Friday, April 02, 2004

There's a rise in spirituality, polls say. The highest-grossing film of the year is a religious movie. And there's a nonstop flow of chart-topping self-help books encouraging people to tap into their deeper selves.

So more Americans than ever must appreciate that value called inner beauty.

Think again.

"For good or ill, we live in a society where appearance counts," said Dr. John Altobelli, senior attending surgeon in plastic surgery at Lehigh Valley Hospital.

Altobelli was one member of a panel recently assembled by DeSales University's Baranzano Society for a forum on the bioethics of beauty. The diverse group of panelists also included burn survivor Don Miller, the reigning Miss Pennsylvania Candace Otto, and University of Pennsylvania project manager and psychology and identity expert James Knowles. DeSales Assistant Theology Professor Rodney Howsare moderated the discussion at the Upper Saucon Township campus.

Their stories and the audience questions pinpointed what may be America's most underestimated social problem: the pressure to be physically attractive.

Older people feel pressure to look younger. Women feel pressure to look like magazine models. And there's enormous pressure when someone has an abnormal body part or skin disfiguration.

There's also another silent anxiety.

It's not looking young and attractive with the balanced, symmetrical features evolutionary biologists say are cross-cultural turn-ons. (That means having a facial features and body parts that are in the proper ratio and proportion to each other. If one part isn't correctly balanced, you're less attractive.)

Not possessing that outer beauty can escalate into psychological problems, some panelists said. And even make it difficult for the less-attractive to find a job or partner.

And if that barometer of public mood called reality TV is any indication, more people are using plastic surgeons to overhaul their physical appearance and avoid those problems.

First there was ABC's "Extreme Makeover" where an "extreme team" of surgeons and grooming gurus surgically revamped both men and women, promising nothing less than to "change their destinies."

And now Fox TV promises a show that will out-extreme "Extreme Makeover."

"The Swan" -- which premieres 9 p.m. April 7 -- promises to transform women from "wallflowers" to "beauty queens." "The Swan" also one-ups "Extreme Makeover" by completely abandoning even trying to be a touch-feely self-improvement show.

The "life specialists" in "The Swan" aren't content to let the contestants merely settle for looking different. They so extremely transform the 12 "ugly ducklings" into competitive beauty contestants. Two surgically-aided Cinderellas are then eliminated each week until one woman is named "the ultimate swan."

At DeSales, the panelists condemned the shows and the spread of extreme makeovers.

"An extreme makeover is a grasp at a different personality," Altobelli said. "But you never get that no matter how much of a change there is."

While it was easy for the panelists to dismiss extreme makeovers, it wasn't so easy to dismiss the increasing emphasis on physical appearance. And the anger and frustration some people feel about that pressure.

The most compelling story about physical appearance came from burn victim Don Miller.

In December 1999, after being assured an electrical current was safe, he instead was blasted with 12,470 volts of electricity that surged through his body. When he woke up from a coma nine weeks later, 60 percent of his body was burned.

Sixty surgeries later, his story seemed like an anecdote to a society's fascination with beauty.

After operations, consultations and conversations, he said his biggest perspective on beauty came from his 5-year-old granddaughter.

They were downstairs in a home playing, Miller recalled. After a while he grew too tired to continue playing with her.

"Ugly pop-pop is too old to keep playing," he said.

"You aren't ugly, you were just burned," the 5-year-old told him, Miller recalled as he wiped a tear from his eye.

Miller admitted to caring about his appearance and said he would likely have more surgeries to help repair his skin. But he said the burns led him to discover something no plastic surgeon's scalpel could help.

"When you have a devastating experience like this thrown your way you find a strength and courage inside to handle those demands society has on what is acceptable," he said.

Still, it wasn't easy for many participants to set aside the enormous power beauty wields. And how many people are drawn to attractive people, whether being aware of it.

"How many of us can say that we've picked out the best-dressed salesperson to go up to," Altobelli said. "Well, a person's skin is also their suit."

Candace Otto, 24, the reigning Miss Pennsylvania, admitted she had felt not so beautiful after looking at women in fashion magazines. And she recalled going to an audition for a commercial a few years ago. She was startled to be auditioning for a part where she would play a middle-aged man's wife and a mother to his children.

"I think there's something wrong in a society where 50-year-old women are supposed to look like me," she said.

Still, the beautiful may have their problems, too. Otto said she's been a victim of beauty means bimbo stereotyping.

"Sometimes people have looked at me and started speaking really slowly," she said. "Then they are surprised that I can actually speak and be articulate."

However, one panelist said not caring about one's physical attraction could be psychologically damaging.

"You can't separate the physical self from the inner self," Knowles said. "It's part of your individuality."

While working at mental health clinics, Knowles said a major process in a patient's step to recovery was starting to care about how they looked. People who define themselves as being attractive also generally report being happier, he added.

Altobelli said he hoped his plastic surgery would be part of making people happier. He's seen how unhappiness is caused by an abnormally asymmetrical body part.

A child with abnormally large ears was mercilessly picked on by other children, he said. A girl with a size-I bra (as in A,B,C,D sizes) came into his office telling him she had never had a man look her in the face first. And another woman before corrective surgery walked with her head down and hair sloping into her face because of an abnormally large nose.

"Most people I see want to look acceptable, not beautiful," he said. "And that can kick start people into feeling better about themselves."