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By Laura Nathan
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Wednesday, June 30, 2004 |
The costs of college tuition are rising, but apparently, so are the costs of high school graduation gifts. The latest graduation gift fad? Breast implants.
Yes, you read that correctly. The number of young women getting breast implants has increased by 300 percent — and a large chunk of those are requesting them for graduation gifts. After all, what better time to get new breasts than before you head off to college, where no one knows you — or your “real” breast size?
Never mind the health risks. We’re talking about people who are young and impressionable, people who think that size is all that matters. It’s no secret that we live in a culture where image reigns. Changing that might be next to impossible. So the real question we should be asking is why are parents footing the (very expensive) bill to give their daughters breast implants? Perhaps the centrality of image in our culture doesn’t become less important as we become older (and presumably wiser). Perhaps the idea that larger is better is so engrained in female minds that it’s being handed down from one generation to the next.
But in the process, it seems mothers who buy their daughters breast implants are also handing down something else: A belief that they’re not good enough, that they should get what they want rather than learning to embrace their bodies for what they are. In other words, they pass down a culture that doesn’t demand change, instead allowing them to accept and assimilate into a culture that isn’t necessarily female-friendly and that doesn’t breed self-confidence.
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