A rchive Date
[ 23-02-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[Boob contest sign of our obsession
By MINDELLE JACOBS -- Edmonton Sun
September 7, 2000
OK, sex sells.
So you can't really blame a Vancouver-area bar for trying to drum up a little publicity by holding a Win Boobs contest.
The sad part of it all is that so many of the young patrons of Tommy's Bar and Grill in Maple Ridge, B.C., have become swept up in the boob mania.
How many of us dream of having the toned, smooth body of a 20-year-old? What do they have to complain about?
Plenty, it seems.
"Everyone has something they want changed about them, especially if they can do it for free," 25-year-old Tommy's Bar and Grill manager Melinda Vince told a Vancouver paper.
Many of her friends have entered the contest, she added. The winner gets $3,000 for breast implants - or any other plastic surgery.
Apparently it's not just young women who suffer from a lack of self-esteem these days. Men, too, have entered the contest.
And don't be so sure that if a man wins he won't follow through and get pec implants.
Cosmetic surgery isn't just a girl thing any more.
In the U.S. last year, almost 11% of cosmetic surgery procedures were performed on men. (There are no comparable Canadian stats but you can bet there's a similar trend here.)
In 1999, for instance, almost 30,000 American men got liposuction, five times as many as in 1992.
Eyelid surgery and facelifts are popular among men as well. Almost 22,000 U.S. men got their eyes done and 6,600 men got facelifts last year, up dramatically from 1992.
But women still undergo the vast majority of cosmetic surgery procedures (900,000 women vs. 107,000 men in the U.S. last year), according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
Nips and tucks have become so commonplace that it's almost a cultural taboo to look your age any more. If you don't believe me, go to a country where aging naturally is accepted.
Years ago, when I was in Greece, it occurred to me that there was something odd about the women. From my twentysomething perspective, it seemed like there were young women and grey-haired old women but no middle-aged women.
Then it struck me. The women in Greece (at least back then) didn't dye their hair or do 300 stomach crunches a day to try to look 15 years younger. Gee, that's what a 50-year-old woman really looks like, I thought.
In North America, though, the cult of the body and the obsession with youth - championed by Hollywood and the fashion industry - means it's virtually impossible for people (especially women) to age normally.
How else do you explain that procedures like breast augmentation, buttock lifts, liposuction, Retin-A treatment and tummy tucks have become so much more popular among 19- to 34-year-olds over the past few years?
If people that young are already anxious about their looks, it's no wonder pre-teen girls think they're fat. The message is everywhere - your body needs a fix-up.
We have apparently lost the ability to truly communicate.
Perhaps it's all those nights spent in clubs with ear-splitting rock music. You can't hear each other anyway, so why talk to your date?
Instead, we commune on a more vacant plane - through our physical attributes - real or not.
It's pretty sad, isn't it?
We're the most well-connected generation in history. Put women in front of a computer and we're super-communicators. We're confident as hell.
Put us a bar-stool away from a member of the opposite sex, though, and we're tongue-tied.
We have to let our boobs speak for us.
Mindelle can be reached by e-mail at mjacobs@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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