Imagine that you are one of a pair of twins, born into a noble family, in a French chateau.
You are good-looking, intelligent, popular, and healthy; then something goes on inside your head, and you decide to change your physical appearance, not for the better but for the bizarre. Although it has to be said that they both deny having undergone any plastic surgery.
From having looked as you were above, you later become as below. That is the story of the Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff brothers.
Sadly, they were also committed anti-vaxxers, who both died of Covid within a week of each other earlier this month
I cannot pretend to understand anything at all about people's obsessive decisions to change their looks or physique by the 'knife'. Of course, theirs were their own decisions, and as such must be respected, but I can't help wondering if, on their death beds, they didn't wonder if it had been unwise.
Please don't think this is just criticism; it's not. It's just that I totally fail to understand fellow male human beings, only a few years younger than myself, thinking the way they did! They had everything most people dream of. Maybe you can enlighten me.
Bizarre. They may deny that they had cosmetic surgery as much as they like(d) but there are tell tale signs in the faces of those who did. Namely around the eyes where - when you smile - there should be little creases; and around the mouth which should have some life of its own left instead of resembling more and more the astonished look of a blowup doll.
ReplyDeleteLike you I don't understand the desire to tinker with what nature has given you. With one or two exceptions: Harelip? Yes, get it fixed. You don't want people gawping at you, recoil. And, unfortunately, people will. Mole? Depends. There was a time when a carefully, and artificially(!) positioned mole (think Madame Pompadour) was considered sensual. Teeth? Definitely. By which I don't mean the bland, one size for all American whiter than white. Does actually distracts from the other features of someone's face. However, if if you do have the means to fix your teeth DO! The starkest examples in my immediate vicinity are two shop assistants at my local Co-op. Missing teeth! How did that happen? And why don't the young guy and the older woman do something about it? Unless, of course, it's some fetish. Like sucking through your teeth.
Unlike one of my sisters, an attractive woman yet had weird body issues all her life, nobody comes near me with Botox and implants. I'd go as far as to say it's sacrilege (make up excluded). I haven't even interfered with my hair colour ever, not once, my whole life. Other than that the sun makes one blonder. Now I am hoping for a bit hair of white to give me the gravitas associated with my age.
U
Yes, birth defects are a different matter, and surgery is often essential.
DeleteA lot is down to 'fashion'. Having kilos of lard squirted into one's buttocks seems to be popular in certain circles, as is having Lips that look as if you've done a few rounds with Tyson. Taking it all out again is not so easy.
Kilos of lard around the hips? Thanks but no thanks. However, thanks for making me laugh, Cro. So very unfortunately the Kardishans spring to mind. I wish I knew their secret. Not the lard. But how to make money - out of what exactly? I don't mean this in a disparaging way. I actually admire magicians who conjure something out of nothing. Like rabbits and hankies and things. Illusion.
DeleteAnyway, as we all know, evolution, primal instinct: Tiny waist/full hips (think Sophia Loren) signals to a man good reproductive outcome. This applies, see "primal", even if you don't want to have kids. Hardwired as it were. And then there are the models. Clothes hangers. Androgynous. Which reminds me: Have you noticed how many famous fashion designers have popped their clogs the last few weeks? What a harvest January 2022 appears to be. Got to be a nest there somewhere.
U
They were eccentrics. They did things their way. They would probably have found your life boring.
ReplyDeleteBoring, dirty, and tiring. More than likely.
DeleteWhy does anybody do anything? You could go swimming in the sea in Brighton every morning. Some people do. I heard them on the radio this morning. Even in winter.
DeleteTrue, Rachel. When in my teens I had that mad bee in my bonnet to go swimming, middle of winter, when it was effing freezing. On my own. The moment of truth going in. Do it before you change your mind. The final hurdle? Coming out. Once you are in the water you are as warm as in your mother's womb. You can barely face coming out. And only do because said mother would be frantic on a no-return.
DeleteTalking of my mother. She too used to go out swimming in sub normal temperatures. No doubt one of the reasons she is alive at an age when one should rest in peace.
U
Oddly enough I was just looking them up shortly after they died. I suppose having a twin that also suffered from body dysmorphia probably exacerbated the situation.
ReplyDeleteApparently they were Science buffs but were accused of plagiarism and criticised for their outlandish scientific beliefs.
Whoops! Had to remove my comment from yesterday. Didn't realize that funny videos invited short quick comments.
And I certainly cant compete with Andrew's generously short two worded comment from yesterday.
They had a TV programme in France which I never watched. I seem to remember they were dragged through the courts over their plagiarism. Not sure who won/lost.
DeleteYe gods and little fishes. I saw the 'after' photos when they died. Had no idea who they were, except for weird . But having seen the 'before' photos now you've to ask 'why or how on earth?'
ReplyDeleteI certainly does seem odd to those of us who simply accept who we are, and all the faults that go with it.
DeleteJust a pair of Jokers.
ReplyDeleteA tad harsh Adrian. I suspect they had real underlying self-image issues. What I cannot understand is how it gets to such crazy extremes.
DeleteThey look like the Joker to me. A very good likeness.
DeleteSorry, I thought you were referring to their characters.
DeleteMoney doesn't guarantee good sense. Often the opposite. One hopes that they did enjoy their lives, however bizarre.
ReplyDeleteYes, I hope so too, but I doubt if they kept too many mirrors in the house.
DeleteHow very strange.
ReplyDelete"More money than sense" is what I would have said a few years ago but now that would probably be considered offensive and people would be shocked, so I better not say it!
Well, knowing how much it costs to make yourself look like that, I would probably have to agree.
DeleteNope. I cannot enlighten you. Why a good looking man would wish to look like a cartoon freak is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why I wrote the above!
DeleteThey are naturally nice looking and would have aged well instead of becoming ridiculous caricatures of themselves.
ReplyDeleteAnti vaxxers dying of Covid! I cannot be so cruel as to write what my head thinks.
At age 72 you may die. Even at birth you may. Why the not being vaccinated (forget "ANTI" - how do you know what their thinking/motivation was?) has any bearing on this "news" story (gossip more like it) I do not understand.
DeleteU
They were definitely two good looking guys. No need to change anything, I would have thought.
Delete“Anti-vaxxers” or just deluded people who think their “life style” will protect them more than the vaccine….who knows. Another example of people who Know more than the people who have dedicated their lives to the science.
DeleteApparently next week’s Questiontime audience will be people who have not been vaccinated. Might be an interesting watch.
As long as the panel isn't made-up of similar thinkers, that should be fun.
DeleteUrsula, we should always keep a little cynicism about science, like with the invention of the drug that caused Thalidomide. However, the scientific evidence is overwhelming. I have no idea of their reasons or thinking process, but clearly their reasoning and thinking was wrong. They are victims of their reasoning and thinking.
DeleteWhen you are fabulously wealthy and everything is within your grasp, just sometimes that twists your vision of real and unreal.
ReplyDeleteNothing they couldn't buy; even the bizarre.
DeleteMadness comes in all shapes and forms. That said, extremely wealthy people can be twisted in their thinking and decision making.
ReplyDeleteStrange that they BOTH wanted to do the same 'alterations'.
DeleteStark raving!
ReplyDeleteI suppose the 'surgeons' are partly to blame.
DeleteThey ended up looking sad caricatures
ReplyDeleteI can't believe they were happy with what they'd done to themselves.
DeleteBody dysmorphia
ReplyDeleteI was always taught in psychiatry to never argue with a delusion
It would seem their joint delusion ( one that was totally and continually reenforced)
Could never be explored or challenged
Even by themselves.
DeleteThey do look a bit grotesque in the after photo, what on earth were they thinking? We'll never know of course. I don't understand changing what nature gave you, mostly, but there are instances where change is for the better. People who are born disfigured can be helped to look better and there are some who get repair after perhaps a car crash or a fire for instance, but apart for those instances, I say leave nature alone.
ReplyDeleteI was born a few miles from Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead Sussex, where Dr McIndoe developed 'plastic surgery' for burns victims after WW2. A classic case of working for the good of people. Little would McIndoe have thought his work would lead to today's obsessions.
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