There was a time when the world was inspired by John F. Kennedy’s words that “Ich bin ein Berliner,” meaning that all people who value freedom and democracy were Berliners. West Berlin, Kennedy said, was a symbol of freedom in a world threatened by the Cold War.

Nowadays, people seem to be inspired by more solipsistic concerns, like how to look better on the outside in order to feel better about ourselves on the inside. For women, the symbol of how we should look is Barbie. The unrelenting pressure from media and society to look a certain way has lead to the booming plastic surgery industry. In fact, the industry is racing towards levels of standardization and efficiency that will in effect allow women of all shapes and sizes to walk into a factory process and emerge at the other end looking EXACTLY THE SAME as one another - all uniqueness nipped, tucked and stuffed to oblivion.

According to The Sunday Times in London, at the upcoming annual meeting of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, a highlight will be a presentation by John Tebbetts, a Texas plastic surgeon who has figured out how to carry out breast augmentation in 30 minutes by first carrying out exact measurements of the breast skin and tissue in advance so that exactly the right size of implant is inserted at the time of surgery. Tebbetts says, “After the surgery we tell the women to go home, have a little nap then get up after two hours, wash their hair, which helps them stretch their muscles, then to go out to dinner. Between 80 and 85% of our patients go out on the evening of their surgery.”

The same Sunday Times article informs us that there actually IS an ideal breast. This week, British plastic surgeon Patrick Mallucci will share with an augmentation symposium at the Royal College of Surgeons his formula for the perfectly proportioned breast, which has the nipple pointing slightly skyward and sitting about 45 percent from the top. “An attractive breast has a balanced proportion between the upper half and lower half,” says Mallucci. “All the models I looked at conformed to those parameters.”

So, how long before assembly-line practices like Tebbett’s begin to exclusively offer implants that conform to Malluci’s measurements, and dinner is replaced by a couple of hours with stylists who, post-op, can give every woman the same shade and style of blond hair, and teach them all how to use make-up to achieve the same look?

Is this really what women want – to look identical to each other so that we don’t feel inadequate? If so, we should seriously consider all donning burqas. They would be a much healthier and cheaper alternative to achieve the same ends. Maybe then, we can remember what is really means to be a woman and to be free.

TAGS: Barbie, burqas, burqa