Susan Douglas discusses many important issues focusing on enlightened sexism in her chapter “Lean and Mean”. Douglas starts off this chapter with the prevalent issue in today’s society of breast implants. She uses Victoria’s Secret as a prime example of how women feel there is only one way to be “sexy” and that is by being clones of the Victoria’s Secret models. Some of the models include Giselle Bundchen, Claudia Schiffer and Heidi Klum; all of these women are beautiful with perfect “Barbie” bodies, including a size zero waist and big sized boobs. These models create the mindset in normal, everyday women that they must look like that to be sexy. However, we all know having a size zero wait is almost impossible when your boobs are the size of watermelons. When women realize they cannot naturally become this image of sexy, they turn to plastic surgery to be reconstructed in to a beauty. In 2004, 247,000 women got breast implants, when only 32,000 women got them in 1992. This statistic that Douglas gives shows the massive change in targeting women to become a perfect, Barbie-like figure. Something interesting that Douglas points out is how the ideal women has changed from fashion icons Jackie Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn to women featured on the cover of Maxim and Sports Illustrated. This change is essential to the fact that women are now more self-conscious of their bodies. According to a study Douglas uses, “the number one wish of girls between the ages of eleven and seventeen is to lose weight”(Douglas 217). I found this statement extremely upsetting, while at the same time very truthful. Two out of the six girls in my friends group from high school have eating disorders. However, it was not until they went to college where their boyfriends broke up with them, they lost an excessive amount of weight and they lived off extreme diets. My friend who weighs about 100lbs and is 5’7” says she feels “big”. My other friend, well not my friend anymore, lost 30lbs in two months and thinks she is healthy now because she does not eat and exercises all the time. She has also become extremely mean, but I’ll get in to that later. This a huge problem facing girls. Douglas goes on to discuss the plastic surgery industry and how women are starting to get plastic surgery as early as there 20s. I am not an advocate of plastic surgery at all and find it to be an extremely unfortunate, booming industry. It was interesting to see how older famous women has said they did not see any point in having plastic surgery. Also with that, it was upsetting to read about the fact that plastic surgeons encouraged patients to start surgery in their 20s and 30s so then they can get touch-ups through their lives. Douglas discusses the TV show The Swan. The Swan takes average looking, everyday women and transforms their face in a three-month process while the woman is not allowed to see her face until after the three months. When the transformation is finally done the women get to look at their new faces in the mirror. One woman questioned if her mirror reflection was someone else. Douglas argues that these shows create a false sense of feminism. She says, “To challenge the concern that the cosmetic procedure frenzy is just another way to oppress women, and to extract any unsightly swelling in their checkbooks, words like “choice” and “empowered” seek to equate having work done with being truly liberated” (Douglas 233). Douglas goes on to say plastic surgery is portrayed as feminist because it shows women have the power to be in control of their bodies. My best friend’s Mom, who is 67 now, got a face life when she was 60. She spent all this money and time recovering from the surgery and when she had healed her face did not look much different. It is crazy to think how much money is spent on plastic surgery, most of it coming from the pockets of women. Douglas further discusses how women are the big contributor to the plastic surgery industry. This is really interesting because when you look at most of the women on shows like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills have all had multiple surgeries, yet they are married to average, most times over-weight and balding, men. My friends and I were talking the other day about how there are huge double standards for women and men. We came to the conclusion that a guy who was not very attractive, but had a great personality was able to get attractive girls. However, when we were looking at girls with awesome personalities, but a heavy body they were not able to get attractive guys. This idea is really interesting and shows why women subject themselves to so many expensive and dangerous plastic surgeries. I found this article in the Times discussing how young people feel more self-confident after having plastic surgery than the control group who feels self-conscious about a specific attribute and did not have plastic surgery.
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