cat-man-lg
This poor man thought he was a tiger and did everything surgically he could to make it so. Dennis Avner has committed suicide.
In the end he was likely frustrated that he could not really be a tiger, though advocates would say he died from tigerphobia.
I mention this not to make light of a tragic situation, but to point out that surgery—however drastic—cannot change underlying psychological problems.
November 29th, 2012 | 11:32 am
This is not to make light of this tragic situation but we do live in a age where surgery can substantially change your looks but will have no effect on who you really are.
I am not so sure I would go that far. If I had a child who had huge, protruding ears or a grotesque nose, and that child was being teased and bullied, I don’t think I would hesitate to allow him or her to have plastic surgery. Plastic surgery may not change “who you really are,” but it can change how you are regarded, and how you are regarded may change whom you become. Some claim that allowing a mercilessly teased child to have plastic surgery is just giving in to the bullies, and the child should just stick it out to prove that what you are inside is what’s important. I see some merit to that argument, but it is extraordinarily idealistic.
While we may all believe that looks shouldn’t make a difference, they definitely do, and not just in the entertainment industry.
November 29th, 2012 | 11:54 am
With respect, I think you’re minimizing how awful this is. This man’s desire to alter his appearance so radically should have been seen as evidence for his terrible unhappiness and inner pain. Instead, he gained a kind of celebrity as just another fellow who was finding a way to express himself, aided by the magic of modern surgery. It was taken for granted that human personality is infinitely maleable, and that a man’s choice to alter his appearance so radically was no different than another’s choice to wear his hair short.
Our culture was completely incapable of identifying this man’s unhappiness as such. Indeed, it was unwilling to do so, and instead expolited Mr. Anver’s example to encourage others (and himself) along a path that could never bring the peace of soul they crave. Now Mr. Anver’s life is ended by his own hand. Terrible, and deeply sad. God have mercy on his soul.
November 29th, 2012 | 2:09 pm
A variation of the same problem that people who change “sex” have. Instead of dealing with their profound psychological problems, they deform their bodies to fit their delusions. Michael Jackson also comes to mind as another variation of these profoundly disturbed people.
November 29th, 2012 | 4:41 pm
Does anybody know why plastic surgeons (and, I guess, tattoo and piercing “artists”) seem to have carte blanche when it comes to their trade?
Aren’t there legal restrictions on performing surgery?
I have read that some people are “addicted” to plastic surgery, and their appearance does suggest mental illness. Why wouldn’t a surgeon or some governing body put the brakes on that?
November 29th, 2012 | 7:02 pm
See: First Things magazine, November, 2004, Dr. Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins Hospital, “Surgical Sex”.
Dr. McHugh discusses the connection between mental illness and desire for surgical change.
November 29th, 2012 | 8:18 pm
Peg, too much money involved.
November 29th, 2012 | 10:32 pm
@David Nickol:
“If I had a child who had huge, protruding ears or a grotesque nose, and that child was being teased and bullied, I don’t think I would hesitate to allow him or her to have plastic surgery.”
First of all, this poor soul wasn’t trying to mediate a perceived abnormality, he was mutilating himself in a a futile attempt to exhibit the characteristics of an animal.
As for your thought of allowing a child to have plastic surgery for something like huge, protruding ears or a grotesque nose, I find that an astounding confession.
It sounds benign when you say it, but if you really think about it, it carries a myriad of implications.
Surgery on a child is surgery on a developing person, and at any age invasive intervention must be for a serious reason. It requires a real risk of morbidity or mortality, because surgery carries risks, not only of an errant outcome, but morbidity or mortality.
Beyond the physical peril, what you would be communicating to that child is the message that their measure of worth is to be determined by the opinions of peers-and as we know, children in groups can be brutally cruel for the most ridiculous of things and we should examine some others.
What are you going to do about the freckles, red hair? Do you know how many girls have become anorexic/bulemic trying to conform to others standards? Remember Karen Carpenter? Ditto for boys, some of whom just skip the tactical weapons of DHEA and Creatine, and go for things like Dianabol and Winstrol V.
It seems beyond belief that an adult would tell/allow a child to have SURGERY for such light and transient reasons as vanity.
I see an awful lot of young people tattooing, piercing and mutilating, without the slightest consideration how these things will look in a job interview, let alone when their skin loses is elasticity.
We have enough people in government in corporate offices not doing the right thing because it might draw the derision of peers, we need to teach children to stand up, not wilt.
November 30th, 2012 | 8:04 am
“Nicer ears” are physically possible. Surgery to make a man a tiger (or a woman) is not possible. They are like a bridge that takes you only half way across the river, leaving you neither here nor there.
November 30th, 2012 | 11:33 am
In the end he was likely frustrated that he could not really be a tiger, though advocates would say he died from tigerphobia.
I am not sure I understand this. What does it mean?
December 3rd, 2012 | 8:14 am
Of course you understand it David. It means that even in death, a man’s problems can be exploited for snarky comments and tone deaf jokes.
All done by those who pat themselves on the back for supporting things like human dignity.
Surgery to make a man a tiger (or a woman) is not possible
It’s not clear to me what he had really qualifies as surgery to begin with. Look at his face, 80% of it is ink and piercing. Neither of which require a surgeon. The puffy lips and cheeks might have been achieved with either implants or something like botox. That would require some medical professionals, but hardly the cutting edge medical community. In terms of body modification, it’s on a par with what primitive people’s have achieved.
December 3rd, 2012 | 1:02 pm
Boonton, FWIW, he had his lips and palate, and his nose, surgically sculpted to give them a feline appearance.
December 3rd, 2012 | 1:48 pm
Not for nothing but the more I think about this post the more unkind and exploitive it seems. Every year millions of people kill themselves. A few of them are making purposeful decisions but many are suffering from mental illness.
We have no idea whether this guy wanted to ‘be a tiger’ or just like the idea of ‘looking like a tiger’. We do know, though, that lots of people are into ‘looking like’ things who never kill themselves and we also know many people who ‘look normal’ end up killing themselves. The purpose of this post wasn’t to try to understand this man but to exploit him.
Here was a guy who was ‘wierd’ and eccentric. Maybe that was connected to his suicide but maybe it had nothing to do with it. Either way it feels like the purpose of this post is in fact to make light of a tragedy. Its purpose is to reassure ‘normal’ people that they are better than this guy because they aren’t killing themselves. Even though more often than not suicide victims are not people covered with ink with extensive body modifications but are instead quite ‘normal looking’ people.
There is value in conformity. Humans are social animals and peer pressure isn’t always a bad thing, all of us would be much worse off without it. Yet the undertone, I believe, of this post is along the lines of “see fellows, this is here you what you get for acting outside the box”. Of course when a clean cut guy who looks and dresses normal kills himself, you won’t post his picture up on the wall and assert maybe his need for conformity caused his to kill himself.
This guy was into doing stuff you didn’t like. You can make a case that such extreme modification crosses the line from simply being aesthetically displeasing towards immoral. But you don’t really have a right to exploit his death by assuming much of anything about it. The opportunity to really care about this person’s mental wellness was when he was alive. All those who, for whatever reason, never bothered to know him and care about him beyond an amusing laugh off the internet are too late and should hold their peace now.
December 6th, 2012 | 3:58 pm
“Yet the undertone, I believe, of this post is along the lines of “see fellows, this is here you what you get for acting outside the box”.
Where do you get that from this?
“I mention this not to make light of a tragic situation”
The undertone, if there is any is that the man was terribly confused and his life may have been lost because people predatorily took advantage of frivolous desire that should have indicated a disturbance, rather than to direct him to counseling to affirm his intrinsic worth.
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