuse or accidents. I am glad there are enough medical advances for all types of men and women to feel better about their appearance. Who am I to judge why they want to look a certain way?
Useful Vocabulary:
uiterlijk– exterior
innerlijk– interior
esthetische chirurgie– plastic/esthetic surgery
de borstoperatie– breast surgery
de neusoperatie– nose surgery
de ooglidoperatie– eye lid surgery
de moedervlek- mole/birthmark
