"Celebrities" who have Frankensteinian plastic surgery.

[Pro Tour Punditry]

It looks really ugly. You may not have noticed, but there are very few really ugly people in the public eye.

And Michael Jackson's fame was not unrelated to his physical attractiveness.

At least we don't have to wait until your autopsy to discover you suffer from stupid.

 

[jefmcg]

At least we don't have to wait until your autopsy to discover you suffer from stupid.

Um? Hard to reply to this without sounding stupid.

Do you really believe that we don't want celebrities that look good? If you have never seen this skin condition, maybe you don't know what I mean. But it would be hard to be in the public eye with a skin condition that makes people do a double take, blanch, then turn away.

 

[jefmcg]

actually, I am finding this whole thread disturbing. Society rejects women who age, at least in the arts. And then women who try to stave off that career ending droopy face, or turkey neck, they are further subjected to humilation for how that was unconvincing. But for most women, without the surgery, they weren't going to be getting many roles anyway so why not risk it. The few roles that are going to women who look their age over 60 are going to Meryl Streep, Judy Dench or a very few other actresses.

Actually, Amanda Redman provides a good example. Her co-stars' on New Tricks faces were like melting wax. Women who looked like that don't get many roles in popular (or indeed high) culture.

 

[ufkacbln]

Without diverting the topic too far...

The problem for me is the expectation of "perfection"

When I see the courage, inspirational attitude of burns victims like Katie Piper, Simon Weston and numerous others, the hundreds of people who live with facial or other disfigurements, one must really question just how "necessary" all of this is

 

[ufkacbln]

As for older women - Joanna Lumley is doing well without the surgery

 

[Lullabelle]

Looks like quite a good job then.

This is how she used to look

This is how she looks now

That is not the result of a 'happy healthy life'

 

[PaulB]

And here's another thing; how come the basic biological inevitability of male pattern baldness doesn't affect many famous musicians and film stars - with the notable exceptions of Michael Stipe and Bruce Willis and maybe one or two more brave souls?

 

[Over The Hill]

Remember, MJ autopsy confirmed he suffered from Vitiligo, which is a skin condition. I've seen someone with it; in this case there was a jagged demarkation line across the face, on one side the skin was white/pink looking like blotchy european skin, the other side of the line, it was afro-carribean black skin. It was very disfiguring, drawing your eye in a public space so strongly that you want to apologise a moment later for the staring you did before you realised. No one in the public eye could leave their skin like this, and bleaching of the darker skin is the only option to even up skin tone - you can insert melanin into the skin.

Of course, there's no denying he changed his classically African nose into something you'd only see in cartoon aryan children, but the skin colour itself was not under his control.

I think the Vitiligo is a bit of a red herring in the case of MJ. The main difference is that he had his face changed drastically by plastic surgery. The skin colour is just a minor change.
On that point people with Vitiligo ( I know as I happen to have it) tend to use concealing makeup to darken off the white areas to be the same tone as whatever your usual skin colour is. It is not an accepted process to change all of you to match the area without pigment. Lots of people have this and conceal it so that you would not know. So it certainly is not the "only option". Indeed Boots is full of products that turn white skin any shade of brown you want.
Also the white of Michael Jackson is more like Marcel Marceau's mime makeup.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

It is not an accepted process...

I guess that is up to the individual, and Michael Jackson chose to do it that way.

GC

 

[Dirk]

...... how come the basic biological inevitability of male pattern baldness doesn't affect many famous musicians and film stars.......?

It's not an inevitability.
Both my grandfathers, and my father, had full heads of hair when they died. They were all in their late 80s.
I'm over 60 and am showing no signs of MPB, or even going particularly grey, at the moment.

 

[Fnaar]

I'm over 60 and am showing no signs of MPB, or even going particularly grey, at the moment.

Bastard!

 

[Globalti]

Michael Jackson's problem was over-use of skin toning cream containing hydroquinone, which is a photographic chemical. Skin toning or "complexion" cream is widely manufactured in Africa, the subcontinent and the Far East for people who want to lighten their skin so as to look less as if they work outdoors, exactly the opposite of what white European people want. The WHO recommends a limit of 2% hydroquinone but most contain as much as 7%. At that dosage the HQ bleaches your skin leaving it un-protected from UV so if you go out in the sun you get burned. It also destroys the elasticity of the skin - MJ's problem. The urge to tone the skin and look less "bush" is so great that if they can't get toning cream people will use steroid creams or even battery acid. I know African manufacturers who are mind-bogglingly rich from making ordinary body lotion, lacing it with HQ and selling it for $30 or more a bottle. This is the current market leader:

Caro White for the product manufactured in Ivory Coast and Caro Light for the product manufactured in the DRC - I forget which. The USP is carrot oil, which is widely believed to lighten the skin naturally.

 

[Over The Hill]

Michael Jackson's problem was over-use of skin toning cream containing hydroquinone, which is a photographic chemical. Skin toning or "complexion" cream is widely manufactured in Africa, the subcontinent and the Far East for people who want to lighten their skin so as to look less as if they work outdoors, exactly the opposite of what white European people want. The WHO recommends a limit of 2% hydroquinone but most contain as much as 7%. At that dosage the HQ bleaches your skin leaving it un-protected from UV so if you go out in the sun you get burned. It also destroys the elasticity of the skin - MJ's problem. The urge to tone the skin and look less "bush" is so great that if they can't get toning cream people will use steroid creams or even battery acid. I know African manufacturers who are mind-bogglingly rich from making ordinary body lotion, lacing it with HQ and selling it for $30 or more a bottle. This is the current market leader:

Caro White for the product manufactured in Ivory Coast and Caro Light for the product manufactured in the DRC - I forget which. The USP is carrot oil, which is widely believed to lighten the skin naturally.

Vitiligo can be triggered by all sorts of reasons. Stress or trauma are common reasons. It could be that all the earlier surgery could have then triggered it.

I cannot imagine that the products that make you a bit lighter or darker would make much difference. Basically the condition renders some areas of skin with no pigment in (like a very blonde , fair skinned person). As he was naturally quite dark this would be a huge contrast on MJ. Being in his line of work though it would not seem to be a problem for him to have worn a natural coloured skin camouflage makeup.

Slightly off topic but on MJ, it seems rather odd that Black people seem to still like him even when he had his very classic African features cut off and changed to a white western face (of sorts). Surely that is such a huge snub?

 

[slowmotion]

Kenny Rogers


If he does a duet with Dolly Parton - how do they recognise each other?

I saw an interview with Dolly Parton and she came over very well. She said "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap".

 

[Globalti]

I cannot imagine that the products that make you a bit lighter or darker would make much difference. Basically the condition renders some areas of skin with no pigment in (like a very blonde , fair skinned person). As he was naturally quite dark this would be a huge contrast on MJ. Being in his line of work though it would not seem to be a problem for him to have worn a natural coloured skin camouflage makeup.

Slightly off topic but on MJ, it seems rather odd that Black people seem to still like him even when he had his very classic African features cut off and changed to a white western face (of sorts). Surely that is such a huge snub?

You cannot begin to understand the importance of fair skin to some African (and Asian) women. Yes, right-thinking and self-aware Africans will deride people who tone or bleach but for some the urge is as strong as the Europeans' urge to be tanned, with all the money they spend on sunshine holidays and spray tans. This desire to get away from the dark "bush" look extends to straightening the hair and a similar sized fortune is spent on chemical hair relaxers, which straighten black hair to make it longer. Here the high causticity of the chemicals can burn the scalp. The arrival of cheap wigs from China has done massive damage to African manufacturers of hair relaxers but despite this, to a typical haircare products manufacturer the relaxer remains a huge product. Not very profitable thanks to intense competition but the money is made on the follow-up products, which aim to prevent the chemically-damaged hair from splitting and breaking and are based mostly on mineral oil, petroleum jelly and lanoline.

Where Michael Jackson is concerned, I have asked the same question. I guess the African-in-the-street would deride his pathetic plastic surgery and skin tone but a few will still hold him in high esteem for his wealth and his talent.