Why is leg lengthening surgery seen as an individual moral failing, but other cosmetic procedures are talked about as a collective societal failing?
The comments on articles about men getting leg lengthening surgery are very predictable. They're often along the lines of "should have gotten therapy instead" or "there's nothing wrong with his height" or "he's going from short to short." There does not seem to be any critical consideration of the reasons why men undergo such a painful and expensive procedure. It's just dismissed as a ridiculous whim on the part of the man getting the surgery.
Yet, when it comes to other cosmetic procedures, while people usually do get individual criticism for these, these procedures are also talked about in terms of the bigger pictures. The cosmetic procedures are in demand due to systems such as patriarchy and colonialism, Eurocentric beauty standards, and so on. There seems to be some sort of sympathy towards the people who undergo these procedures which isn't afforded to short men who undergo leg lengthening surgery.
Why aren't people talking about LLS as a symptom of a bigger problem? That is, society manufacturing reasons for people to be insecure about their bodies, and then also selling them expensive "cures"?
Posted Nov 5, 2025, 11:53 PM UTC