Heidi Montag: My Surgeries Aren't an Addiction

Heidi Montag is quoted at saying the following when discussing the controversy about her recent cosmetic surgeries:

"I'm in a different industry," she said, "and I have to do things that are going to make me happy at the end of the day."

I'm living in my skin, and I look in the mirror and it's my career and my life, and you only have one. So, I want to take advantage of everything and be the best me, in and out, every way."

Heidi Montag is just an example of the Hollywood machine distorting another starlets reality. I feel sorry for her. I am just glad she didn't end up like Tara Reid and other celebrites with bad plastic surgery. Yet, if Heidi keeps at it she will end up like them.

Breaking: Solange Magnano Dies from Complications During Plastic Surgery

A former Miss Argentina dies of complications during an elective plastic surgery operation.

Solange Magnano, 37, died in a hospital after being transferred from a clinic where she underwent an elective surgery on her buttocks on Wednesday, the agency reported.

Magnano ran her own modeling agency in Argentina, and had been a model and Miss Argentina in 1994. She also was the mother of 7-year-old twins.

Of course, some of the coverage, particularly this title: "A Woman Who Had Everything Lost Her Life For A Firmer Behind" is pretty victim blaming.

The article also notes that:

In recent years, Argentina has become an international destination for plastic surgery. The costs of such procedures there are much lower than in other countries.

Estimates say that 1 in 30 Argentines has gone under the knife, making surgeons here some of the most experienced on the globe.

Medical tourism has seen a huge jump over the past decade, and is projected to be a $100 billion global industry by 2010, according to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

Certainly the safety of international surgery tourism is a concern, but I think that the major take-away from this incident is two-fold: 1. Surgery is surgery is surgery and all surgeries pose the risk of death; 2. beauty hurts the beautiful too and its not just ugly, harridan feminists like me ;) who should be critical of our appearance obsessed global media culture.

My sincere condolences to her family and friends. Rest in peace.

Bo-Tax?

According to the New York Times some in the plastic surgery industry are steamed over the Bo-Tax proposal that would levy a 5% tax on elective plastic surgery.

The tax, which would be paid by the customer but collected by doctors, would be levied on any cosmetic surgery that is not necessary to address deformities arising from congenital abnormalities, personal injuries resulting from an accident or trauma, or disfiguring diseases, a definition taken directly from current tax code covering deductible medical expenses.

One doctor cited the embarrassment often associated with plastic surgery as a reason few patients have come forward to oppose the bill:

“You’re taxing a disorganized group that has no one of its own representing it,” he said. “There’s no American Society of Plastic Surgery Patients.”

Dr. Teitelbaum said some patients might be embarrassed to admit to having had cosmetic surgery. “They don’t want to come out and march on Capitol Hill,” he said. “You’re not going to have a million-man Botox march.”

A slightly more effective argument (to my mind) is that this bill is discriminatory against women, who make up the majority of plastic surgery patients:

Terry O’Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women, said middle-age women, who make up a bulk of her group’s financers, would be particularly susceptible to the tax, especially now. Many who have lost jobs might be considering surgery, she said, because they are looking to impress potential employers.

“They have to find work,” Ms. O’Neill said. “And they are going for Botox or going for eye work, because the fact is we live in a society that punishes women for getting older.”

Ms. O’Neill said women commonly pay higher health insurance premiums and suffer wage discrepancies from men. “And now they are going to put a tax on middle-aged women in a society that devalues them for being middle aged?” she said.

Although I do find the argument effective, that more women will be paying this tax, I do not personally oppose this tax. The problem isn't the tax, its the unhealthy expectations of the unaging woman and that a woman's worth is bound up in her appearance, that's the primary problem with plastic surgery in general. I'm much more concerned with the lack of maternity care and the ability of insurance companies to charge women carte blanche more for health insurance than men--which a quality healthcare reform bill will stop and a reform bill that includes some additional levies is crucial to get there. So, what do you think readers? Am I being too harsh on plastic surgery & plastic surgery patients? What's your take?