The Barracuda's Smile

I've been wincing at Sarah Palin's smile for weeks now. It looks artificial...and then my girlfriend pointed out that it probably is, and she might have cheek implants as well. The Raven's girlfriend speaks:

When I was a skater mom I learned an unfortunate fact: most competitors at regional level and above had had some degree of corrective work done. It generally started with teeth. In fact, teeth are the "biggest bang for the buck" alteration somebody can do to make their face look more attractive.

Some years later, after my daughter stopped skating (and she never had dental work done) I was studying plastic surgery for a report in Anatomy and Physiology and I learned that this phenomena was not confined to skaters. Dancers--well, of course!--and beauty queens and politicians.

A set of before and after photographs were provided in the article I was reading about the ethics of plastic surgery. Of course, said politicians never said they'd had plastic surgery, but a cursory examination of the photographs was enough to establish that a remarkable transformation had happened over a period of years. Once again, teeth were in the forefront of the changes.

It's basic psychology and politicians are driven to garner votes and confidence in any way possible. Barak Obama is very lucky to be such a poster boy, both physique and face. But others are not so lucky. If Sarah Palin's smile looks odd; it probably is odd, and a search through the archives to her junior high school years will likely yield a much more congruent set of teeth.

Ordinarily, I consider plastic surgery more a subject for gossip magazines than political commentary, but here I think this is revealing of character. She's had a lot done--teeth, cheeks, and probably a facelift. I think it shows a narcissistic concern with appearance. And how much harder Palin looks at 44!

Croak!