U.S. ON FAST TRACK TO “PERFECTION”: WE’RE ALL GOING UNDER THE KNIFE

By 2015, 17 percent of all residents in the U.S. will have received cosmetic surgery, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

The ASPS also predicts that within the next seven years there will be more than 55 million cosmetic surgery procedures performed in the U.S. — that’s nearly one procedure for every five Americans.

So, what “work” are we tripping over ourselves to get done?

In 2007 the top procedures, for women and men, were:

Women:

• Breast augmentation: 399,440 procedures
• Liposuction: 398,848
• Eyelid surgery: 208,199

Men:

• Liposuction: 57,980 procedures
• Eyelid surgery: 32,564
• Nose reshaping: 31,713

Some forms of plastic surgery legitimately and dramatically improve people’s quality of life, and in those cases cosmetic surgery can be a blessing.

But the majority of these procedures are done because we’re increasingly afraid of growing old, and because women are made to feel inferior unless they’re sporting a huge rack.

I don’t pass judgment on anyone who’s had work done or plans to, but the question seems to me, to paraphrase Hank Moody: Why does our society seem so hell-bent on destroying its female population?