Self-Esteem from a Scalpel: Ogden on the Georgian McNose

OPED

As anyone familiar with Georgia will know, Georgians are a proud folk, and their pride in the beauty of their homeland is closely followed by pride of the beauty of the Georgian people themselves.

On the whole, it is easier to make a case for this for Georgian women, since many of them could grace the cover of Vogue, but the number of photoshoot-calibre men seems to be far fewer (not, of course, that I am any great judge, since I am neither a female nor gay, but I've noticed that Brad Pitt and Tom Hiddleston don't have bellies like boulders). They make up for this by claiming to be amongst the greatest lovers in the world, though how they came to that conclusion when most of them lose their virginity to prostitutes, and sex before marriage is still prevalent in the social circles that these sorts of low-brow boasts originate from, is still beyond me.

However, that's beside the point. I wholeheartedly agree that a high percentage of Georgian females are stunning, but of these a vast majority also seem to be clever, driven and have a sense of humour; I'm lucky enough to be married to such a one.

Yet over the last few years, I have noticed a worrying trend gradually emerging.

Georgians can be sensitive about the size of their noses, especially when it draws comparisons to Armenians. I have seen some Georgians who have noses like battleships, but the three young women I know who have had plastic surgery to reduce the size of their honkers had absolutely no need of it whatsoever. All three were very attractive before they felt the need to replace their nose with a snout.

Ethics of vanity and plastic surgery aside (though I for one believe that breast reduction should be made illegal as an inhumane act), what I find utterly ridiculous is that all three girls now have noses that look exactly the same. Surely the point of plastic surgery is to improve one's appearance and make something unique, but instead these girls are just drawing attention to the fact that they have been under the knife because they had a big nose...which in their case was not even true.

My wife is a doctor, and claims that plastic surgery is still in its infancy in Georgia, which is why the McNoses all come out looking the same, and so I'd like to see more efforts to dissuade young women from having such a pointless operation in the future. After all, these three girls are surely not alone in having a McNose when there was no real need for one; one of the three told me she was having her nose done due to respiratory issues, but seeing as she posts ten thousand selfies a day on Instagram and seemed to breathe through her nose just fine before the operation, I take leave to doubt it.

Yet I suppose it's also a form of rebellion, especially given the social taboos that still exist around sex and all things fun. 'Improving' the nose is a rather clever way of trying to go against domineering families; after all, what parent will deny their child the right to happiness? Besides which, seeing as parents and children always seem to be arguing about something or other, if a good, virtuous Georgian girl does decide to revolt, I'm sure mama and deda would rather it took the form of an elective operation than a one-night stand.

Self-esteem from a scalpel is a Hollywood phenomenon, and it is understandable (if not excusable) why ageing starlets bankrupt themselves to look ten years younger and secure another lead role in order to repeat the process. This is hardly the same situation in Georgia, with young women seemingly getting McNoses due to social pressures. Despite the fact that the three girls I know are so vain they would cause a peacock to roll its eyes, and undoubtedly had their operations due to their own conceit, I'm sure there are many young women who would succumb to peer pressure and waste money on an operation to rearrange their own face without need.

I personally believe that more social freedom could go some way to solving this issue. It is surely a problem that women are pushed to aim for an ideal which is only attainable under a knife (and which will leave them looking the same as everyone else)...but even worse, they do not seem to have even realised that this is no ideal at all. Perhaps a more liberal mind set will persuade young Georgians to learn to better appreciate what they were born with; I say this as someone who is no Adonis, but whose wife is beautiful enough (but much too clever) for the catwalk.

A curious new trend, wouldn't you say? I could go on, but the word count has guillotined my insight.

Tim Ogden