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 But now, matters of the mind have been replaced by an obsession with the body.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")
