Here is something well and truly despicable: a new kid's book explaining why Mommy's plastic surgery is a great thing for Mommy's well being. From Newsweek's story:
When she was pregnant with her son Junior, who turns nine this month, Gabriela Acosta ballooned from 115 pounds to 196. Acosta lost the weight but wound up with stretched, saggy skin. Even her son noticed it. He told her that her stomach looked "pruney," the result, he thought, of staying in the shower too long. So the 29-year-old stay-at-home mom scheduled a consultation with Dr. Michael Salzhauer, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Bal Harbour, Fla.Acosta told Salzhauer that she wasn't sure how to talk to her son about the procedures she was considering. That's when he showed her the manuscript for his children's picture book, "My Beautiful Mommy" (Big Tent Books), out this Mother's Day. It features a perky mother explaining to her child why she's having cosmetic surgery (a nose job and tummy tuck). Naturally, it has a happy ending: mommy winds up "even more" beautiful than before, and her daughter is thrilled.
The reassuring tale helped win Acosta over—she scheduled breast augmentation and a tummy tuck. Since February, when she had the surgery, she and Junior have read the book a half dozen times, and she says it helped him feel excited rather than scared. "I didn't want him to think [the surgery] was because I was hurting. It was to make me feel good," she says.
That message seems to have gotten through. Instead of being uncomfortable about the surgery, Acosta says her son actually spoke up about it at a big party. "Did you see her new belly button? It's so pretty!" he said of his mom. "I think he was proud," she says.
This, of course, is not about Junior. It's about Mommy's vanity, and her trying to rationalize it to her child. "I think he was proud"? No, Mommy, I think you are feeling guilty and trying to soothe your anxiety. The tummy tuck after such a massive weight loss, fine, I get that. But a boob job? Come on.
What kind of message is this sending to little girls? That if they don't like their bodies, that if their physical appearance doesn't conform to current physical ideals, that they should be willing to go under the knife to make themselves "prettier"? Sick. The proponents of this book say that it's helpful for kids to have plastic surgery demystified so they won't be so frightened when Mommy goes in for tummy tucks and boob jobs. Yeah, well, keep telling yourself that. What this book really does is put even more pressure on girls in this culture to learn to hate themselves for not measuring up to a Barbie doll ideal. If they're being taught to absorb this toxic idea from childhood, what kind of neurotic wrecks are they doing to be as teenagers? And boys too will learn that if females fall short of the physical ideal, well, they ought to go to the medical profession and fix their imperfections via surgery.
Why do we feed our kids such poison?
UPDATE: Oh look, padded bras for seven and eight year olds!
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Woah Bessie. Obviously, as a first time poster I was not clear enough. I do not agree with the book! It is completely shallow and vain. What I am saying is it should come as no suprise that women have issues dealing with these major changes that take place and we should be sympathetic to that - not to "corrective" plastic surgery. Also, it should come as no suprise that this book was even published. It is a sad reflection on the state of our society, but no real suprise when everyone expects to get what they want and when they want it, without any excuses! Lastly, give me a break! To call myself a mom as opposed to a mother does NOT make me or anyone else less of a parent! That is just ridiculous and infuriating!
It's true that women AND men have always been going to crazy lengths for fashion. Waxing is disgusting, but it's not as much trouble as piercing your nose with a bone! I still think that a decent guy (as in, not a pornography addict or a serial adulterer) will love his wife even if she doesn't look like a model. The proof of this? Look around at the the older couples you know! Do beautiful women really stay married longer and happier than plain women?
I would worry about whatever woman this boy might marry....the minute anything is out of place he will think it no big deal for her to have surgery to "fix" the "problem."
I can understand getting rid of saggy skin (depending on the amount and location, just carrying it around could cause problems), but obviously that was not the point of the original piece. Advocates will say there is no difference between this children's book and one that explains that mommy is going to have surgery (necessary c-section) and bring home a new baby brother! In a world with no transcendent truth, right or wrong, anyone can do whatever they please as each choice is equal before the whims of the chooser. Such a book is simply mom passing on her atheism to her son with "whatever makes you happy" as the only rule by which to live.
somewhere kids have gotten traumatized over this, thus a need for the book. if we want to know the difference between right and wrong, sometimes we just need to look for a childs reaction, its usually pure.i would hate to be the author. being a parent and having to justify vanity to children and this being a necessary calling in life? they need to get on another journey
This isn't exactly the same thing, but my 7-yr-old son's dentist wants to extract four of his baby teeth.
That's right, baby teeth.
When I refused on the grounds that baby teeth come out on their own, I was told, "Not always." Sure, not when they're extracted first.
Cleaning teeth and taking x-rays twice a year must not be generating enough revenue. My insurance must pay for a few extractions as well.
There's more wrong with health care than we know.
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