DAVID SHERMAN JR.: A world that is beauty-obsessed

I sometimes wonder how beauty-obsessed we are. Many people spend countless amounts of money in an attempt to beautify themselves.

Women and men use varying means to make themselves attractive — exercise, cosmetic surgery, etc. in an attempt to make themselves reach an unrealistic form beauty. The result can be costly and can ultimately result in a person’s death.

One “beauty” product comes to mind — a corset designed to give a woman an hourglass figure. While the shape of the woman can be very flattering, the end product could lead to damage to a woman’s reproductive and gastrointestinal tract, as I have been told.

Another example is the differing plastic surgeries men and women undergo just to obtain a so-called perfect body. If done by the wrong surgeon, death can occur.

I believe when cosmetic procedures are done correctly and for the right reasons, a certain type of beauty and be achieved; undergoing surgery for surgery’s sake can be insidious.

As a man who has an imperfect body, I would like people to know that having the body of a fashion model is wonderful if your body was made that way, genetically speaking of course. Making endless attempts to be like people one sees in the media — overexerting oneself with exercise, becoming anorexic or bulimic, and the like — will lower your self-esteem and can spiral a person to an untimely demise.

DAVID SHERMAN JR.

Albany