Laura in Plymouth

This would be the most depressing article I've seen in ages except for the comment at the bottom from Laura in Plymouth, with really made me laugh. Thanks Laura, whoever you are!

Hey Facebook, Hands Off My Self-Esteem!

I have just changed my Facebook profile so that it no longer has my gender on it. Not that it's a secret or that I can't remember what it is any more - I'm just really fed up with every time I log on being bombarded with hundreds of adverts for diet products. I'm not on a diet. I have a BMI in the normal/correct/healthy range, I exercise regularly and I eat when I'm hungry or near a sushi restaurant.

The Facebook advertising system is supposed to allow advertisers to target the customers most likely to be interested in their product. But I don't seem to be getting any adverts that are hitting me because I'm a university graduate, because my favourite film is Secrets and Lies or because I'm a member of the group "I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin". You would think Republican adverts for foreign policy researchers would be over-loading my system. No instead the only measure I am being profiled on is "has vagina" (tick) therefore "must hate own body and want to be size zero" (uh-uh).

Now as a teenager I suffered quite seriously from anorexia. I made a pretty full recovery, but there are lots of women out there who aren't as lucky as me - those currently experiencing eating disorders anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating. And BDD (body dismorphic disorder) along with other related issues - like feeling the need to have extensive sugery or bottulism injections on their healthy bodies. Is Facebook checking to make sure it doesn't send adverts like these inappropriately to those with or at risk of developing issues with their bodies? Maybe they could add an extra box to people's profiles. Are you interested in starting an extreme weigh-loss diet based exclusively on grass seeds and acai berries? No? Oh, ok we'll leave you alone then.

But it works - since going gender-neutral on Facebook I have very few diet ads. Instead my adverts are mainly for theatre tickets, loans, legal services, other facebook apps and christmas shopping sites. I seriously recommend other women do the same if they want to be able to surf the web without having their self esteem sureptitiously eroded!

TV Boobs

Never watch Extreme Makeover. Did that really need saying? I was innocently perched on the sofa this morning with a couple of hot buttered crumpets and a mug of tea not paying much attention to the TV when a "top cosmetic surgeon" suddenly appeared talking about breast reduction surgery (having just performed three - or is that six - for three women). This is what he said "breast reduction surgery is one of the most satisfying surgeries you can perform because the patient wakes up and suddenly they're not handicapped any more..." Yes ladies apparently larger than average boobs are a "handicap".

Better go and clean the crumpet and tea splatters off my TV screen now...

Chop Chop

I mentioned briefly in my podcast on Jan 7th about the recent Which? survey that had revealed that cosmetic surgery salespeople were pressuring women in to surgery they really didn't want. Today Julie Bindel in the Guardian interviews cosmetic surgery guru Wendy Lewis and very politely refrains from pointing out that she looks kindof freaky. Not that a woman should be judged on her appearance but when one spends her life telling other women how great cosmetic surgery is - you would be forgiven a quick peek to see how well it's going for her. And Sadie Nicholas in the Daily Mail has a lengthy piece too - for some reason accompanied by a photo of a very glamourous model with dotted lines on her face - although whether that's supposed to be showing us, before, after, the ideal we're supposed to aim for or the ridiculousness of suggesting already stunning women could be put forward for surgery I do not know.

What all of the reports show is that cosmetic surgery is being sold in a false, aggressive and dangerous way. And not just a little bit, like the way double glazing people or dodgy estate agents sell things - lies, pressure, tricks. There is even a case where a saleswoman waits until a client is sedated for one lot of surgery and tries to sell her a couple more things while she is passing out. There are outright lies in the published before and after photos - which in one case are of different people. People are sold botox while they are drunk, with the procedure performed on the spot.

I'm not saying no-one should have access to surgery if they want it, that's up to them. However, we need a significantly better regulated industry. We need an end to time-sensitive discounts on surgery, bulk discounts and salespeople working on targets and bonuses. We need to regulate the qualifications needed by surgeons, the hours they can work and the complaint and problem-resolution system. We need our media to highlight the risks and downsides of surgery - such as the ones experienced by the women on this site - and sales people and adverts to be obliged to explain those risks. Given how out of control the situation is I think a cooling-off period is probably a good idea, just a couple of weeks to make sure people really want what they're being offered.

But we also need to create a society that puts less pressure on women to look "perfect" and to value themselves purely on their appearance. That means loads more "ordinary" women in the media, an end to air-brushing and an end to all that lad mag nonsense.

Apocalypse Now!

Imagine this - people who aren't really doctors are going round the country performing unnecessary intrusive surgical procedures, ones requiring anaesthetic, cutting people open. The media, instead of being outraged, conspires with these people to promote the procedures to people who have no interest in them. Stories about how these procedures enhanced peoples lives fill the media both as features and as advertisements. Little or no mention is made of the risks. The government does nothing even when children are being operated on. Sound ridiculous? Welcome to the post-apocalyptic future world of your nightmares... Correction: Welcome to now.

Lunchbreak Boob Jobs?

For some reason The London Paper (one of the free-bees that litter our buses and trains, no internet links though) is rerunning an old story about women being able to have a boob job "in their lunch hour". It was in the Metro a couple of months ago so I don't see how it's news. Still.

Now one thing that bugs me about the story is - why would you want to have surgery in your lunch hour. I know modern women are supposed to be busy. Hence the need for all that "juggling" but how busy do you need to be that you can't have a little lie down after surgery. It's all a part of the on-going push to make women forget that this is an operation, not a suitable gift for a mate's birthday... As usual there is no mention that surgery can reduce the sensitivity of your breasts (in some cases to zero), that the operation can go wrong, that it can affect your ability to breast-feed your children, or that anaesthetic can kill you.

On top of this they quote John Tebbetts, the surgeon behind this particularly vile publicity drive as saying "Women have got to get out of the mindset that they are going to be ill after this procedure". Yes, that's a direct quote. How patronising is that? Silly, silly women, eh? Getting all worked up thinking that being knifed in the tits might sting a bit.

If there's a mindset women need to get out of it's putting up with patronising twats like Tebbetts. Bear in mind this man wants to be allowed near your naked unconscious body with a range of sharp instruments. Shudder.

Why is the Cru-Blog advertising Boob Jobs?

Ok first of all go take a look at the advert by clicking here. You'll have to click the link and then click download to see the pdf of the advert (sorry about that, if anyone knows how I can make it easier, please let me know). Anyway give the advert a quick read, see if you can spot anything odd about it at all.

Then when you're done explain to me what this is supposed to be.

Beauty Kit for Little Girls

Really clever spoof adverts for, well, watch and see, creepy and disturbing but not all that far from the messages children are receiving these days. Also watch in wonder/amazement as I successfully embed a video clip...

Messed Up World

There's a website been set up - called myfreeimplants - where women can post up sexy pictures of themselves and men donate money towards buying a boob job, presumably for the one they judge to be most in "need"!? Of course we've seen this before more or less. Remember this one? To go with this there was a documentary on TV tonight about teenagers having boob jobs - many of them long before their breasts are going to have stopped growing.

But then if you look at the most successful women we see regularly on TV and film - a high percentage of them have had boob jobs. So is it any surprise young girls aspire to be like them? Of course media coverage doesn't seem to cover the risk of DEATH from surgery, loss of sensation and ability to breastfeed. And heaven forbid the media should ever imply that women could be valued for something more than their physical appearance - or their attractiveness to men pawing over their photos on a truly repulsive website like the one mentioned. Maybe they should change the name to www.choose-which-girl-gets-cut.com Puke...

Deeply Creepy

The government was half way through doing something about the wildly unregulated cosmetic "treatment" industry. Something much needed as the rates of people lining up for a quick shot of deadly botulism in the head. And now they've dropped the baton, can't be bothered, too much like hard work. They prefer to leave the industry to "self-regulation", which means no regulation at all, just let the cowboys carry on.

They say they're trying to avoid leaving medical professionals with too much "red tape" to get through, but reputable clinics are furious with the news, they want the chalatans who steal their potential customers and lead to media horror stories closed down.

So there must be some other reason for the issue being dropped. What could it be. Hmm, hmmm, still thinking ... how about backhanders, bribery and corruption? Just a theory.

Doctor, Doctor

Reading this article gave me a warm smug feeling. I've been a hater of "Dr" Gillian McKeith for some time now.

For those overseas readers unfamiliar with her work she shows up at the house of some poor overweight person who eats a lot of junk food and "cures" them. Her main tactics are shock and disgust. And rather phonily constructed shock and disgust too. So for instance she shows people a giant bath tub containing the equivalent amount of fat they eat in a year and then makes them get into the tub. I've never understood why people don't come back with the obvious retort - but Gillian of course it's disgusting - it's a years-worth of fat, not a meals-worth. Her other speciality is taking stool samples and telling people how disgusting their poo is. ... Of course it is - it's poo!!

Of course what she's really doing is making standard modern television. And that means making people cry, usually women. It's seems to be the main thing that shows aim for these days. Telling people their clothes, diet, lifestyle and even bodies are disgusting and helping them engage in drastic measure to improve the situation.

It's difficult to generalise about such shows, but there are some specific issues with them. Gillian McKeith's diets are based on totally phoney science. She recommends more fresh fruit and vegetables and less fast and processed food, no doubt good principles to be starting with. However she mixes these messages in with nonsense about superfoods and quasi-scientific explanations which as the article above shows, have no relation to real science. And the products she markets herself, apart from the ridiculous claims she makes about them, are wildly expensive. At best people are left confused and ripped off.

At the other end of the spectrum we have shows like "extreme makeover". Even here there is some stuff (a very small percentage) being done that I think is constructive. Some of the candidates have specific issues, such as adult acne, which can be treated very effectively to get rid of a problem which only a few adults suffer from. At the other end we hear about storylines like "Candace, a 29-year-old family support worker and mother of two from Lincoln, Nebraska, has been teased all her life about her looks." And the solution to being teased is $100,000-worth of life-risking surgery? These shows speed up into 30 minutes or an hour the several months of painful recovery needed after major surgery. They also completely gloss over the risk of dying under the knife as well as the risk of being unhappy with the results either immediately or several years later.

And the biggie in some ways is that no mention is made of psychological issues such as BDD - Body Dysmorphic Disorder - which candidates may be suffering from and which cosmetic surgery will certainly not solve and may exacerbate. This issue has been featured in the the press this week firstly in a very witty article by Clive James on the BBC. And secondly in the case of the death of Anna Nicole Smith.

Ms Smith had had extensive surgery on her face and body and openly stated that she was trying to make herself look like Marilyn Monroe, indicating to me at least that she was deeply unhappy with her own identity and appearance. As usual when a celebrity dies prematurely the first thing mentioned in the press is the possibility of an overdose. This may have been the case. It certainly wouldn't be unusual for a depressed BDD sufferer to turn to drugs. Another, perhaps complimentary, theory came to my attention in an article I stumbled across which suggests she may have had further surgery recently and that a resultant infection may have contributed to her death.

Of course what I'm not saying here is that there's something wrong with wanting to change your own life dramatically. And indeed sometimes to do that I fully accept that risks have to be taken. There are risks and avoidable risks though. Compulsory counselling from an independent party prior to cosmetic surgery would help identify those for whom the desire for surgery is a symptom of a deeper problem. Also taking Ms McKeith off the airwaves and her products and books off the shelves would be another good move.