Theres an interesting article in The Globe and Mail today about a new trend in plastic surgery teens getting gastric band surgery. In order to force obese people to eat less, a plastic surgeon loops a ring around their stomach to make it smaller (for the low low price of $16,000). According to this piece a clinic in Yorkville, Toronto, has operated on the stomachs of more than 20 teens between 16 and 19 (some of which came from the US where stomach banding surgery is highly restricted for people under 18).
This trend doesnt shock me like the other plastic surgeries weve seen young women undergo (like breast implants see yesterdays blog entry Breast implants linked to suicide’). Unlike small breasts or a big nose, a hundred extra pounds is a serious threat to your health (as well as to your sense of self-worth). We all know how incredibly difficult losing that weight can be. Heck, I personally know a couple of people (both men, by the way) who have had their stomachs stapled and say it changed their lives.
But we know very little about the long-term effects of this kind of surgery, especially for young people. What do all our shameless readers think? Do the benefits of the surgery outweigh (no pun intended) the risks? Or should this kind of procedure be illegal for Canadian teens like it is for American ones?
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two comments
This is an interesting solution to the "fat"/health problem that the diet industry, an uncritical media and social anxiety has helped to create. I think often cosmetic surgery is a band-aid solution to much, much larger problems, of which there are many. Here's one: food production. Why are farmers subsidized to produce only the most unhealthy of foods? Why is most of our food drained of nutrients and loaded with chemicals? The Nation's recent issue on food (http://www.thenation.com/issue/20060911) brilliantly covered the political, economic and cultural issues associated with the food we eat (the cover warning, "Wake Up, America! Pay Attention to What You Eat," was enough to make me fear the contents of my fridge for a long time). The articles were really insightful and, at times, scary.
Some other issues that come up around this topic: the billions of dollars the diet/beauty/fitness industries make convincing us we are too "fat," which now includes the cosmetic surgery industry; and the way fat is presented as an individualized problem of inability to control what you eat/laziness, not an issue of public health or politics (i.e. pay huge sums of money to have your stomach stapled rather than address some important, underlying issues).
Quick-fix solutions like drastic surgery (if you can afford it!) are extremely problematic, yet so symptomatic of our impatient, consumerist society.
Posted by Nicole
October 10, 2006, 4:34 PM
I know this is an embarrassingly not-critical comment to add, but a first-season episode of Grays Anatomy features a college freshman who gets her stomach stapled while on spring break in Mexico. The reason for the surgery, ostensibly, is because her exceedingly pushy mom was razzing her about the weight she gained in her first term of college. Needless to say, the shows writers made it very clear that getting your stomach stapled so that you didnt need to watch what you eat is a bad decision. But the very fact that this makes a plausible storyline for a TV show is upsetting, especially when you consider all of the impressionable college freshmen (who are coping with their own cafeteria food weight gain) who are watching the show.
Posted by Sarah
October 12, 2006, 3 PM
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