Fw: The Young and the Plastic ~ Cleveland Free Times

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From: " ilena rose " <ilena@...>

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Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 1:23 PM

Subject: The Young and the Plastic ~ Cleveland Free Times

> ~~~ Thanks Onnie. Reminds me of a quote from Faye Resnick during the OJ

> trial ... after having the gruesome murders and other things blamed on

her,

> she was quoted, " the only thing they got right about me was that I have

> breast implants. " So did Simpson. ~~~

>

> http://www.alternet.org/print.html?StoryID=12574

>

>

> The Young and the Plastic

>

> Pamela Zaslov, Cleveland Free Times

> March 7, 2002

> Viewed on March 8, 2002

>

> -------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> Oh, Greta, we hardly knew you. When you were just a legal commentator on

> CNN, we took comfort in the fact that your face was not a " TV face. " Your

> mouth drooped, your hair hung lank and uncombed, and somehow it made us

> trust you. We focused on the words you were saying, not how you looked

> saying them. It reminded us of the early days of television, when the news

> was delivered by graying men in glasses, chosen not for their

> babe-magnetude, but for their authoritative demeanor. Greta, when we saw

> you talking about the O.J. Simpson trial, we thought, " There's a woman

> who's so smart she doesn't have to think about her looks. " And we loved

you

> for it.

>

>

> How disheartening it was to find out that our heroine, Greta Van Susteren,

> is as vain and shallow as the rest of us. That she spends her leisure time

> not musing on writs of habeas corpus, but gazing in the mirror and

> wondering: Hot or Not?

>

>

> During the month-long interim between leaving CNN and starting her new job

> as an anchor for Fox News, Greta looked up from her Sunday newspaper and

> asked her husband, " Should I get rid of these bags under my eyes? " Though

> her husband gallantly assured her that she " always looks 25 " to him, the

> 47-year-old underwent blepharoplasty, an eye lift that rendered her

> virtually unrecognizable. Her eyes, once drooping and baggy but undeniably

> real, now reside somewhere near her ears, and she has a tight,

> expressionless look. Her face looks younger, yes, but it doesn't look like

> her.

>

>

> " I don't think it was a very good job, " observes Dr. Janet Blanchard, a

> plastic surgeon. " She looks better, but her eyes are still crinkly or

> something. "

>

>

> The attention given to Greta's new and " improved " look, and her

willingness

> to speak candidly about it, is part of a growing trend. Not only are more

> people getting plastic surgery, more people are talking about it. A lot.

> And it isn't just show-business freaks like Joan Rivers, Cher,

> and Britney, or bizarre, divorced socialites like Ivana Trump and

> Jocelyne Wildenstein who are flaunting their eye jobs, face lifts, breast

> lifts, face peels and Botox injections. It's everyone. Once a source of

> shame and ridicule, going under the knife has become just another thing

you

> do to make yourself feel better, like buying a new lipstick. " You have to

> realize this was not a huge decision, " Van Susteren told People magazine.

> " Not like choosing a law school. "

>

>

> To many, the most disturbing part of plastic surgery's new acceptability

is

> the rise in teenagers wanting to reshape their faces and bodies. In 1996,

> patients 18 and younger accounted for less than 1 percent of cosmetic

> procedures performed annually; last year, it was 3 percent. The teens are

> seeking nose reshaping, breast augmentation and liposuction, thinking of

> them as quick solutions to their adolescent self-image problems. The

> Federal Food and Drug Administration has guidelines setting 18 as the

> minimum age for cosmetic breast implant surgery, and the American Society

> of Plastic Surgeons last year issued recommendations for teenagers

> considering cosmetic surgery, which include determining the patient's

> physical and emotional maturity. All the Cleveland-area surgeons we talked

> to follow these guidelines.

>

>

> Magazine articles and TV talk shows have sounded the alarm, warning of

> hordes of teenage girls beating tear-stained paths to plastic surgeons'

> doors, begging to be morphed into Britney Spears or Pamela , and

> adolescent boys demanding Baywatch-style six-pack abs. Some plastic

> surgeons have claimed that after rumors surfaced about Ms. Spears'

splendid

> new rack, they saw a rise in teen requests for breast implants.

>

>

> Every generation has its " teens are out of control " phenomenon, whether

> it's drag racing, rock and roll, drugs, body piercing, tattoos or cosmetic

> surgery. Is teen plastic surgery a real epidemic, or a media-generated

> scare? The numbers have clearly been exaggerated. New York plastic surgeon

> Dr. Rapaport, appearing on the CBS Early Show, explained that while

> the absolute number of teens seeking plastic surgery has increased

> slightly, the proportion -- relative to the overall population of plastic

> surgery patients -- has actually decreased. Much of the reported

" evidence "

> of the mania for teen surgery is anecdotal. There was the widely

publicized

> story about Jenna lin, a British teen whose parents promised her new

> breasts for her 16th birthday, something she had longed for since she was

> 12. (The surgeon her parents hired refused, saying " at 16 the breast isn't

> mature enough, and there are a lot of psychological implications. " )

>

>

> Then there was the cautionary tale -- probably apocryphal -- of a

> 19-year-old who wanted her " eye wrinkles " fixed. The surgeon balked, and

> the girl had the procedure done elsewhere, only to return to the first

> doctor to repair the ghastly results. Daytime talk shows have stoked the

> supposed phenomenon: According to a survey, the sexy, ratings-grabbing

> topic of teenage plastic surgery has been the focus of more than 200

Oprah,

> Sally Jessy Raphael, Ricki Lake and Jerry Springer shows ( " I Want Bigger

> Breasts But My Parents Won't Let Me! " ) since 1997.

>

>

> Kate, 17, says her classmates aren't stampeding cosmetic surgeons'

offices.

> " People talk about it, saying they want liposuction or a nose job, but I

> don't know how many are actually doing it. " Kate had a nose job at 16 --

" I

> always thought my nose was out of proportion " -- and is thrilled with the

> results. She thinks plastic surgery is a good idea for some young people.

> " If it's gonna change your confidence, it's worth it. "

>

>

> In the midwest, plastic surgeons say they haven't seen a huge increase in

> the number of teenagers seeking cosmetic procedures, perhaps because those

> parts of the country -- compared to New York and California -- are fairly

> conservative. " In California, it's common to see teenagers getting breast

> augmentation for a graduation present, " says Dr. Windle, an Ohio

> plastic surgeon. " It's not that common in this market. "

>

>

> Plastic surgeon Dr. Picha thinks the furor over teenage cosmetic

> surgery is an overreaction. " Some of [those counted] are teens having

cleft

> lips and palates and other facial defects corrected, " he says. It's a

stark

> contrast from Brazil and Colombia, where, Dr. Picha remarks, " girls of 14

> or so get cosmetic surgery for birthday presents. "

>

>

> All the doctors we spoke to said they won't perform a breast augmentation

> on anyone under 18. " They're too young to make a decision, " says plastic

> surgeon Dr. Fedele. " And there's a good chance there will be

> changes in the breasts. " Rhinoplasty, or nose jobs, are another story:

> generally, they can be performed at age 16 or so. Surgeons in more

> conservative areas fully assess young patients' physical and psychological

> maturity before deciding whether to perform surgery. " Most 14- or

> 15-year-olds are not ready to handle a surgical procedure, " Dr. Fedele

> says. " Surgery is very stressful -- even for doctors having surgery. "

>

>

> Even if the number of teenagers getting their breasts enlarged and their

> thighs defatted is still relatively low, many more young people are

> thinking about surgery as an instant solution to their problems and a fast

> track to popularity. Tamara Singh, Psy.D., a psychologist who treats

> adolescents with body-image problems and eating disorders, thinks today's

> teenagers are more likely to think of cosmetic surgery as a way to bolster

> their precarious self-esteem.

>

>

> " In the teen years, kids are pretty emotional, and it's hard for them to

> separate the emotion from the rationale for doing it, " says Dr. Singh.

> " They think it will be a quick fix. It's a dangerous way to resolve

> anxiety. It perpetuates low self-esteem. " Teens whose parents who are

> especially image-conscious are more at risk for eating disorders or

> unnecessary plastic surgery, adds Dr. Singh. She further believes that

> images in magazines and on television of starved models with perfect,

> airbrushed complexions make teenagers perceive themselves as flawed. " We

> have a media culture that pushes extreme slenderness, the ideal woman or

> man. Even eating disorders are glamorized. We have to tell adolescents

that

> we're all perfect, interesting and unique. "

>

>

> Try telling that to , who devoted years of her life and a

> small fortune to have dozens of operations to look like her childhood

> ideal: Barbie. " When I was 6 years old, my parents bought me a Barbie

> doll, " writes on her website, www.cindyjackson.com. " In my

> imagination, I dreamed of a happy and glamorous life for my doll. Through

> Barbie, I could glimpse an alternate destiny. "

>

>

> Pamela Zoslov is the Arts Editor of Cleveland Free Times.

>

>