A Bad Week For Body Image

Folks down under have had quite a tumultuous week when it comes to issues of weight and women's body image. First, it was proposed that, as of mid-2008, plastic surgery and tanning beds will be off-limits for Queensland teens under the age of 18. That would mean no more sophomore year implants or nose jobs (this new rule would not prevent a teen from corrective surgery, however).

The Australian Society for Plastic Surgeons is all for the move, and some U.S. cosmetic surgeons are liking the idea, too. In an abcnews.com story, Atlanta plastic surgeon Dr. Brian Maloney said, "The percentage of teens having surgery is low; however, I fear television showing [young female celebrities] and their antics as well as others will have a tendency to increase the numbers. [We] have seen a boom of cosmetic procedures as a result of reality TV shows. It is unfortunate that a parent would consider letting a 16-year-old daughter have a breast augmentation."

(This move comes within a few days of the release of children's book My Beautiful Mommy. The pink cover features a little girl staring in amazement at her sparkly, tummy-trimmed, breast-enhanced mother, and includes dialogue such as:

Daughter: "Why are you going to look different?"
Mother: "Not just different, my dear -- prettier!")

Today, news from Australia has emerged highlighting the glaring issues facing young women, from Down Under to America, and their sense of self. Club 21 is an elite clique to which high school girls at St Patrick's College in Mackay, Queensland can belong - if they're willing to partake in a ranking system based on the philosophy "ugly girls need not apply." Members are ranked according to their weight, from one to 21. The number is displayed on each girl's wrist. The thinner the girl, the prettier and more popular she is assumed to be and the higher her rank.

I know what you're thinking - "Wait! High school girls rating each other and basing popularity on looks?! The next thing you'll now, the government is going to tell us the sun is a flaming ball of gasses high in the sky!" Hard to believe, but yes, it's true, and it makes me so, so sad. Simply belonging to a clique is no longer enough. Wearing jelly bracelets to signal to the boys which sex acts you're willing perform is passé. Now, girls are letting their peers marker a numerical rating on their wrists to tell the world (and when you're in high school, it seems that really is The World) how skinny/worthwhile they are.

I will say, when I was in 7th grade, I was a member of the coolest group of girls - Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer and Jessica. We ruled the school. They were all thin and cute and I was tall and big, having only recently been diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I definitely felt oafish around them, even though I was sprouting up and my weight was spreading out. I wanted to be tiny like them.

One day, Jessica told Jennifer #1 that I had called her "a prostitute" in the locker room. (I maintain to this day that I did not - what 7th grader ever uses that kind of terminology?) No matter...I was ousted and spent months crying at home and sucking in my stomach as the Js' piercing glares threatened to, I believed at that time, render me terminally uncool and possibly lifeless.

Today, I am much prettier and more successful than any of them, so I think it all evened out in the end. (Note: Sarcasm).

But still, what an awful experience that was. Today's young girls not only have to brave dangerous Queen Bees and social circles based on weight, but elective cosmetic surgery is becoming as common a graduation present as a car. They're being introduced to thong underwear when they're barely out of diapers and plunging, padded bras before they hit double digits in years. And of course, they can wear these items while playing a rousing online game of Miss Bimbo.

I'm not a parent, but I'd love to hear from mothers and fathers of young girls - Would you give them a senior year rhinoplasty if they truly believed it will boost their self-esteem? What about liposuction? Are they allowed to wear thongs as early as they want? Have they come home crying from being taunted by some Heathers-esque clique leader? Are you and your daughters battling these demons...and if so, who is winning?

Comments

[ceu]

No one is winning. Go back and read the comments under the article about "weightism" a few weeks back - horrible things said by supposed-adults about how disgusting, repulsive, and lacking in self-control overweight people are. Think about how a 13 - 15 year old girl would react to that attitude, and to the knowledge that adults, who should know better, agree & encourage an idealized perception of body image. Forget intelligence or kindness or generosity. Forget all the years of being told by your parents not to judge a book by its cover & to get to know people or, to paraphrase Dr King's words, value people based on the content of their characters rather than their outward appearances. Our society values people based on their looks. Period. As Jackson Browne said "it's who you look like, not who you are".
What's it like to be the mother of a teenage female getting mixed messages? It's damned difficult and increasingly frustrating!

[LeslieM]

Thanks for the article.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports that teenagers make up only 2% of their patients.
This information can be found on their website (under Age Distribution, Cosmetic Patients 13-19).

http://www.plasticsurgery.org/media/Press_Kits/Procedural-Statistics-Press-Kit-Index.cfm

What they OMIT however is how many people under the age of 18 are receiving breast augmentation, which was the topic of discussion. Where is this data?

The sad reality is regulations on cometic surgery for youth in the US will do little except also mean securing a passport, visa and airplane ticket. This will pose no obstacle to the Hollywood elite, and those who already have the money to pay for elective surgery.

[singermuse]

The "good news" part of this article is that the medical communities in the US and Australia, among others are taking steps to prevent young women (and men) from doing things to themselves that they might regret later. The "bad news" is that this current "pseudo-culture" is not only dictating what is appropriate in appearance but KILLING people in the process. Young people who are deemed "uncool" these days don't just go home and cry and suck in their tummies. Now, they cut themselves, starve themselves, commit suicide, or decide to "take out" the ones who hurt them as in the case of Columbine and other incidences of mass school shootings. Follow the money. The money makers don't care if their policies and propaganda destroys young people's lives. The bottom line is what matters to them, and allowing people to be acceptable "as is" doesn't rake in the bucks. There is a great deal of untapped power in the boycott. But it takes courage, especially if a person feels they're standing alone.
Boycott those products, programs, media that foster poor self image and if enough people do this, the money makers will change their tack.

[cindysundancer]

A flat slender ironing board with two bowling balls attached is not how God created women. We need to give our kids some deeper values to hang on to. Then the glitzy life at Hollywood High won't seem shiny, but just shallow.

[Triangle1]

Take a look at a National Geographic magazine. Compared to many tribal communities, what the "modern" woman does to herself is right in line with what has always been done. If "natural" people are tattooing their entire bodies, lengthening their necks with discs, and stretching their earlobes beyond belief, how is a breast implant (or two) using modern plastic surgery any worse? I would think the breast implant patient would be under much better medical care than a jungle woman. I personally don't think a breast implant is necessary, but I say to each her own.

[werbenjagermanjensen]

To be fair, this isn't just an issue of concern to females. We have young men getting breast reduction surgery because it was recently decided that "manboobs' are an unnatural horror and compromising their mental and physical health (and fertility) with steroids because it's been decreed that DC Comic protagonists are the standard for male looks and athletic abilities.

Also, young woman do have the choice of not taking the porn star route in life. Both feminists and conservative Christians have been working overtime to give girls and women the wherewithal to say "no" to sexual coercion and finding something more meaningful to do with their time than wax their bikini areas and go cruising for hookups. Men, on the other hand, are expected to be priapic predators at all time, beyond all considerations of health and common sense, and the result is antibiotic resistant STDs, paternity suits, divorce, public humiliation, the occasional stint of jail time, and the ongoing Viagra con game. The American commoditization of sex hasn't been good for either gender.

[loril]

This is why I look forward with dread to my daughter's middle school and high school days. I was not popular in high school and I could not wait to leave and get on with my life elsewhere. I did and I really blossomed when I left and had the chance to make a new start in college. However, it was a long road. And we did not deal with the crazy shit that kids are doing now vis a vis the sex wrist bracelets, blow job parties and pro-anorexia insanity. Kids had problems and kids could be cruel but not at the accelerated level we see right now.

Frankly, I think the economy will "fix" this issue. I don't know about a lot of you...but we can't even afford a second car for myself and my husband right now. No way could we manage a new car for a teenager. We are lucky enough to have health insurance. But we could not afford elective cosmetic surgery. I think the era of glitzy teendom is coming to a crashing halt for much of the population. We are too busy trying to afford our mortgage, the rising price of gas and commodities and saving for college as we cope with flat salaries, unemployment and the increase in our own contribution to our health care.

[singermuse]

Unfortunately, the economy's problems will only serve to exacerbate the problem. As we become more socially stratified, it'll look more like the Great Depression, where the wealthy flaunted their wealth and the rest tried to imitate them as best they could. It's psychology. When there is only intermittent reward, then the subject becomes more "hooked".

[recless]

Not a parent, but just my two cents. Adults have a hard time understanding how kids can think like they do, but it isn't really all that surprising. It is not something they are actively thinking up. This body image thing has become a new meme, and kids are inheriting it along with all their other social/cultural memes. Deconstructing a meme is not an easy thing to do. Influences on kids come from any number of angles these days. Just seems to me that unless kids have a really good relationship with their parents and family, the speeches by family about how they are "pretty" and "normal" as they are will fall on deaf ears. This is really more of the "Lord of the Flies" upbringing kids are getting. Attempts to teach kids how to think and how to rationally understand the world get lost in all the social/cultural noise.

[kendra]

Aaah! Sorry!

"reaffirms my resolve" to homeschool.

[kendra]

Ok, this story makes me reaffirms my resolve re. homeschooling my 3 young girls.

[mscreant]

Because sheltering them from the real world will help them...how? Rather, one would suggest, teach them how to ignore or even to fight these types of forces? Ya know....try parenting instead of putting YOUR fears of the world into them?

[unclesmedley]

"There is nothing in life more disappointing than attainment." Chas. Dickens

"There is no greater guarantee for failure in life than happiness in high school." --David Hwang

These vapid, vain, callow and poorly supervised creatures, who resort to self maiming before their bodies are fully realized typically tend to provide succor and immeasurable satisfaction to many a once-troubled soul at class reunions.

[BillLumbergh]

So revenge is the answer? Gloating?
How very intelligent and civilized. Mean girls have the excuse of being girls, what excuse does an adult have for feeling the need to 'get even' ?

[MissAngela]

Never, and never.
Not even really because "it's what's on the inside that matters" but because...
PEOPLE ARE DYING OF STARVATION
And people are spending money to look like the starving people
it's just so backwards...