BlogHer, RealityCheck: Women in Blogging Virginia DeBolt writes about women bloggers and their rising presence and willingness to speak out. That means us!

Jezebel, Fat & Smart? Or Skinny & Stupid? & Botox on the Brain Seems like most people want to be chubby and smart. What about you? Also, we hope Virginia Madsen is thick-skinned (hah) enough to be Botox’s spokeswoman, since apparently it has, uh, some side effects.

Women’s E-News, Bill Puts Brakes on ‘Drive-Through’ Masctectomies Something to keep an eye on: activists are rallying for health insurance companies to pay for women’s post-mastectomy care, instead of just sending them home. It’s called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act and R. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. and Marcia Cross (you know, Bree on Desperate Housewives) are advocates.

NBC News, Plastic Surgery Congrats Cards Some of these are sickening and some seem like backhanded compliments. What’s next? Implant rupture I’m Sorry cards? “Hope this doesn’t burst your bubble!” Give us a break.

“My friends have done it and rave about it.”

“My friends look great, and it looks so easy.”

“Everyone is doing it, so it MUST BE SAFE.”

“I’m going to get it done too…”

This is the thinking process for so many people when it comes to cosmetic surgery. It leaves a lot of room for terrible things to happen. Case in point is Priscilla Presley, who ended up with with industrial-grade silicone in her face.

Priscilla, like so many of her social set, was taken in by Daniel Serrano, a handsome Argentinian who had somehow plugged into the Hollywood elite. Serrano, who turns out wasn’t even licensed to practice medicine in the US, provided what he claimed were miracle injections that worked better than Botox. According to TMZ,

Serrano was injecting industrial, low-grade silicone similar to what’s used to lubricate auto parts in Argentina into the faces of these women. Several women, including Shawn King, Larry’s wife, and Diane Richie, Lionel’s wife at the time, held injection parties in their homes, with Serrano needling them with the non-FDA approved drug that he had smuggled in to the U.S. He charged between $300 and $500 a pop.

The injections caused lumps, paralysis and even holes in the face. Serrano, subsequently dubbed “Dr. Jiffy Lube,” ended up in jail, but not before disfiguring many women.

What this story perfectly illustrates is how a herd mentality can take over when a cosmetic medical procedure that can have very serious side effects loses its social stigma. It can become widespread, and finally “fashionable and trendy.” I feel so much sympathy for Priscilla – it’s so hard to exercise your own judgment when the people around you and your social environment urge you to rush in. Under this kind of pressure, any thought of caution and due diligence very easily falls to the wayside.

That’s why the FDA’s decision to put silicone breast implants back on the market, charging women with informed consent, is such a crime. These days, if it were possible to have house parties for breast implants, believe me, they would be happening! In such an atmosphere, how many women, like Serrano’s poor victims, are falling into the herd mentality and consenting to this surgery with only their friends’ or doctors’ safety assurances? Too many, I’m afraid.