# What's Up With Beauty Moles? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 1, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555 "2015-04-01T23:14:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/1 "2015-04-01T23:14:48Z")
When someone has a mole near their mouth, why don’t they just have it removed for maybe a few hundred dollars? I’ve had a couple moles removed, but a lot of people such as Cindy Crawford keep a “distinctive” mole because it supposedly enhances their beauty. I saw a potential match on an online dating site, but she has a big mole right below her bottom lip that dominates her otherwise beautiful face. Why doesn’t she have that mole removed in one easy doctor appointment? ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/2 "2015-04-01T23:19:15Z")
Because she doesn’t exist to please you visually. There are any number of reasons why she might’ve kept the mole; it’s impossible to say, because I don’t know her. ---
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/3 "2015-04-01T23:20:24Z")
Because physically altering yourself purely to suit the whims of others is not a behavior you commonly see in any life form higher up the intellectual totem pole than a possum. And doing so just to suit the _potential_ whims of others… I mean, c’mon, you’re not talking about getting a haircut here. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/4 "2015-04-01T23:21:48Z")
What \*\*MoonMoon \*\*says. Also, mole removals often leave scars. I’d rather have a benign mole than a scar. (And I do have lots of moles, although most of them are not on my face. Several have been removed because the doctor thought they might be cancerous, and every single one, including three removed by a plastic surgeon to minimize scarring, scarred like a mo-fo. In fact, the ones removed by a plastic surgeon scarred MORE than the ones the dermatologist just scooped out with a melon baller in the office.) ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/5 "2015-04-01T23:21:55Z")
Sometimes removing a mole leaves a mark, too. May not be worth it for some. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/6 "2015-04-02T00:05:27Z")
I think the fact that she likes what she sees in the mirror, and doesn’t want to make any changes, should be a point _for_ her, not _against_. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/7 "2015-04-02T00:35:18Z")
Hopefully, it’s because she loves herself the way she is. Maybe she’s trying to avoid people who can’t get past a small physical feature on an otherwise attractive person. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/8 "2015-04-02T00:39:13Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > When someone has a mole near their mouth, why don’t they just have it removed for maybe a few hundred dollars? I’ve had a couple moles removed, but a lot of people such as Cindy Crawford keep a “distinctive” mole because it supposedly enhances their beauty. I saw a potential match on an online dating site, but she has a big mole right below her bottom lip that dominates her otherwise beautiful face. Why doesn’t she have that mole removed in one easy doctor appointment? because maybe she doesn’t feel the need to lower herself to your standards. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/9 "2015-04-02T00:47:48Z")
The couple of people I know who haven’t had their mole removed from their faces is precisely because they prefer the mole over the potential/likely divot. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/10 "2015-04-02T03:05:35Z")
Some women actually add _fake_ moles because they think they’re pretty. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/11 "2015-04-02T10:30:04Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > Some women actually add _fake_ moles because they think they’re pretty. I took that as the main question of the thread: why are such moles considered attractive by society when other “imperfections” aren’t? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/12 "2015-04-02T10:33:52Z")
In the case of Cindy Crawford, it helped differentiate her from a thousand other brunettes and had the added bonus of making it possible to tell instantly whether a picture had been flipped. Both of those were professional advantages. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/13 "2015-04-02T11:41:31Z")
One more thing- it isn’t cheap and not without risk. Insurances generally won’t pay for cosmetic surgery, similar to how they won’t pay for removal of skin tags. Plus any time you open up the skin you have the potential for infection. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/14 "2015-04-02T12:25:44Z")
I have a birthmark on my left cheek. It’s not big but you cannot not see it. Over the years, I’ve had people ask me what it was. When told that it was a birthmark, they always left it at that. No big deal. It’s happening less and less now perhaps because the people around me are older i.e. more mature and don’t care about this sort of thing or have enough experience of real life interactions between human beings not to ask questions that could cause embarrassment (it wouldn’t in my case anyway). The birthmark has never been a problem for me. Actually, I don’t even notice it. And it sure hasn’t prevented me from seducing a fair share of girls back in the old days :D. When I was about 12, I saw a dermatologists for reason that were completely unrelated to my birthmark. On one visit, my parents drew his attention to it asking whether there was a way to remove it. “Sure”, he said. “But how does your son feel about it ?”. He turned to me and I said: “I’m fine with it. It makes me special”. “Don’t have it removed”, he said with a big smile. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/15 "2015-04-02T12:30:17Z")
I’m not going to jump down the OPs throat because I’ve looked at people and wondered the same thing, including myself in the mirror. I had a mole on my nose that started of as a freckle when I was a young child and over the years became raised. For the most part I never even thought about it, much like my tattoos. It’s just part of me and I almost forget that it’s there. So there’s that. I did finally get it removed and it’s already started to come back, as the doctor warned me it might. So I wasted $150 and three weeks of oozing, weeping grossness ON MY FACE all for nothing. Also, she’s not your circus bear 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/16 "2015-04-02T13:42:12Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > Because physically altering yourself purely to suit the whims of others is not a behavior you commonly see in any life form higher up the intellectual totem pole than a possum. I dunno, you don’t see opossums running a trillion dollar beauty industry. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/17 "2015-04-02T14:01:53Z")
I have two moles on my face and I have never even thought of getting them removed. Why? Why should I undergo surgery - and you talk of a few hundred dollars as if that were nothing - just because someone else thinks they don’t look good? In my culture, moles are beauty marks and are considered beautiful. It’s said that beauty marks on the face were placed there because the gods thought you were so beautiful they felt they had to mar your face ever so slightly so you wouldn’t attract the attention of demons or bad spirits. I think that’s a lovely story. I watch them and make sure they don’t grow or anything, but I have moles all over my body and these are just two of them. I’ve gotten used to them and I think they provide my face with some character. And as for the few hundred dollars, that could go towards a nice vacation! ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/18 "2015-04-02T17:21:03Z")
> [@Double\_Foolscap](#): > > I took that as the main question of the thread: why are such moles considered attractive by society when other “imperfections” aren’t? A well placed mole can accentuate a feature of the face: eyes, smile, etc. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/19 "2015-04-02T19:37:20Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > A well placed mole can accentuate a feature of the face: eyes, smile, etc. A well placed mole accentuates … the mole. Moles are incredibly distracting. I can see how regular people just live with them, but actors and models who make a fortune and live off their looks? People who get facelifts, botox, etc. Get rid of the ugly little things, okay? ---
**Author:** ![highrollinwooded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71c47a/32.png) [@highrollinwooded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/highrollinwooded)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555/20 "2015-04-02T21:13:44Z")
I personally find them hideous (Cindy Crawford’s included), and would have them removed if I had them! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-beauty-moles/716555.md?page=2)