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VIEWPOINTS Society Issues Plastic surgery does more damage than Barbie dolls to self-image Plastic surgery today is cheaper, bet ter (although still not performed by board-certified plastic surgeons in many cases), and a way to a happier self-image for younger and younger people. And a way to an unrealistic self ideal for people even younger than that. Let’s start Emily Streyer is Viewpoints Editor. She can be reached via The Gamecock at gckviews@sc.edu with what we see every day: actresses on television and in films. Chances are, they didn’t get the roles because of their bodies; they got their bodies because of the roles they wanted. Those established in the business sometimes have the authority to be cast for their talent, but newcomers frequent ly head to the surgeon because, if the script calls for a 38-24-36, it’s a lot easier for the producers to get someone who fits those proportions rather fhan put their costumer or cinematographer through the trouble of creating an illusion. They’ll let a surgeon do that. Hollywood isn’t the only one to blame. When fashion designer Giorgio Armani, for example, designs women’s clothes, he pretends they don’t have breasts. A telling indication of the trend this century’s designers have followed can be found in a recent exhibit at the Paris Mu seum of Fashion. The first part of the chronological exhibit displayed clothes on seamstress’ mannequins that reflected the shapes of the women who would wear the clothes: short and round. By the 1980s, the mannequins in the exhibit rep resented the designers’ ideals: tall, with nearly flat chests and hips and thighs that did not flare. I recall a few years ago when Barbie took a lot of heat for her proportions. “Little girls are growing up with unrealis tic ideas of what women look like,” the feminists cried. Little girls might be growing up with notions that having three houses, five cars and a dune buggy is normal, but Barbie’s body isn’t what causes problems for adolescents. No little girl knows women who look like Barbie. Barbie’s knees don’t bend all the way, and her breasts don’t move at all. No little girl wants to look like Barbie - although they might like to have her wardrobe and fleet of convertibles. Be “Little girls expect to grow up like the women they see every day in the media; they don’t expect to grow into plastic dolls.” sides, if Barbie causes poor self-images, why is it that 8-year-olds aren’t anorexic? Thirteen-year-olds are anorexic. Little girls do, however, see movies and fashion magazines. They know Bar bie isn’t real. But many of the people we see on the big and small screens aren’t re al, either - or, at least, not every part of them is. And what we see in the fashion pages isn’t always real; the models are air-brushed. Little girls don’t know this. They expect to grow up to look like the women they see every day in the media; they don’t expect to grow into plastic dolls. That’s why 13-year-olds are anorexic. What concerns me more is what the next step for plastic suigery will be. Aftei all, suigery isn’t fun. Why not grow up with a perfect body in the first place? With last winter’s $50,000 offer for eggs from a 5-foot-10-inch blue-eyed blonde who made 1400 or higher on the SAT in mind, I wonder if the babies of the rich one day will be naturally conforming to unnatural ideals. Plastic suigeiy, as a last ditch effort to correct what should have happened at conception, would become the least disturbing evidence of our in ability to deal with physiological reality. There are many arguments for the benefits of non-reconstructive plastic surgery, but most of them involve, in one way or another, the pursuit of perfection (as opposed to the more noble cause of restoration of normalcy), perfection ap parently being one of the necessities for good emotional health. And in a free so ciety, we allow people to chase perfec tion as long as they please. The problem, it seems, with a mar ket-driven society is that blame for its faults lies with the people'in it - not on some mysterious force or government in stitution, which could easily be changed upon a public outcry. Changing the no tion of what women’s bodies should look like is a matter of choosing to keep our selves the way we were bom. If we are concerned with children’s understanding of reality, we ought to first examine our own. NRA offers solution to roommate problems Need to kill — your roommate? Is he leaving dirty socks on your side of the microwave or eating all of your rice cakes? Join the NRA now. Each NRA membership in cludes a $10,000 accidental death and dismember ment coverage. Here’s the plan: Take him out hunting for squirrels in the Horseshoe area. While he’s checking out the girls who lie down with their shirts off while their dogs run around peeing all over the Horseshoe, aim and fire your registered handgun. Or when he’s stunned after getting hit in the head with a Frisbee, take aim and shoot him near the leg. He’ll probably bleed to death, but if he does just lose the leg, he can still collect the dismemberment insurance. Then again, they might have some sort of glause against that type of thing. The NRA has 2.8 million members nationwide. Don’t let its cute little hunter name fool you; only a few mem bers actually own just a rifle. Most own handguns and other convenient murder weapons. Ironically, people bring these handguns into their homes for protection. This is their constitutional right given by the Second Amendment, of course. Besides, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Just ask the great “dispute re solver, Bernard Goetz. How many people would Colin Ferguson have killed if he had had only a knife? But read the Sec ond Amendment and note the first part: “a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State.” Members of the NRA like to quote only the second part: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The first part of the amendment clearly limits the second to well-trained militias. Whether you think you have a right to own a gun, a grenade launcher or a small bomb, the point is that the NRA has too much political power and is one of the many powerful lobbies corrupting our political system. There is an undeniable correlation be tween murder rates and lax gun laws. Other countries know what they’re do ing. Murder rates in cities like Geneva, Paris and London are low because of strict gun restrictions. Here are some Fun Gun Facts: •According to the New England Jour nal of Medicine, guns kept in the home for protection are 43 times more likely to kill a family member than an assailant. •For every fatal shooting, there are about six gunshot injuries. •Gunshot injuries cost $14 billion a year, and 80 percent of that is paid by public funds. •A membership with the NRA enti tles you to member discounts on Ameri can, Canadian and Continental airlines. If you travel by air, you might have an in tense fear of flying. If you are one of those people and are afraid of hearing “I have a gun,” avoid those airlines. •On the membership application, en tering your date of birth is optional. While getting your baby’s social security number, why not get a lifetime member ship to the NRA? (Lifetime memberships expire if a bullet lodges into your heart, seizing your life.) •There’s even a junior membership that comes with the magazine Insights, for your kids. What ever happened to Highlights? When your son asks, “Where’s Waldo?,” you’ll have to ex plain, “Waldo’s gone. Someone thought he was a bunny.” •How about your own NRA Master Card? That’s right, a percentage of each purchase helps raise the murder rate. •Don’t cut off a Hertz or National rental car. They’ll be the most likely to shoot you in the head, rather than just giving you the finger. You’ll end up in a hearse, thanks to NRA discounts. •Waking up to gunshots in the middle of the night, you must have stayed at the Days Inn, HoJo, Ramada or Travel Lodge. Thirty-percent-off rates, for NRA members. Whether you agree with the call for stricter gun laws, it is clear that the NRA is far more than a rifle association. It has continued to oppose any legislation ban ning handguns or even automatic weapons. Not even Moses could con vince me that the NRA is a respectable organization. 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