Pop!
Pimple popping is pretty popular.
It has been, even before Dr. Pimple Popper (aka Dr. Sandra Lee), a dermatologist, took it to YouTube, making pimple popping an exercise in medical voyeurism. This enterprising physician also signed on with TLC to have her own TV series, appropriately named Dr. Pimple Popper. The show marked 2018 Christmas with a special episode, “The 12 Pops of Christmas.”
But did you know that the average American woman herself pops a total of 65 pimples annually?
This from a poll of 2,000 women in the U.S. conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Truly Beauty.
That adds up to over 4,000 zits that have been popped in the lifetime of an average U.S. woman.
And nope, that enterprise, engaged in by over 80% of American women, is not dermatologist recommended. And 58% of these poppers of pimples say they have at least one scar from their quasi-surgical undertakings. Over 75% acknowledge that it is not a good thing to do, but the urge is just too strong.
All in all, about 40% lamented that their skin hasn’t been this bad in years. Blame it all on COVID-19! Maskne and all that the extra handwashing and sanitizing does to your skin. Not to mention the stresses of shutdowns, lockdowns, WFH, Zooms, vaccines, side-effects, etc.
Said a spokesperson for Truly Beauty:
The past year has wrecked serious havoc on the skin on many parts of our bodies, and it’s easy to feel uncomfortable in your own skin when you’re experiencing a flare-up and don’t know how to fix it. A good way to mitigate this is to start introducing new products with natural, irritation-free ingredients, rather than trying a trendy-but-risky quick fix that could easily result in making what’s already bad worse.”
All for the goal of having perfect skin.
Nearly 60% of women believe that, thanks to social media, the pressure to have perfect skin is only increasing. Another study done over a decade ago noted that 1,484 tubes of lipstick and 2,055 jars of skin care products are sold every minute! No wonder McKinsey reports that: the global beauty industry generates $500 billion in sales a year!
Half-a-trillion US dollars!
Truly Beauty:
With tons of drool-worthy images of flawless skin on social media, it’s no wonder that respondents report trying just about anything—even things that could potentially damage their skin—to have the perfect glow.”
As a practicing dermatologist, I can attest to the fact that a cottage industry thrives on our narcissistic culture’s agonizing over the paleness of teeth, darkness of skin, shortness of eyelashes, wrinkling of brows, rippling of fat, and the urgency to wax, spray, laser, peel, lift, tuck, and color.
Two other dermatologists once proclaimed:
People value beauty in a mate because other qualities essential for parenting, such as fidelity, reliability, kindness, and intelligence have no physical markers. … The survival of the species depends on individuals making accurate assessments regarding the suitability of a potential mate. … At a deep biological level, we prefer beautiful mates because we want viable offspring.”
But this dermatologist, your humble blogger, begs to disagree. I think we want beauty because we want God—the only, absolutely beautiful being.
Said theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758):
God’s nature, or the divinity, is infinitely excellent; yea ‘tis infinite beauty, brightness, and glory itself.”
And one day …
Beloved, now we are children of God,
and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.
We know that when He [Christ] appears, we will be like Him.
1 John 3:2
Truly beautiful, indeed!
SOURCE:
Study Finds
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.