Comments on: Exporting American Beauty: Plastic Surgery and the New Culture of Worldwide Acceptance

By: Mervin

Mervin — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:30:28 +0000

Mervin…

I just wanted to write to say that you have a great site and a wonderful resource for all to share….

By: Gloria

Gloria — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:52:54 +0000

Maybe it’s not everyday guys, black, white, red, purple, whatever… Someone once said to me that the feminine ideal is based on the preferences of the gay men in the fashion and entertainment industry… I thought that was a very interesting insight!

By: jayla

jayla — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:18:01 +0000

At least black guys do diane

By: diane

diane — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:15:49 +0000

Why would a black woman want to get rid of her hips, butt, and boobs or reduce them or whatever.
TO commit to white society beauty? Be happy that you have curves! I heard guys like that

By: Jennifer C-B

Jennifer C-B — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:06:29 +0000

Gloria and Mary–The two of you have hit upon, I think, a central dilemma for feminists: on the one hand, we must (we must!) critique a capitalist, commercialized society that perpetuates an impossible ideal of beauty for women in order to keep women as lifelong beauty-product consumers and thereby undermine their credibility as professionals or intellectuals (as meaning-makers). On the other hand, even professional, intellectual women are often complicit in their own image oppression: because there is a kind of “power” in beauty, we feel the need to ascribe to its precepts. In my world of academe, if a male professor wears jeans or refuses to shave or shows up to teach in basketball gear, he still garners respect. If a female professor, however, “lets herself go” (doesn’t dye her hair, doesn’t wear make-up, isn’t rail thin), both students and colleagues don’t take her as seriously. Indeed, student evaluations of female professors’ classes often “go down” as such academics age, whereas male professors do not suffer the same decline in their class assessments until they are well into their late 50s. I wish I knew how to resolve this dilemma.

By: Gloria

Gloria — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:10:55 +0000

Mary, you go girl!

But you know, sometimes I suspect that women need to take a little of the blame. Sure, we don’t put up enough of a fight. But on the other hand, very few of us are attracted to men who are less successful, less smart, less whatever than we are. Our instinct is still to huddle around the alpha male. And as a result, these days, as more women climb the ladder of success, the dating pool they are looking at shrinks the higher they climb since mates must be a few rungs higher than themselves, while for male climbers, their dating pools only get bigger.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if women want to be judged on more than our looks, then we have to judge men on more than their earning power. The more there are couples where the wife is the successful one, the more such women would be considered desirable, and the less society n general would value women on outward appearance.

By: Mary

Mary — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 03:06:44 +0000

It seems to me that looking like the “ideal” beauty, by whatever means necessary, IS ALREADY expected if women want to become the most successful and respected in most fields. I see brilliant scholars, executives, and newscasters giving into this cultural pressure to look like a pin-up in order to “really” get ahead. A “pretty” or “plastic clone” executive will earn more $, attention, promotions, fame, and respect than an equally skilled woman who chooses not to play the game. There are plenty of filthy rich and successful men who are “ugly” (by the media standard) - look at Donald Trump for heaven’s sake - but how many “unattractive” women are cultural icons of “success”? Not many. How a woman looks is still a huge determinant of how she is treated, no matter how smart or rich she is.

It is disgusting to me that misogynists have managed to manipulate the media, the professional world, and even the feminist movement in order to get what they want - blow up dolls to gawk at for their own pleasure. I mean, why look at Plain Jane with her small or droopy baby-feeder breasts (or big nose, full hips, etc) when you now have the choice to hire an equally educated/skilled woman who has chosen to get on board w/ looking how women “should” (i.e., how misogynistic men want them to). It used to be they had to settle for the stereotypically “ditzy blondes” if they wanted that type of porno-style eye candy. Now, thanks to all these intelligent and accomplished women giving into this trend, these control-freak men can have their cake and eat it too…..and smirk all the way to the bank, too.

We clearly are back to the days when small or saggy breasts are considered a “defect.” Ya, we’ve really “come a long way, baby.” Give me that cigarette, lipo, a boob job, and stiletto heels that kill my feet but look so so good to my male counterparts. Because no matter what a woman’s intellect, skill, or talent is, her success STILL depends strongly on how she LOOKS.

I made myself solemnly swear that I would never submit to this insidious pressure; no matter how damn ugly I feel, no matter how low my self esteem gets during a bad depression, no matter how many promotions I have to pass up, no matter if I have to accept that I will never be on tv (even as a professional journalist), I will not play this game. To me it is a haunting return to days gone past when so many women fought so hard to make things better for me. I will not disrespect their work and sacrifice by supporting this trend by calling it “empowering.”

Just because something makes you feel better or more confident does not make it empowering. If that were the case, then binge eating and taking drugs would be empowering. False empowerment is dangerous, not an asset.

…..Whew! Got that off my chest. Ahem….

By: Gloria

Gloria — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:00:30 +0000

Anne, I think you do it by focusing on the health issue, at least in the case of breast implants. It’s major surgery, and the rate of complications is high (30% in first five years, and probably higher beyond that but the manufacturers have been very clever in avoiding doing the necessary research). None of it is paid for by insurance, and if something goes very, very wrong, women become bankrupt trying to pay for treatment and they don’t even have the right to litigation. In other words, women are kept ignorant of the risks in order that they continue to pay for a procedure that could ruin their lives. That’s oppression.

By: Anne Walterich

Anne Walterich — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:18:29 +0000

But injecting botulism in my face is such a great idea!

Seriously, how do you go about transforming Barbieism as a symbol of empowerment in our consumer culture (If you want a new nose you certainly have the right to buy it!) to one of oppression without looking like a “feminazi” or “wacko” to those not like-minded, further stereotyping feminists?

By: Jennifer C-B

Jennifer C-B — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:07:53 +0000

Rogene–You are so brave to have had your implants taken out; I commend you. You might be interested in an article that came out about a year ago correlating breast-implant recipents with suicide rates. It’s by Eric Nagourney and was published on Sept. 26, 2006 in the _New York Times_. In it, Nagourney writes, “Writing in _The American Journal of Epidemiology_, researchers said they had found no definitive evidence that implants contribute directly to mortality. But for some reason, suicide was more common among the women who had implants for cosmetic reasons. The findings came as the researchers were looking at the overall health effects of implants. The researchers, from the Université Laval Faculty of Medicine and the Public Health Agency of Canada, looked at what happened to almost 25,000 women who had implants from 1974 to 1989. During that time, 480 of the women died. When the researchers looked into the causes of death, they found that the women with implants had a suicide rate 73 percent higher than that of the general population.” A terrifying statistic.