Celebrities undergoing plastic surgery is certainly not new whether they own up to it or not. Any slight change in their well known faces or bodies is subject to immediate scrutiny and speculation. Most of the time the criticism of these changes is rarely complementary as what was once familiar is now different.
Such is the case with the most recent alleged celebrity poster child for plastic surgery, Renee Zellweger. When seen recently there is little question that something has changed. Her familiar deep-set eyes and heavy upper eyelids are gone and replaced with eyes that are much more wide open with fuller cheeks. This has immediately come with criticism as some of the facial features for which she is well known and even perhaps famous have been changed. Such a change has seemingly made her look more generic rather than unique. She of course has denied changing anything and attributes her new look to an improved lifestyle…but such an explanation is fooling no one.
While it is tempting to attribute this change in her facial appearance to plastic surgery gone awry or overdone, such judgments are a bit hasty. The eye area is one of the most important facial areas of personal identity. Most people know more about how one looks around the eyes (or at least has a very recognizeable gestalt) than any other facial area. After all that is the area of unwavering focus in human conversation. Even the slightest change about the eyes is easily recognizeable as different. That does not always mean it is unattractive or even an undesireable change but just that it is different.
Often times different is equated with being a bad change but that is not always so. It only seems ‘bad’ because it is unfamiliar. There is nothing distorted or overdone with Renee Zellweger’s result. We have just all become familiar with her heavy hooded eye look which was distinctly hers and is uncommon for such a young person. With the upper eyelid hooding removed she actually looks better…if you can forget her familiar famous look. Her previous eye look did not make her famous, her talent did, but her heavy eye look became a familiar feature as she became more well known.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana