August 27, 2006

• I hear the thunder of a moral panic!
• I like how the article calls the woman pictured a teenager and then in the article lists her age as twenty.
• This has shaken the bedrock of our family. I made an emergency call to our church’s pastor about this bombshell in my daughter’s life and he is unsure how it will affect her future.
• oh wait, wrong article.
• Well Suo she did have her boobs at 19 and admits she'll have to have further ones done as she gets older. But the article was a bit silly calling her a teenager yes.
• *boobs I meant boob job.....
• What sort of daddy are we talking about here?
• I don't think it matters entirely...
• And who will save the old people from themselves?
• Maybe we need something like an architectural review board for plastic surgery. Keep from scaring the neighbors, lower property values, and all that.
• she'll have to have further ones done as she gets older This is madness. Two should be enough for anyone.
• hey, i have three. seriously, i was born with one extra. well, nipple, not full boob. my nephew has one too...
• something like an architectural review board I'm sorry Mr Douglas, but your face has been registered as a historic place. We can let you have hair implants on top but you'll have to maintain the facade intact.
• ooo freaky es el Queso..... The good: The Joy of Three Nipples The bad: 3 nipples linked to cancer The ugly: odd nipple person
• For me the most urgent question is not about legislation -- though that is important, I suppose. I get most worried about the cultures surrounding this sort of thing. I remember when I found out about "anorexia as a lifestyle" websites; I spent the whole day vomiting in terror. That post above to Yes, They're Fake is truly horrifying. And check out the forums, where ladies use .sig pictures celebrating the date(s) of their breast operation(s), listing the technical info about what was injected into their chests. Sick! Teens are under incredible pressure to look right, and the entire society deserve heaping helpings of blame for our neurotic fixation on appearance. For shame! And of course many thanks to Stephen Colbert for his Balls for Kidz segment on plastic surgery (sorry, couldn't find video except the very buggy junk on Comedy Central).
• Teens are under incredible pressure to look right, and the entire society deserve heaping helpings of blame for our neurotic fixation on appearance. For shame! Yeah when I was at school all you had to do was worry about having the right haircut - we didn't even consider having the wrong nose, ear or breast shape. I think the Yes, They're Fake woman is a little wrong too. It is one thing to correct a serious disfigurement, but another to decide at 14 that your nose is too big.
• Slap the parents with fines/jailtime/whatever. If you give in to your child's fantasy to want to look like Britney Spears to the point that you're willing to fork over $10k to a doctor to cut her open and inject her with silicone, you've failed as a parent and need to be stopped. Sadly these parents are usually just as much (if not more) blinded by the culture than the kids themselves.
• Plastic surgery is really the same thing as a tattoo. It is just taken a bit further. It is a voluntary procedure that is done strictly for the sake of improving a person's appearance that alters the person's physical makeup permanently. It can potentially have health risks, and it may need to be modified again in the future to maintain its ideal appearance. Plastic surgery is really just the natural result of the societal embracing of tattoos. Plastic surgery is like a tattoo beneath the skin.
• Back around 1999-2000 I was listening to the Howard Stern show and they were interviewing a mother with a teenage daughter who was getting a nose job and breast implants at age fifteen. They also interviewed the plastic surgeon who was going to do the work, and he was talking about the positive psychological benefits of plastic surgery for teenagers. Anyway they did the interview, took a few very angry phone calls from listeners, and then after the commercial break Stern told the listening audience that the whole thing was an April Fools joke. There was no teenager getting plastic surgery, and the mother and doctor were actors. Even so, they were fielding angry calls for the next fifteen minutes from folks who were stuck on hold while the prank was exposed. At the time I thought, Hey, good prank. For a moment it sounded as if there were adults stupid enough to let teenage kids get plastic surgery. Six years later, it seems that the stupids are gaining ground.
• she'll have to have further ones done as she gets older Yeah, you gotta have them balanced and rotated regularly. Furthermore, they need to be replaced every 15 years or so, after the nifty bag of scar tissue ecapsulates them and turns them as hard as tennis balls.
• One in 18 Britons has an extra nipple Okay, I know there must be more than 18 of youse Brits here, and whoever has that little nubbin needs to post pictures. Now.
• Plastic surgery is really the same thing as a tattoo. It is just taken a bit further. I can agree on this. Body modification is body modification. However, when your body still has several years yet before it's fully matured, you really don't want to start tinkering with it. Who knows what evil lurks in your plumbing? Tattoo parlours generally won't tattoo minors, and the same standard should be held for plastic surgery.
• This is my fourth post in a row. Just because.
• Hehehehe post maniac..... - tis true minors can't get tatts either.
• Can't get tats And can't get tits. Being a fem teen Is just the shitz.
• I'm holding out for the full cybernetics.
• MonkeyFilter: it seems that the stupids are gaining ground No shitz! MonkeyFilter: Who knows what evil lurks in your plumbing? MonkeyFilter: I'm holding out for the full cybernetics. Can't we just clone the beautiful people?
• Self esteem and confidence (no matter who one is, or from whence one originates) is important for the health of the human psyche. That cosmetic surgery has become readily accessible and is in general safe, expert, innovative, healing of body and thus of mind, is irrefutable. Given social conditioning (and most certainly, historical social attitudes and conditioning) a young male or female who presents attractively has social, career and life advantages. This is again, irrefutable. Thus, if a young person (particularly in their 'teen' years) feels a need for cosmetic assistance; the consequent effect of said surgery on that person's self esteem would undoubtedly be of profound value to their future psychological and physical welfare. To illustrate one's perspective. One is fortunate to be frequently in the company of one's beautiful daughter. She lives with her mother, who remains a close friend. Our daughter is a great joy, and the wonder of our lives. At 18 yrs, she has (one is informed) an ideal body shape; to include (one is further informed) the present ideal size for chest-accoutrements. She also has a lovely face and an equally sweet nature. However one is often anxious for her, and even more often bewildered. To quote her mother. "She has enough 'bitch' in her to make her interesting!" One gathers this comment is meant to be reassuring. Our daughter is gifted, but more importantly, she exhibits warmth, empathy and compassion, as well as wit, and a humorous appreciation of the absurd. One has noticed however, that her appearance does tend to intimidate the 'male of the species'. Add that when she is particularly anxious, her facial expression has given others the impression that she is arrogant. This, one must also add, has been the cause of loud and long hilarity for us all. She is quite forthcoming in informing her 'Papa' that his opinion is "largely irrelevant", and further informs her mother that she is "mostly embarrassing!" Given that our daughter is free and forthright in expressing her opinion (on any subject) to both her parents, we are secure in observing this to be an expression of her confidence in us both, rather than that of derision. Thus we find this amusing rather than insulting. As a parent who is unashamed in adoring one's offspring, and as one who is more concerned for her individual welfare than with other's opinion on what is best for that 'general and amorphous collective of teenagers,' one is therefore similarly forthright in stating that if there were to have been, or will ever be an occasion when she felt/feels the need for cosmetic surgery, one would endeavour to provide her with that facility, and with no hesitation. One notes that recently her primary disatisfaction with her appearance is focused upon her eyebrows. (??) Somewhat bewildering but no doubt one will be informed of their significance in due course.
• Thus, if a young person (particularly in their 'teen' years) feels a need for cosmetic assistance; the consequent effect of said surgery on that person's self esteem would undoubtedly be of profound value to their future psychological and physical welfare. Undoubtedly? No. Likely perhaps, but not always. Consider how a parent's reaction can have an effect on a teenager's self esteem. The teen might say something to generate a response and test the waters. "I think I would be prettier if I had a boob job." In your case an appropriate response might be "Well that's certainly your choice and you're free to make it." but perhaps the teen really just wanted to hear you say "You are beautiful just the way you are." A parent's response can have a huge impact on a teen's self-worth. Also, despite a parent's nature to want to do so, it is not a parent's job to give their child everything that child desires. It teaches them nothing of value. All opinions held of course are my own, and I'm no psychologist.
• Well, beauty is only skin deep, as they say, but ugly goes all the way through. You might be able to "fix" your nose and boobs and flab and whatnot, but you'll still have the underlying cause - the genetics that gave you the weird nose and small boobs, the lifestyle that encouraged you to grow the flab. In essence we will be a society of beautiful people doomed to have ugly kids, kids who won't even look like their parents without surgery. Has it happened yet or am I imagining it - husband sues wife for producing ugly kids because she discloses her plastic surgery after the marriage rather than being up-front about it? I swear I saw this news blurb before. I have great respect for the amazing talent of plastic surgeons performing reconstructive work on victims of accident, deformities (hemangiomas, birth defects like cleft palate, etc.), and so on. Nothing but sheer raw amazement at what they can do. The rest of them - the botox-pushing bastards who don't necessarily push patients (but don't really discourage either) to keep modifiying themselves over and over - not so much. There are a few who seem OK, but far too many who apparently think everyone needs every procedure ever invented, and will blatantly tell you so, as if growing old were unnatural and something to be feared. Brave new world, here we come. ...And the truly irresponsible, the ones who accept money to work on people who are truly addicted to the surgery, too far gone to realize it but still desperate for more? The guys who work unlicensed in back alleys doing half-off boob jobs? That lot need to be rounded up and imprisoned.
• Hmmmm, so there are ugly kids, hunh? Maybe that attitude is part of what's wrong in our society. Never mind witty, clever, intelligent, kind, yadda yadda yadda, let's all just be beautiful. My suggestion to you all is if you don't look like __________ __________ (insert current cloned movie star/starlet) then you should go kill yourself. Now. Do the world and yourself a favor. Those who are not beautiful will get nowhere in today's world. They will clone the beautiful people. They don't need you. The rest of us uglies should just go away. Will those of you on MonkeyFilter that are deserving to live because of your incredible loveliness please list your names?
• Oh, shit. In addition to being not beautiful, I'm sarcastic, too. my bad
• I am going to make sure my daughter gets her implants asap before my local politicos get the same idea. Of course, she'll look pretty silly at her first birthday party.