Cosplayer Meiji will be the first one to say she used to look very different. It isn’t something she wants to hide.
Screenshot: Meiji
“If you make a [side-by-side] comparison like this, I became a totally different person,” Meiji wrote on Twitter. According to her, she worked hard to eliminate complexes she had about her looks and to pay for her plastic surgery. Meiji wants people to know she worked hard to create her appearance.
整形したとこまとめました
こうして並べると本当に別人になってしまったなぁ笑 常人が味わうことが無いDTの苦しみを乗り越えて120%努力と金の力で作られた自分の顔面が愛しい！自分のコンプレックス殺すために人生で1番頑張ったことが整形だから隠したく無いし、堂々と整形だよって言いたい pic.twitter.com/F6jpy8XIwd— 明治 (@meme_metan) May 12, 2018
The above tweet was so widely circulated in Japan that Asahi Shimbun‘s Area.com interviewed her.
時給10円下げられて泣いてるすげえぶすなメイドいた 2011年 #メイドの日 pic.twitter.com/ZbxugKgHnP
— 明治 (@meme_metan) May 10, 2018
“When I entered university, I started a job at a maid cafe,” Meiji told Area. But she says that she saw firsthand how “cute girls” at the maid cafe had a lot of customers. “I always had no customers,” she said. Online there were apparently comments calling her “ugly” or telling her to quit. That’s terrible to hear.
“All the girls around me were a level of cute I’d never seen before,” she said, adding that their faces were small and their eyes were big.
Meiji added that when she started cosplaying, she said so felt so ugly when she saw the photos, which is a sad thing to hear.
When she was 24, she starting have major plastic surgery. “In Japan, it [plastic surgery] is so expensive, so [I had it done] in South Korea,” she said. “In total, it cost ¥7 million [$85,279].”
“This is the hardest I’ve worked for anything in my life,” she said. On Twitter, people have commended her for being so brave to make this public.
According to Meiji, she’s finally pleased with her appearance.
遊戯王あわせぽよ⭐️ ブラマジ〜⭐️ pic.twitter.com/rttK1XtnpZ
— 明治 (@meme_metan) May 27, 2018
She is frank about body and self-imagine issues with which she was dealing. Those issues sound deep and painful.
“I thought it was alright if I died [during surgery],” she said. “That, if it’s going to be as an ugly person, so be it.” The procedures, apparently, went off without a hitch, but it’s still concerning to hear that she was willing to risk her life.
“I used to feel ashamed,” she said. “Walking in town was embarrassing. I’d like, ‘I’m sorry for being ugly and wearing these clothes.’ But now, I’m able to walk around in clothes I like, and it’s become fun.”
Everyone has issues they confront. Perhaps those are exacerbated in worlds where so much is placed on one’s appearance, such as in cosplay, maid cafes or society at large. Is this the way to deal with those issues? Is it a way? Or are there better ones?
I just hope all her procedures didn’t have any complications and that she’s finally happy.
And, more importantly, that she stays that way.
Comments
11 responses to “Japanese Cosplayer Doesn’t Want To Hide Her Plastic Surgery”
I’m curious. How does contemporary feminist thought approach plastic surgery these days? Is it a matter of you go girl, take charge of your appearance and be empowered through cosmetic surgery. Or does it take the opposite view and see it as a woman caving in and mutilating herself to conform to narrow patriarchal and social expectations?
A bit of option A and B. the problem is that most of us tend to lump the extremists in one nig group. in reality while there are some massive diehards on every possible issue, often they are only focussed on 1 or 2 of them. this means there are often differences of option amongst the extremists. so some extremists will say be happy with your body others with just as rabbidly tell her she’s empowering women.
Case by case, I imagine. The general advice would be to learn to be happy in your skin and recognise that the need to be standard beautiful comes from without. But if it has come to such a point of mental anguish and disconnection to one’s body that death seems preferable, well anything done to ameliorate that are literally life-saving measures.
Despite what you might hear from Infowars and 4Chan, contemporary feminist thought remains the same as all feminist thought – equality.
And someone’s personal agency is not the same thing as placing their actions against a bigger backdrop.
Unlike their detractors, feminists tend to be smart enough to hold different lines of thought simultaneously.
See my reply to myself above, if you like.
It would be naive to harrass an individual for choosing to conform or not conform to an institutional standard. She can do what she wants.
I’ll also add that when you’re a woman, you’re acutely aware that you’re fucked no matter what you do. Whether you conform or not conform is trivial, really; it just changes the flavour of the bullshit you experience. Are you an ugly dog or a shallow slut? Does it really matter? You might as well do what you want. This kind of bitter apathy is difficult to understand for men who view feminism as a threat because they cling to a very specific and cynical, constructed idea of what a feminist is.
When does something like this become a mental health issue? It would stem from an anxiety.
It’s great she now feels happy, but it would be easy for it to spiral out of control because she’s “still not pretty enough” in her own perception.
Although if you have the money, you’ll find a surgeon willing to do whatever.
considering you can pay to have genitalia surgically removed (whether you consider it a mental illness or not) I don’t believe there is much of a line for people to cross.