S03E44 PAULINA PORIZKOVA - WHAT DOES #NOINTERVENTIONS REALLY MEAN?

Paulina Porizkova @paulinaporizkov supermodel is now 58 years old. And she claims she's "tweak free," using hashtags #nobotox #nofiller #nosurgery #nointerventions. But is she really?

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2023.05.03 S03E44 PAULINA PORIZKOVA - WHAT DOES HASHTAG NO INTERVENTIONS REALLY MEAN

[00:00:00] Sam Rhee: This podcast episode is a continuation of my thoughts about Paulina Porizkova, specifically about her use of the hashtags #nosurgery, #nointerventions, #nobotox and #nofiller. While a lot of my initial reaction to Paulina Porizkova was not particularly positive, the more I read her posts and see what she is trying to accomplish in her own way, I do applaud her.

She does appear to be honest discussing her own limitations, at least is so much better than many other celebrities. Unfortunately, there's still so much about her that appears self-absorbed rather than in service to others. In regards to self honesty, Paulina talks about a couple major criticisms of her Instagram post recently.

Again, I think it's commendable that she acknowledges the negative comments about her Instagram posts and she does respond to them. She says she gets criticized for her need for self-validation, which I mentioned last week, and she agrees that she wants attention.

She says, "I do need to be noticed in order not to be invisible." For this, it's hard for me to be overly critical for Paulina on this. We all appreciate recognition in some way, after all. For me personally, why am I even doing this podcast if not for recognition? I'd be a hypocrite if I said otherwise.

The fact that she also says, "I post a barely clothed photo of myself. It gets a lot of attention," shows she's self-aware. And let's face it, very few of us could actually post barely clothed social media pictures and get the positive reaction that she gets at age 58. Although there are some people at my gym who do this every day.

So I'm okay as long as she acknowledges why she does it, because I know a lot of people like it and more people including me, will follow her on social media wearing next to nothing than if she was wearing hoodies and wool sweaters.

Paulina also says the comments she likes least are the ones saying because she's tall and slim, she doesn't have the right to represent women her age because she doesn't look like a typical woman. And again, I do agree with her in that she can only represent herself. She is exceptionally tall and thin, and that's exactly how she made her money as a supermodel.

So anyone complaining about her appearance, telling her she does not represent women her age is not correct. She is definitely not of average height or build, but you don't need to be average to represent a group: tall, short, heavy, light. If you're a woman of her age, you represent that group just as much or as little as Paulina does.

However, Paulina holds herself up to be the last celebrity out there representing what is, "sexy and viable for an older woman." Remember she said she's the only celebrity between J Lo and Betty White who hasn't had work done, and she uses that hashtag a lot, #betweenJLoAndBettyWhite.

And that's something as a plastic surgeon that I would like to delve into a little bit. The first thing I can say is that I detest with a capital D E T E S T. Did I spell that right? Anyone, most especially plastic surgeons, who look at anyone's face and body, including patients and unasked point out flaws and how to address them.

I believe that's an awful practice that fosters insecurity, decreased self-esteem, and is demeaning. I see a lot of that on social media, even though I downvote that as fast as possible.

At some point I would like to talk about how a typical office consultation goes, because a fair amount of patients will ask you exactly that. What do you think I should get fixed? But that would be another episode.

I agree a hundred percent with Paulina, when on social media, a cosmetic surgeon pointed out the flaws in this picture of Paulina's face. And if you're watching me on video, you can see it next to me. Otherwise, if you're listening to this, it's a picture of her face without makeup.

And it was posted by her on August 12th, 2022 on her Instagram account with a caption, the surgeon said, "The pesky hollows under my cheeks could be gotten rid of with fillers, Botox for my forehead.

Those wrinkles on the side of my mouth and the cords in my neck, and a whole bunch of lasers to smooth and tighten everything." "This is what an older woman in the public eye gets to deal with. I'm told my face needs fixing. It has somehow gone wrong by aging. It any wonder that most of us who have the means will resort to some forms of fixing what we're told is broken?"

Paula continues, "Telling a woman what she needs in order to be seen as attractive, whether it's hair color, makeup, skin creams, or clothing, or the more invasive options is shaming her." "Every time you catch yourself thinking or saying, 'you know, you should' to a friend, stop for a moment. If she doesn't ask for help, are you really helping?"

And Paulina is right 100%. I love, and I want to reinforce that, because not only plastic surgeons, but tons of people do that all the time.

And maybe the only person who's really allowed to do this is your mother. And even that is totally annoying and unwanted.

So unless they ask, don't tell anyone how to fix themselves, except maybe if they have a piece of broccoli in their teeth or some toilet paper stuck on their shoe.

So here I am reading this, being very pro Paulina, and then she turns around and goes off and uses the hashtags #noBotox, #noFiller, #noInterventions, #noSurgery, and this is what she has to say about it.

"When I post no Botox, no fillers, hashtags, I get a fair amount of criticism assuming I'm somehow being superior. I want to say I'm merely going for representation. This is what it looks like to be an untweaked woman of 56. I personally want to see what other women who haven't tweaked, so I have a sense of what being my age looks like."

She continues, "In our new world of artificial perfection, sometimes it's impossible to tell what is what, and I'm trying to clarify for you the way I'd like it clarified for myself, I have zero objections to women seizing their power in any way they see fit. Yes. This is how I see tweaking, seizing your power and putting it into play."

"Good for you. Remaining tweak free is acceptance."

Now I personally have some issues with Paulina trying to have it both ways. When Paulina says she is tweak free, she's being disingenuous. She has had some cosmetic treatments that she's posted about, including laser treatments, Ultherapy and plasma pen treatments. Ultherapy, also known as Ulthera, is a focused ultrasound device that briefly heats the skin.

Plasma pen also does the same thing, but it uses electrostatic energy to create a plasma arc, which then heats the skin. This heating process is supposed to cause increased collagen growth. There are a number of similar devices, laser, radio frequency, or RF, microneedling or a combination of all of the above.

All of them work by slightly damaging the skin, which causes it to heal and become smoother. Even the old-fashioned chemical peel works this way. All of these treatments range from slightly uncomfortable to extremely painful, and usually leave the skin red or marked up in some way while it heals.

Paulina draws a distinction between these skin resurfacing devices versus other aesthetic treatments such as Botox and fillers, which she calls tweaks or artificial. Why she defines one of these tweaks, and the other one, "natural", I don't know. There are often more risks to patients with these skin resurfacing treatments than with Botox or fillers.

Ultherapy and plasma pen are just as expensive, or actually more so than Botox and fillers. And all of these treatments are not permanent, even though some device manufacturers claim the effects last for years instead of months.

But just because it's non-invasive or without needles doesn't make it better or safer. Coolsculpt, the non-invasive fat freezing device has recently gotten some very bad press from another supermodel, Linda Evangelista.

As a plastic surgeon, I deal with this all the time: people who think aesthetic treatments are somehow too much or fake, and yet these are people who think makeup, concealer, push up bras, braces, hair coloring, teeth whitening, tattoos, and other appearance enhancers are okay, but somehow something done by a plastic surgeon is not.

In my opinion as a plastic surgeon who does a lot of Botox, fillers and many other tweaks, including liposuction, breast augmentation, eye lifts, these tweaks are designed to be natural and depending on the patient's goals, invisible.

The best compliments we get as plastic surgeons is when patients tell us, people say they look great and they don't know why exactly. I have a ton of patients who get tweaked small and big, and you would never know. All you know from seeing them is that they look great, period.

Anyway. Paulina has no idea who's tweaked or who isn't. And she shouldn't feel the need to compare herself to others. She's herself, she said so, and yet it's hypocritical to somehow want to compare herself to others by an arbitrary standard. And for those who have obviously undergone some pretty dramatic plastic surgery changes, whether they're good in her mind or not, she should not be criticizing those who find their aesthetic standard to be different from hers.

Why is she applying her own aesthetic standard to others and then yelling at those who do the same to her? One of my favorite sayings is, "Comparison is the thief of joy."

Paulina's criticism of others having plastic surgery is so hypocritical that I sometimes have a hard time truly trusting what she says just because of that.

She has been quoted as saying the following about other celebrities, "Nicole Kidman is my pet peeve, I swear. She and Madonna used to be so gorgeous and sexy." Paulina says about Janice Dickinson that "she was one of the most beautiful girls you've ever seen in your whole life. Now she looks like a transvestite."

These quotes sound awfully unkind for someone who also suffers the slings and arrows of how she looks from others.

I think there is a lot we can learn from Paulina from her life events, her story, but most importantly, how she reacts to getting older, what she says, both admirable and maybe not so admirable. She's an extremely public figure who has shared a lot and is still navigating her own way. I respect that, but I would ask her to hold the same standard that she espouses because it's a great standard, one that I would want to hold myself and others too, in regard to lifting others up, avoiding envy or jealousy when comparing ourselves to others, understanding that passing judgment on others often comes at a heavy price to one's own self-esteem.

And as a plastic surgeon, trust me, Paulina, you don't know who's gotten tweaked. You're not that guy. Thank you.

Thank you to everyone who's provided feedback and their thoughts on the podcast. It has been very much appreciated. If you have any thoughts, comments, suggestions for topics. Please DM me @BotoxAndBurpeesPodcast on Instagram. Thanks.