Happiness the surgical way

Just saw "I Want a Famous Face" and it made me nauseous. I’m left wondering whether my distaste for Matt and Mike’s decision to look like Brad Pitt is based on a bad gut feeling about plastic surgery, and then whether that’s just a feeling or logically sound. I’m less torn about the show itself, which shouldn’t be on the air.
Matt and Mike are ragingly insecure 20 year old boys who are fixated on Brad Pitt because he’s the masculine ideal, gets the girls, has the money and the fame, or, in other words, is everything they believe they are not. The extent of their obsession, acting out his movies, owning all his dvds, mooning over his photographs, and, oh yeah, SCULPTING THEIR FACES TO LOOK LIKE HIS, is freakish, upsetting, and not the kind of thing most people would ‘fess up to (and would get them labeled gay by all the girls they hope to catch). Lucky for them they have a twin to nurture their fetish. You can just imagine the late night sessions when a crush’s off the cuff remark about Brad Pitt being the hottest man in the world snowballed into a desire for $20,000 worth of surgery.
So they’re weird. And insecure. And awkward. And probably could have solved the whole problem with some acne medication. And, to judge from the show, totally lacking in self-consciousness. They seem to have no doubts, conflict, or, even, thoughts about the decision. No one in their life, at least on the show, registers any doubts. Not parents, not friends. They are 100% gung-ho. Mike stands in front of the mirror before surgery and remarks that this is the last time he will ever see this face, the one that’s always looked back at him. He’s excited.
The twins don’t even seem aware that this isn’t the type of thing other people do all the time. Post surgery, when Mike sees old acquaintances he happily enumerates hie surgeries "Nose, chin, jaw, cheek, and porcelain on my teeth. I have 6 implants in all" totally oblivious to the girl standing in front of him with her hand over her mouth saying "That’s so weird."
But the twins are happy with their decision. In a follow-up interview on the MTV website both say they have no regrets, feel great, and are not planning on any more surgery until they start aging. They know they don’t look like Mr. Pitt, but say he was just the model. When asked what they would say to others considering it here’s what they had to say:

MIKE: Those who are down on themselves for a fault in their looks, if you know that surgery will make you happy, go for it. It will change your personality, the way you act and carry yourself forever. I never knew that I could be as happy as I am right now. I feel on top of the world by the few tweaks that I went through. Go through with the surgery now because you don't want to go through life always feeling down with the way that you look, or just accepting the way that you look, that there is nothing that you can do to look better. I am…happy for once.
MATT: Why are you waiting? If any part of you drains all your self-esteem, then why live like that? The longer you go on living like that, the more it's going to affect you, and bring you down. There is something you can do about it. It will change your outlook on life, and make you a happier person. There's nothing to be scared about, just push yourself out the door and stop making excuses. If you don't believe me, then prove me wrong!

I want this to be wrong. And that's because I want to keep believing that beauty is not the determining factor for our happiness. Our outward appearance is not the only way we should be judged. It is not the only way we should judge ourselves. Beauty is skin deep. It’s what on the inside that counts. Cause of all that I believe these loons will get more implants. That they will never be content because what they need they can’t get through surgery. That they are irreparably fucked up. But maybe that’s not true.
If fixing your nose, or tucking your ears, or making yourself look like Brad Pitt will give you the self-confidence and contentment you lack, I can’t condemn you. I can not like it. I can wish there was a way for you to be happy without going under the knife. I can believe there probably is, like a lot of therapy. But, if after spending $20,000 on 2 years of therapy or $20,000 on a nose job the results are the same, I can’t put my finger on why one is better than the other, except that I really, really hope your inside counts more than your outside does.
But I can condemn MTV for airing the show. The editors of the show clearly think the twins are weird too. So they give us a segment entitled "Another Actor’s Story" about a Ryan Phillipe wannabe with a botched nose job who is even more insecure now than he was before. So, guess what, plastic surgery doesn’t solve everything (or really, failed plastic surgery doesn’t solve everything). It also implicitly judges the twins for being so thoughtless. This is a serious affair; it’s your face after all. Fine. The boys are thoughtless.
But then don’t run a promo off the MTV.com main page asking us to "Vote on Matt and Mike’s surgery," and determine whether it was a miss or a match. These are ragingly insecure real people, do we need to determine they look nothing like Mr. Pitt? Is this show really the same as The Newlyweds? Is it like voting on the stupidest thing Jessica Simpson ever said? Don’t use these boys to sell your station and then make fun of them, or disregard that they’re actually people. Don’t give yourself credit for being above it by judging them and then use them to sell commercials.
MTV is also playing into these boys distorted understandings of fame (which is, I think, largely at the root of how disturbing this whole thing is). MTV may not have suggested the surgery to the boys, but by airing it they gave it the largest seal of approval any delusional, fame-seeker could ever ask for. This is MTV. Purveyor of cool. And on top of that, they’ve now made the boys famous, in a weird self-fulfilling prophecy. (Us magazine ran a survey asking whom the twins most looked like, Brad Pitt, Gina Gershon, Isaac Hanson, or Steve Cojocarru, who won). Mike says at the end of the show, "we’re gonna be famous," and though he should have known, I bet he wasn’t hoping it’d be for his surgery. Though, the twins will probably take it anyway they can.
Finally, the real reason this show shouldn’t air is because it is normalizing really extreme behavior that may make some people "happy," but is, at the end of the day probably not something a 14 year old girl who doesn’t like her chin needs reinforced. I am willing to accept that how we look, and how we feel about how we look effects our happiness. Which is okaying plastic surgery against all my better instincts. But I am not willing to accept that how we are on the "inside" does not count. And, to judge from this first episode, that’s exactly this show's message.