This is a personal account from inside the office of a plastic surgeon. These
waiting rooms and operating beds are now haunted by only the few, a subculture of less
than 5% of all Americans in the year 2000. But the desire, ability, and ease with which
humans will be able to transform their bodies is increasing exponentially, and soon
those who have blind-sided and usurped nature will no longer be unique or ostracized.

10,368,608. This is the projected number of Americans
who will undergo liposuction alone in the year 2012. This figure is nearly
30% of all citizens of the United States. In this world
where 30% of all humans have the power to reconstitute their "self", the plastic,
ageless body will become a potent force. Those who can remain young, sexy, and
timeless, will stand above and beyond the rest-of-us who are ravaged by time.

The number of people having cosmetic plastic surgery has
more than tripled in the last ten years.(5) And "plastic surgery has gone from
medical procedure to pop cultural event."(7) No longer do those whose vanity has lead
them under the knife need to cower in shame, rather they are exhibited and praised for
their ability "to keep up appearances"(7). America is transfixed by the youthful, the
sexual, the Hugh Hefners among us. In fact the Hugh Hefner
Playboy mansion culture is an archetypal example of the goals of a "plastic world".
While Hefner flaunts his use of Viagra and his surgical "touch-ups", he surrounds
himself with artificially enhanced girls. The bodies of the "bunnies" are nearly
indistinguishable, as each girl's "natural" body was molded by the blunt scalpel of
breast implants and
liposuction.

The increasing interest in the lifestyle of the "Hugh Hefners" could be tied to the
fact that "aging adults are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population and it is
estimated that by the year 2000, 20% of all people in the United States will be 65 or
older."(6) A majority population of aging baby-boomers will be a cultural force unlike
any previous elderly population. In fact, "anti-aging will be the buzzword of the (new
millennium)...Plastic surgeons...will become leaders in this new...field."(5) Every
year, plastic surgery becomes more socially acceptable, and as our grandmothers,
mothers, and fathers undergo surgery to lift their eyes, or tighten their tummies, the
trickle down of influence will mean those who are twenty, thirty, and forty will look to
their elders for direction, and will end up under the knife themselves. (3)The American
Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons has lifetime recommendations for
procedures to be performed in every decade of one's life. (5) The plastic surgeon
becomes a necessary partner, the equivalent of a mentor, a priest, for the new "plastic
age".

Not only will surgery become more common, but the procedures themselves will become
non-invasive and scarless. Pain, as the final barrier to transformation will disappear,
and the trip to a surgeon will become like a day in the beauty salon. Surgical advances
such as endoscopy, and the use of lasers that penetrate only the deep tissues in the
skin (3) mean that a surgeon can operate without leaving any signs of the metamorphosis.
"The ability to grow totipotent stem cells" (1) allow a surgeon to take cells from a
patient's own body and grow new tissue that is a perfect match. This will reduce the
risks in procedures such as fat injection and other wrinkle-reducing surgeries.
The use of tissue glues will also dramatically change healing times, as the glue knits
skin back together, and one New York plastic surgeon is already using the glue to sell a
one-day facelift.(4) As the constraints to healing time disappear, quick-and-easy
procedures will make surgery more commonplace, less note-worthy.

All the factors contribute to a skyrocketing rise in body alteration by the year
2012, to a world where one's physical appearance can be controlled. No longer will those
with the means have to suffer from big thighs or sagging breasts. When I first began
working for my plastic surgeon, the girl on staff told me seriously that I would never
have to worry about "getting ugly" again. Mother Nature would no longer control my
desirability. However, arguments about "man" vs. "nature" aside, this power to transform
the self, will not be available to all. Cosmetic surgery costs money. And the world will
still be divided down class lines. However, this division will become all the more
marked as those who "have" maintain an eternal youth, and
those who "have not" are the ugly, the old, and the unusual. Plastic surgery has
already become a status symbol, and as body alteration becomes more commonplace,
services like " "added-value" cosmetic surgery will become more popular among those who
can afford to spend more."(5) Those who can afford the more extensive body-overhauls, or
the latest techniques will be the leaders of the new class of "perfected" people.

A world of modified people would be a realm where individuality is lost. As those
with big noses, fat butts, and wrinkled brows, become defined as the poor and lower
class, the ideal youthful person will come to stand in for all that is wealthy and
powerful. My days at the plastic surgeon taught me that the scalpel of plastic surgery
is a blunt instrument of same-ness. When one undergoes body enhancement, they are being
transformed into one standard body image. The "perfect" human is a construct, and a
fairly universal one. A perfect woman has a small nose, large breasts, wrinkle-free
skin, and long, slim legs. The perfect man is tall, taught, and angular. No exceptions
are allowed. A world where the ruling class has been surgically altered is world of
eerie same-ness. The "bunnies" at the Playboy Mansion and the "Hugh Hefners" reign as a
sort of super-humans. Us, working class, "different" folk will be easier to divide away
from the "perfected" human. Class lines will become visual, and transcending class will
be a matter of transforming the body.

Plastic surgery offers the undeniable potential of controlling one's own genetics,
one's past and physiology. As nature cowers under our human mastery, the body is the
last conquerable frontier. As the standard human becomes one who is altered, we lose the
ability to return to a state where appearances were unmediated by surgery.
"With the embrace of artificiality, realism as we used to
know it may no longer be possible."(2)