Please don't respond with, "uuugghhh not THIS again!"
I am currently studying abroad in Japan, at a college called Kansai Gaidai. One of the lecture classes I am taking is called "The Body & Communication in Japan". Our current topic of discussion is the image of beauty in Japan and cosmetic surgery. For the lecture about cosmetic surgery, he had a big newspaper ad featuring Ayu hanging on the chalkboard. It was that Panasonic camera one which featured an image of her entire body-- she had short hair and was wearing a tight white top and skirt that bared a lot of skin (I attached the image at the end of this post) Anyway, he asked if people thought she had had cosmetic surgery, and I was the only one who would outright say "no". Everyone else was either silent or said she "definitely" had some surgery. He asked if people thought she was beautiful....the class was silent. One girl said, "She WAS....until she had all that stuff done."
That statement made me really mad. All that stuff done? She makes it sound like Ayumi has become some kind of Frankenstein monster with no parts of her own anymore. I would concede to Ayumi having had eye surgery to make her eyes bigger, but that's it. Being a big fan and all, I have seen countless images of Ayu at different stages of her life, seen her on live TV shows and the like...I think I have a very good idea of what Ayu looks like. And I don't see what someone could mean by "all that stuff done"...I see no changes in her body that would indicate cosmetic surgery. It just seems to me that people want to accuse Ayu of cosmetic surgery just because she is a celebrity and ALL celebrities have had some kind of work done, right...
I think airbrushing and computer editing plays a much bigger role in Ayu's image than surgery does, but that's my opinion.
Nevertheless, the main issue for me is not so much the argument that Ayu has had cosmetic surgery, it's how people seem to feel about her. Like I said, the class was DEAD SILENT when asked if Ayu is a beautiful person. And people who did express opinions expressed negative and critical ones. The class is made up of mostly exchange students but there is also a good handful of Japanese students as well. I know Ayu is no longer at her prime, but I have to admit it hurt me to see that people have such a "blah" attitude towards her.
Of course people are entitled to their opinions, and I'm not going to yell at anyone for not loving Ayu. But I guess that class just made me feel a little sad. I dunno, after reading what I have just typed (it was a lot
) what do think? I suppose I just want some other Ayu fans to discuss this with.