Netflix Explained Season 3 Episode 10 ‘Plastic Surgery’ is now out. Actor Kim Cattrall narrates it. The synopsis reads, ‘The Instagram face. A shapely posterior. Cosmetic surgery can make the latest beauty trends a reality. Explore its origins and effects, inside and out.”
Explained Season 3 Episode 10 contains mild spoilers.
In Vox Explained Season 3 Episode 10 ‘Plastic Surgery’, narrator Kim Cattrall tells us how much Instagram or Snapchat have affected how people want to look in their pictures. Some people, mainly women, edit their features to make themselves look “better” without spending money on real surgery. It’s a growing trend as one doesn’t have to pay for all these apps and can be accessed by people of all ages.
Kim and several experts further talk about how the ‘Instagram face’ is also becoming a reality with passing years. Women now want face structures like the app shows – big lips, perfect eyebrows, the right nose, jawline, basically something like Kylie Jenner. The discussion reminded me of a meme I once saw where someone joked how most women have started looking alike, and the prominent feature being big lips.
Kim further tells us about the 2004 reality TV show called The Swan. In the show, the ‘ugly’ women were given ‘extreme makeovers’, and the one who looked the best would be the winner. Explained Netflix also features The Swan contestant Cindy Ingle who had also got face and body surgeries done. Cindy shared how uncomfortable she felt after her two pregnancies, and The Swan helped her change herself. It doesn’t look like she regrets anything about it.
We are also told about how and why the concept of plastic surgeries started. The episode covers just a little bit of Korean beauty standards and is necessary even for employment. Another major highlight of the episode was the most popular process of today’s time apart from big lips – Brazilian Butt Lift. Giving the example of Kim Kardashian and her siblings, the experts reveal how harmful the process is and the sad history behind the big butt obsession from women of colour.
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A woman narrates how her boyfriend would like pics of girls with BBL, which made her feel less of herself. So she decided to get the surgery done and feels more confident. To be honest, I find it really sad that someone has to go through such a painful process because their partner liked pics of people who look different from you. They’ve also given a few minutes about how women are expected to have hairless bodies.
Explained Season 3 Episode 10 Recap: Final Thoughts
Overall, today’s episode was just okay because it didn’t do much. It explained more about the types of trending plastic surgeries rather than showing how it affects women’s confidence around the world, especially teenage girls. Many women on Instagram do a better job by showing their real, textured skin, acne, hairy and saggy bodies.
The episode should’ve featured women who talk about how harrowing it is that the world expects them to be ‘perfect’. Even the hairy body part was added in just for the sake of it. Women who even show a little bit of hair get trolled by men and some women in the comments section because they find it disgusting. Some more research and interaction with common people would’ve made the episode worth watching.
Explained Season 3 Episode 10 is now streaming on Netflix.
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