Plastic surgery & beauty ideals - A hot topic from Iran to Brazil | Us & Them | DW Documentary

Brazil and Iran, two countries with very high beauty standards. There’s an enormous number of plastic surgery procedures taking place in these two nations and the pressure to look good is ever present. Sometimes that pressure comes from relatives – who disagree about how we should look.

In the age of Instagram and Tik-Tok, unrealistic beauty ideals have become a global phenomenon. And sometimes it's hard not to be influenced by them. Brazilian mother Claudia Cristiane Pegorer Tavares describes herself as "vain". She’s already had some plastic surgery and wants to have even more. Her daughter Camila is part of the Brazilian body positivity movement "Movimento Corpo Livre" which promotes self-acceptance. But that can come at a cost: people like Camila who don't measure up to society's standards still get nasty looks and comments. Often the comments come from Camila's own family. Her godfather encourages her to get her stomach stapled to lose weight. Her mom Claudia thinks she needs silicone breast implants. No wonder there's a rift.

In Tehran, the world capital of nose jobs, singer-songwriter Reesa believes that a different nose is key to his success. He's earned quite a bit of money playing music in the streets, but his mom is skeptical of his plan to spend so much on surgery. The real conflict however is with Reesa's uncle. His view is: "Men have to be tough, with calluses on their hands." Even though more and more Iranian men are getting nose jobs, for Uncle Akbar, cosmetic surgery is only for girls and women who want to be beautiful for their husbands. He's afraid that Reesa will start off getting a new nose, then new eyebrows and maybe end up a junkie. At least the regime in Iran has no problem with nose jobs. The late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini even officially sanctioned the procedure, saying: "God ... loves beauty."