A Greenpeace activist holds up a sign to protest against pulpmill pollution during the family photo of the heads of states of European Union, Latin American and Caribbean at the 'IV Summit of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean' in Vienna May 12, 2006. The protester, Evangelina Carrozo, who is the Carnival queen of the Argentine city of Gualeguaychu located on the Uruguay River, holds a sign protesting the construction of two controversial paper mills by companies from Finland and Spain on the Uruguayan side of the river, where Gualeguaychu residents are concerned over the environmental impact. Watching the protest are both presidents involved in the diplomatic row caused by the paper mills, Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez (top row 2nd L) and Argentine President Nestor Kirchner (front row R). REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger By Justin Delacour
Latin American News Review
January 8, 2008
Over the holidays, a clever one over at BoRev noted the following: "This is the time of year when Venezuelans reflect on the greatest gift of all: boob jobs."
Now, unfortunately, this is a cultural phenomenon that I will never be able to understand. Forgive my insensitivity, but any society in which massive numbers of people somehow feel the need to put themselves under the knife so as to feel adequate strikes me as a society with some problems.
(And besides that, where's the novelty in it all if every other Venezolana and her mother is walking around with a couple of bomb shells?)
But, hey, I shouldn't single out the Venezuelans on this score. As I continue to wade through nearly 20 years of U.S. media coverage of Latin America for my dissertation, I just came across a disturbing old report on ABC's 20/20 about the Argentines' fetish for plastic surgery. Here's an excerpt of the report, which aired on October 18, 1996:
DEBORAH ROBERTS: [voice-over] Only in the last decade have Argentines emerged from a brutal military dictatorship. As they embrace democracy and freedom from those times, they've also embraced a new kind of self-improvement. Once, psychiatry was fashionable. But now, matters of the mind have been replaced by an obsession with the body. Just look at Argentine television. One show called 90, 60, 90 translates to 35, 24, 35. You get the point. The excesses of plastic surgery also provide limitless material for a comic who, week after week, appeared dressed as a socialite wearing a newly redone face. But not everyone thinks cosmetic surgery is funny. Thirty-nine-year-old Dulce Libidinski has had four operations and is now considering a fifth. Her search, she says, is not for perfection. She just wants to fit in. Many people would be stunned to think that a 39-year-old woman has had four surgeries.
DULCE LIBIDINSKI: I've sort of grown up with this message of the people that surrounded me, you're not as beautiful as the others and it's very tough.
DEBORAH ROBERTS: There's a social pressure to look beautiful?
DULCE LIBIDINSKI: Yes. So when you get the opportunity to improve yourself, well, you just grab it.
DEBORAH ROBERTS: [voice-over] And Nydia Rodriguez did just that. A maid who has been widowed for 15 years, she recently had a face lift, hoping to improve her chances of finding a new husband.
NYDIA RODRIGUEZ: I always dreamt about the actresses. I watched the television. Why can they have it done and I can't?
DEBORAH ROBERTS: [voice-over] She's proud of her temporary bruises. Here in Argentina, they're a status symbol.
JONATHAN FRIEDLAN: It's like having a- a nice car or an Armani suit. If you'd had surgery done it was something you flaunted. Here, you come out and you go to the nightclub the next day with a bandage over your nose and that's not only acceptable, but something kind of cool...
(click here to view a recent ABC report about "beauty-obsessed Argentina")
8 comments:
yeah it's pretty sad, most girls think it's the only way to get a guy, as the ratio of single women to guys here is about 3-1.
It's the usual teenage birthday or graduation present among the wealthy, but now even the ordinary girls want them, now they have much more disposable income than ever before.
Got to remember the TV here is crap overall, and with the countless soap operas with their "perfect" actresses, girls are using them as role models.
Got to say though the surgeons are very good, it's nothing like SoCal or South Beach, most look real.
Got to say though the surgeons are very good, it's nothing like SoCal or South Beach, most look real.
Well, I'm sure the surgeons are good. They get a lot of practice.
However, when you see a Venezuelan woman with a saggy rear end and a couple of bomb shells, the proportions are off. I've seen it before and it didn't look natural.
No argument here Justin, the surgeons do get a lot of practice. But it's a cultural thing, when Chavez railed against 15 year olds getting boob jobs a couple of years ago the opposition went nuts, no surprise there, they're as superficial as the fake tits.
But the reality is beauty is the national sport and if a girl wants a guy then surgery seems to be their first choice.
The saddest part is most of the guys here are close to worthless but have 2 or 3 girlfriends and the married men have 2+ mistresses.
Don't know the answers, but Chavez has enough on his plate without this as well.
But they are trying to educate the girls, but it's a fight with the billboards, beer cans and crap soap operas pushing "plasticos" to the fore front shall we say.
As far as saggy arses that's everywhere and every beach worldwide.
But it's a cultural thing, when Chavez railed against 15 year olds getting boob jobs a couple of years ago the opposition went nuts, no surprise there, they're as superficial as the fake tits.
Glad to hear that Hugo doesn't approve. I just hope that there's no state subsidies for plastic surgery.
Don't know the answers, but Chavez has enough on his plate without this as well.
No, I agree. I wouldn't blame this on Chavez. This is a cultural problem that runs far deeper than the politics of state.
"This is a cultural problem that runs far deeper than the politics of state."
Yes, it's spelled M-E-N
actually if you can believe this the Governor of Nueva Esparta State was offering them for free, a couple of years ago to residends of Margarita, as get this "a boost to tourism".
Yeah it's a cultural thing !
Yep, it's a problem in Argentina too, and has been for years; google "Argentina, plastic surgery" and you'll get tons of chirpy news items.
Brazil, likewise, has a fetish for this insanity. A couple of years ago, the big story this time of year was of a Carnival queen who'd had more plastic surgeries than years on her odometer. She'd even had her eyes surgically "slanted" to make her look Japanese, in honor of the year's theme--Japanese culture in Brazil. But the biggest hoo-ha was about how common surgical "touch-ups" had become--apparently they're now as common as hair dye. Poor women are getting them on the installment plan, and the surgeons are laughing all the way to the bank.
The lesser-told part of the story, in whatever country where there's a big-time boom in cosmetic alterations, is the fact that a lot of the procedures are going sour. There are unlicensed practitioners galore, and women's health is suffering as a result. Silicone is migrating out of breasts, butts, etc, and causing autoimmune diseases; there are also countless allergic reactions to cheap collagen, bad Botoxing, etc. And then there's the biggest horror--women dying on the table from improperly administered anesthesia.
The least-told part of all is that all these countries have a crying need for REAL doctors, not beauty clinicians. Everytime a medical graduate opts for cosmetic surgery or dermatology, it takes away a desperately needed talent from the public medical system. I'm hoping progressive presidents will crack down on this, but at the moment, there's still a public policy gap. When it comes to cosmetic crap, the market is still king, and "buyer beware" is the rule.
Thanks for that information, Bina. I would like to post more on this in the future, so it's good for me to learn about the horrors of plastic surgery.
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