Sign of the Apocalypse or just plain sad

At first, it was definitely a sign of the apocalpse. Definitely.

Now, I'm not so sure. Maybe these stories about teens getting breast implants M are just plain sad.

The stories have proliferated after a report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons that the number of teens getting implants is up by 24% in recent years.

There have been a few followup stories, with women who got the implants being disappointed that their dreams didn't come true
with the implants, but those disappoints are mostly due to complications.

Here's one such story, found at the end of a Chicago Tribune story. Kacey Long got the implants at 19, but had them removed three years later "due to excruciating pain and silicone poisoning."



"My best friend's mom worked for my plastic surgeon for 12 years, and she received breast implants six months before me," said Long, now a 22-year-old graduate student in special education at Texas A&M University at Commerce. "She said that in her time at the office, no one ever had any problems. So I really thought that I had inside info and that these devices were completely `safe' and maintenance-free.

"I am still paying on my augmentation surgery," she added, "even though my breast implants are now at home with me in a jar, where they should have been all along"



There's a story here--about how we view women's bodies, about the connection of between body and self-esteem, about the worship of human perfection, about doctors and parents who should know better, about the excess of consumer culture. Then there are the moral questions, as Terry Mattingly points out.

But I'm still wanting more of the human story--about the desires and hopes and dreams to be found in a bag of silicone and bigger breasts.