Photo Credit: MCT Campus
Laurie McAdam color illustration of woman's face abnormally stretched from all sides. The Modesto Bee 2008 (MCT Campus)
January 30, 2012
Shivanjali Sewak
If you found out that your friend’s mom gave your friend a $14,000 voucher for liposuction, what would your response be? Now what if you found out that a seven-year-old girl received one from her mother? Hopefully the emotions that come to mind are unpleasant.
Sarah Burge, a resident of the United Kingdom and self-proclaimed “Human Barbie,” did just that. She presented her young daughter, Poppy, with a voucher for liposuction as a Christmas present. And if that doesn’t shock you enough, little Poppy also received a $12,000 voucher for breast augmentation for her birthday. I’m not sure about anyone else, but when I was seven years old, I wanted gel-pens and a Gameboy Color, not plastic surgery coupons. Burge, the wonderful mother that she is, also taught Poppy how to pole dance when she was a mere six years old. Clearly she’s out for Mother of the Year award.
Burge believes the vouchers are “investments” and compares them to saving money for her education. In what world does liposuction have anything to do with education? She should be setting that money aside for Poppy’s education, not buying her seven year old plastic surgery coupons. What a horrible image to be sending to your daughter, especially nowadays when the media dictates that beauty can only be achieved through surgical enhancements and starving yourself to be stick-thin. By giving her those vouchers, she’s telling Poppy that she isn’t pretty enough the way she is; she needs to be poked and prodded and adjusted in order to be beautiful. It’s sickening to think that this is what young girls are being led to believe. If they can’t have confidence in who they are, what will our world come to?
It’s my hope that people like Mrs. Burge will gain some sense and stop trying to justify pushing their daughters to grow up too quickly. Let them enjoy their childhood years, because they’re never going to get them back.
Photo Credit: Kaylee Miu
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February 8, 2010
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