Modesty or Bust

Emily is a married 35-year-old, busy raising her five children in Utah.  She grows vegetables in her backyard garden, has a Bachelor degree in early-childhood education, serves as PTA Secretary, and bakes bread every weekend. Her Mormon faith is evident in the t-shirt worn under her long sundress, the crafts that adorn the walls of her home, and the Diet Coke clenched in her hands.  When Emily was absent from playgroup last month, her acquaintances probably assumed she was ill or on vacation.  In reality, she was recovering from elective plastic surgery, also known as “The Mommy Make-over.”

Emily is hardly alone in her desire to improve her assets.  14.6 million plastic surgery procedures were performed in the United States in 2012, up 5% from the previous year ¹.  Many were shocked, however, when Forbes magazine gave Salt Lake City the rating of “vainest city in America” in 2007 ².  Currently, the conservative, sober state of Utah rates 8^th in the number of plastic surgeons per capita, coming in just behind Florida, California and New York ³.  Glancing at billboards while driving I-15 in Utah will quickly prove the importance of body image in a state where 62% of the residents are members of The LDS church ⁴.  Far too many Mormon women are willingly experiencing the pain and financial burden of plastic surgery.  While there are many valid reasons for reconstructive surgery, most women are merely trying to regain their youthful bodies.  Our Heavenly Father is saddened by this unhealthy focus on body image, which is physically, mentally and spiritually dangerous. 

The same Mormon women who purposely steer clear of tattoos and double piercings are altering their bodies in far more severe ways.  This double standard is confusing for our children, who unfortunately witness the obsession with body image in both the media and their own mothers.  Our Young Women are constantly told to dress modestly, be virtuous, and understand their divine nature.  If these lessons come from leaders and mothers who have been nipped and tucked with precision, the core values are lost.  How can we expect our girls to understand the deeper meaning of modesty if we “cover up” our body with tight shirts that show our new curves?

Plastic Surgeon Renalto Saltz, who runs two practices in Utah, gave his opinion on the high rate of plastic surgery among Utahns: "One of the factors is you have families here that have kids very, very young.  When we see these women in their late 20s, their anatomy has already been really damaged by multiple pregnancies." ⁵   My concern with this statement is the word “damaged” when speaking about the miracle of bringing children into the world.  I don’t consider myself damaged after the birth of my four children, even though the days of form-fitting shirts and low-cut jeans are long gone.  My greatest achievement is the creation of children in partnership with my husband and Heavenly Father. 

We know we were sent to Earth for the divine purpose of creating families, and we often hear lessons reiterating how we should “be in the world, but not of the world.”  Too often, this teaching seems to be taken as a suggestion rather than a commandment.  Some women argue that having plastic surgery is no different than getting braces.  This is not a valid argument, however, because improving bite issues to enhance a smile is not equivalent to enlarging breasts to improve sexiness.  We teach our youth to search for truth so they can discover their immense worth in the eyes of our Heavenly Father.  We can’t preach to them about inner beauty while we are spending much of our hard-earned cash to perfect the outer beauty.

I believe in the admonition to “be moderate in all things.”  There are many legitimate reasons for cosmetic surgery, such as: to fix a cleft palate, perform skin grafts on a burn victim, or have excess skin removed after a substantial weight loss.  I even received a couple plastic surgeries as a teenager when my nose was crushed in a car accident.  Rather than being performed for vain reasons, those procedures improved my quality of life.

The Word of Wisdom gives specific instructions to care for our bodies, including moderate amounts of nutrition and exercise.  We should focus on improving the general health of our physical bodies, and spend our money on worthwhile pursuits that will build the Kingdom, not our chest. We need to respect ourselves by aiming for true confidence, and keep an eternal perspective when we feel pressure from the world.

1.                     http://www.plasticsurgery.org/news/past-press-releases/2013-archives/14-million-cosmetic-plastic-surgery-procedures-performed-in-2012.html
2.                     http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/29/plastic-health-surgery-forbeslife-cx_rr_1129health.html
3.                     http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=16938771
4.                     http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/53909710-200/population-lds-county-utah.html.csp
5.                     http://www.totalbeauty.com/content/blog/mormon-plastic-surgery-140502