Confidence — á la carte: When there’s plastic surgery for everything, where do you draw the line?

I’ve always been fascinated by the dissimilar prominence both men and women place on certain physical attributes. For women, some of the characteristics praised and coveted may puzzle someone of the opposite sex: Most men seem to overlook a woman’s cheek bones, eyelash length, and eyebrows. But flip open any women’s magazine on newsstands and your bound to find an article covering one, if not all three, of these trends.

This dichotomy is not lost when men are observing their masculine counterparts. I’ve heard men size up others by their height, hairline, and even calves, three attributes I would certainly overlook if they were not called to my attention. Within each sex, there seem to be key characteristics that seem to be only important to those identifying with the gender.

Beards have occupied this space for guys; enough so that men in Brooklyn are paying a pretty price of up to $8,500 for beard implant surgery. Patchy beards are apparently a cause for insecurity amongst the male set, enough so that plastic surgeons in these hipster meccas of New York are transplanting hair from other body extremities in an effort to sport a bushy bundle of masculinity on their face. For any haters thinking that we would never find a male equivalent to vajazzlings, I call your bluff. Hipster yuppies — with apparently large disposable incomes — are offering stiff competition to the California housewife for the most ridiculous plastic surgery investment.

Granted, being void of testosterone levels contributing to this trend, my position on the craze might be a little too harsh. Women have adopted a range of seemingly unnecessary procedures to alter their physical appearance, so is it really that shocking that men want to join in on the fun? My only qualm is the direction these practices seem to be heading. There seems to be a range of procedures to alter almost every physical characteristic on our bodies. And if there isn’t one, we’ll engineer it.

Am I wrong to think that this is the direction humanity is heading? I would like to think so, but if you told me five years ago men are gluing chest hair on their face, I wouldn’t have believed you. I’m not mad, just disappointed. Disappointed that, despite all the progress society has accomplished in the name of self-acceptance, we still find a new way to alter ourselves. It seems that in the future, a “new” body will be readily available to everyone — offered on á la carte menus in doctors’ offices near you.