Surgery

I find this sick/sad. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62540-2004Oct25.html" target="_blank">Teenage girls getting plastic surgery</a> including breast implants. What really bothers me about it is these weak kneed parents who "give" them such surgery for a graduation present.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>Breast implants and liposuction are now bestowed by parents as graduation or birthday gifts. Some doctors say they have performed breast augmentations on baby-boomer mothers and their teenage daughters.</blockquote><br />n<br />nI understand that girls have a lot more self esteem issues than boys do. I am having this situation with my oldest daughter right now. She complains that "no boy will ever like me, they all want barbie dolls."<br />n<br />n<!–more–><br />n<br />n<blockquote> Psychologist Ann Kearney-Cooke, a visiting scholar at Columbia University who studies girls and body image, said the increase in cosmetic surgery among adolescents reflects a pernicious trend that pervades popular culture: the glorification of rail-thin, large-breasted women. It is, she notes, an unnatural body type rarely achievable without surgery.<br />n<br />n"Kids spend a lot of time in chat rooms and they're bombarded by the media with these unrealistic images," Kearney-Cooke said. "When you're a teenage girl, there's this whole myth of transformation that's very powerful: namely that cosmetic surgery can transform your looks and your life. </blockquote><br />n<br />nSometimes kids, which a teenager still is, don't realize the commitment they are making with such procedures and the risks they are taking. The Barbie doll image is just too important.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>Although many women continue to believe their implants made them sick, no scientific link has been conclusively established with autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, according to the FDA.<br />n<br />n But the agency warns in a 2004 handbook for patients that "most women with breast implants will experience local complications" including pain, hardening and rupture. Recipients "should be prepared for long-term follow up, reoperations to treat complications and personal financial costs." Less common complications include numbness, infection and blood clots.</blockquote><br />n<br />nI wish I knew what the answer was for our culture. Plastic surgery might put a little icing on the cake but it doesn't change fundamentally who you are. It's more than just the girls too. I have been focusing on them in this disscussion but the boys need to learn that the perfect "barbie doll" is just an illusion. The fabricated eye candy they see paraded across screens, TV and movie, are not what real life is all about. There is an underlying beauty under the skin that is much more important than the eye candy and that is what should be important. But our visual society just doesn't see it, how sad.<br />n<br />n<b>Those real pretty women are just high maintanence and since I am no great shakes in the looks department myself, it isn't that important to me. Pat (My Hired Man)</b>