Plastic Surgery Perils -- the Ones You Never Think About

For my 50th, I got together with a group of friends from grade school, some of them going back to kindergarten, to celebrate. After the party, one of them e-mailed some pictures, most of them close-ups of the women.
I was horrified.
I had never seen so many wrinkles around my eyes – the darn camera, no doubt – and I ordered him to stop disseminating the pictures among other friends.
Too late. Speedy-fingers had sent out copies even to the nuns in our old school.
But guess what? I've never gotten so many compliments on a picture.
For one thing, everyone seemed to agree it accurately portrayed me. This is what they saw when I stood in front of them.

My photographer friend said it reflected "character" (he obviously didn't mind digging himself deeper into a hole.) His youngest sister was particularly effusive, saying I looked "beautiful" (I probably reminded her of her mother.)
So I didn't look like the young pup I felt like, but at least people saw me as me.
Which is a long way of saying that plastic surgery may beautify, but in such a clone-like manner that your loved ones may think you've been robbed of your essence.
In fact, I once wrote a story about the perils of plastic surgery after Ashley Tisdale came down with a case of Jennifer Grey syndrome – in fixing her nose, she got rid of the one feature that made her special in the eyes of many.
Bland! Plain! Average! And those were the nicest comments she got from celebrity bloggers.
For the same story, I spoke to plastic surgery patients who said they got similar reactions from friends and relatives. One mother said her son got mad at her because she didn't look like "mom" anymore. Another woman said her friends mourned the loss of her old looks. "You don't look like yourself," was a common reaction, more reproach than compliment.
Not every boyfriend or husband was as elated as the patient. One woman was shunned at a family reunion for erasing the nose that was the distinctive trait shared among relatives.
Meryl Streep and other Hollywood actresses may have no choice. But they can still control their impulses (and their plastic surgeons.)
Watching the Kennedy Center Honors recently on television, I couldn't help comparing Streep, who presented Robert DeNiro his award, to Sharon Stone, who also spoke in honor of her co-star in "Casino."
Meryl looked fresh, but her age, despite any artificial enhancements. Stone, who is my age, looked mask-like, as close to a Stepford wife as you can get. She also bore a strange resemblance to Diane Sawyer (!!!)
I vote for character any day.