Congrats on the Great School Work! Here’s a New Nose
Posted by Osagie K. Obasogie May 25, 2007
Biopolitical Times
Graduation gifts use to consist of envelopes stuffed with cash, backpacking trips through Europe, or perhaps a new car for the very fortunate. But a recent MSNBC article highlights a growing trend in grad gift giving: cosmetic surgery.
From breast implants to nose jobs to tummy tucks, graduating teens and young adults are leveraging their imminent changes in scenery and social groups to alter themselves - and an increasing number of parents are footing the bill. Once limited to those fighting mid-life crises, plastic surgery for adolescents and young adults is apparently becoming trendy. According to the American Society for Plastic Surgeons, nearly a quarter million procedures were performed on kids aged 13-19 in 2006; about 47,000 of these were nose jobs and 9,000 were breast augmentations.
Teens disliking their bodies isn't new. What's remarkable here is that not only are today's teens willing to undergo major surgery to conform to aesthetic norms, their parents are bestowing their blessing and picking up the tab.
What does this changing relationship between parents and teens' insecurities with their bodies mean, particularly as some characteristics can be increasingly chosen before birth? For example, recent research involving the skin tone gene suggests that complexion might be selectable some day soon. And, the HFEA has already allowed a British family to use PGD to select out embryos with a genetic predisposition towards squinting. This is not because it might affect the resulting child's health, mind you. Rather, this is being justified by the "suffering" inflicted on the family and child.
At the very least, this trend highlights the risks some parents are willing to take - as well as the money they are willing to spend - to have a child that looks a certain way. Could this growing acceptance of designer teens intersect with new human biotechnologies to make designer babies seem less problematic than they really are?
From breast implants to nose jobs to tummy tucks, graduating teens and young adults are leveraging their imminent changes in scenery and social groups to alter themselves - and an increasing number of parents are footing the bill. Once limited to those fighting mid-life crises, plastic surgery for adolescents and young adults is apparently becoming trendy. According to the American Society for Plastic Surgeons, nearly a quarter million procedures were performed on kids aged 13-19 in 2006; about 47,000 of these were nose jobs and 9,000 were breast augmentations.
Teens disliking their bodies isn't new. What's remarkable here is that not only are today's teens willing to undergo major surgery to conform to aesthetic norms, their parents are bestowing their blessing and picking up the tab.
What does this changing relationship between parents and teens' insecurities with their bodies mean, particularly as some characteristics can be increasingly chosen before birth? For example, recent research involving the skin tone gene suggests that complexion might be selectable some day soon. And, the HFEA has already allowed a British family to use PGD to select out embryos with a genetic predisposition towards squinting. This is not because it might affect the resulting child's health, mind you. Rather, this is being justified by the "suffering" inflicted on the family and child.
At the very least, this trend highlights the risks some parents are willing to take - as well as the money they are willing to spend - to have a child that looks a certain way. Could this growing acceptance of designer teens intersect with new human biotechnologies to make designer babies seem less problematic than they really are?