Saturday, August 4, 2012

Barbie Body Modification Madness


Barbie and similar dolls, are often categorized as 'fashion dolls' so of course when I was a little girl, I had lots of Barbies and more outfits than I could ever hope for! I begged my Mom on weekends to help me sew little clothes for her! I wanted to be like Barbie because Barbie, had everything. A dream house, a cool car, ponies, hot boyfriend, and every job she could ever hope for.. Barbie was a vet, a cheerleader, a princess, a doctor and so much more. Barbie was sort of my hero! Today, I read a rather disturbing article about another Barbie lover Valeria Lukyanova. The main difference between me and Valerie is that she actually wanted to be Barbie! The 21 year old Ukrainian has had thousands of dollars of cosmetic surgery to make herself look like her idol – Barbie. I actually called Scotty over to look at the picture and he did not believe she was real. He thought it was a mannequin. She uses clever make up tricks and possibly contacts to make her eyes look dead and lifeless like a doll. Her skin it smooth and shiny, and her movements seem stiff and posed just like Barbie. This is body modification gone mad!

Valerie has not been forthcoming about what surgeries she has actually had, but a leading cosmetic surgeon did appear on television and suggested that to look like Barbie, “a woman needs t get breast enhancements to be a 38 DD and cut some ribs to get an 18 inch waist, make the hips wider and change her face. Of course, the woman would have to go blonde like Barbie,” said Dr. Anthony LaBruna. Valeria herself did blog about the rumours surrounding her surgery, but neither confirmed or denied that she had gone under the knife. Instead she promoted the fact that she does not drink or smoke and eats a raw food diet. She also insists that her looks are down to hard work and good genes. However, plenty of photographs of the woman exist in which she looks very different and there can be no doubt that surgery has been involved.

I am pretty tolerant about most things, I really don't care whether you have surgery or not, but I do believe that natural looks are better. I would be a hypocrite if I said that people shouldn't have cosmetic surgery. I think that because I advocate freedom of choice in body modification that I have to support cosmetic procedures which are after all just another form of body modification. If it makes Valeria happy then good for her. Do I think it's overkill and more than a little creepy? Of course I do, but it's her choice! Incidentally, I do think she is a great poster child for not judging a book by it's cover. Want to know what Valeria does for a living? She is actually a classically trained opera singer, a life coach and a motivational speaker!

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