My sagging what?!?!

Taking a spin through Groupon a little while ago and I saw this product and my first reaction was

"Really!?!?! Ear perfect? Ear lifts??? Now I supposedly have to worry about how my EARS are aging???"

Thankfully I clicked through to take a closer look because it gave me a fair amount of food for thought.

180 Count of Ear Perfect Instant Ear Lift Patches

The first note on the box and item description is "Designed for stretched or torn earlobes". WHEW!

I don't have a problem with the idea of self improvement or modification, but I do have a problem with products which make bank by making people feel bad about perfectly normal aspects of humanity like aging. Sadly this is pretty much the base purpose of advertising so a bit hard to avoid entirely, but nonetheless it's important to know what forces are being leveraged against one's happiness and/or health (for a frank but fantastic example of this have a look into the modern history of my favorite insult - douche). 

I've had my ears pierced since I was very young and torn earlobes are DEFINITELY one of my lizard brain fears. For just about as long as I can remember I have been wearing the same style of tiny hoop earrings which release easily if they get caught on things. I actually feel like my face looks kind of wrong if I wear other styles of earring.

Earception earrings (click this caption for source)

It's pretty cool to know that here are alternatives to plastic surgery if you have torn lobes and want to wear regular earrings. I imagine these patches would also be helpful for anyone who is not used to the weight of really heavy earrings.

And of course not forgetting the number of people currently running around with intentionally stretched earlobes who can use these stickies to expand the number of earring styles they can wear.

It's funny when you think of the ripple effects that different fashion choices may have years down the line. Growing up in a fairly conservative home I was always warned against permanent mods because of the effects they may have on my future, but at this point tattoos and piercings have become so ubiquitous the job market is pretty much going to HAVE to accept altered individuals.

I expect we're going to start seeing more stuff like this in regular rotation. It makes me wonder what other body mod friendly products we are going to start seeing - not necessarily hiding the mods - but adjusting to a life where they are commonplace.