My friend is an anesthesiologist and he said that he is BARELY working since his money comes mostly from cosmetic surgery. He said he only works 2-3 days a week now...and he's in NYC.
Ahem. If I may offer one small correction to the zeitgeist: Pilates is not the sole purview of the wealthy leisure class, though it has become a punching bag, go-to joke as such.
I had heinous, MASSIVE surgery five years ago which, in addition to saving my life, left me with nothing much in the way of abdominal muscles (11-inch incisions from breast-bone to pubes will do that!). Pilates gave them back to me, and has strengthened me in many other ways, as well (not least in the discovery that I can, in fact, stick to an exercise program, if guided by a good teacher).
Private lessons can be expensive, and just like with anything else that the middle and upper middle class take for granted -- if you can't afford them, you should stop going. In my town, I could easily go to group lessons at my park district, and while the quality wouldn't be the same, it would cost 10% of my private sessions, and it would be pretty darn good.
The thing that most frosts my cupcakes is: how do stupid, insufferable women get so wealthy: marrying well and then launching their own line of handbags? Meanwhile, smart, capable women everywhere are trying to claw their way up a greased corporate ladder that they may never fully ascend.
What I want is a female meritocracy, rather than a cheerocracy.
@pmarble: I feel like Hummers are a definite casualty. I almost feel sorry for the few people still driving them, much the same way that I almost feel sorry for assholes when toilet paper hitches itself to their shoe for a ride. Almost.
@jigglyball: At the risk of using a banned term, I fervently believe Hummer drivers are epic douchebags.
I once sat next to a guy at a hand car wash in Chicago. We were watching a Hummer get washed, and I made a snarky comment about the car. Turned out it was his. And he was a Chicago Bear. He asked for my card, tho, which was nice given my snark. Of course, this was after he asked if I practiced criminal law (I don't).
@pmarble: HUMMERS!!!! ugh everytime i see one, i just HAVE to look at the person driving it. usually, kinda dorky (NOT in a good way), 30-something guy, wearing ed hardy shit, hair gelled up, and some tacky sunglasses. exactly the type of person i DESPISE.
I think it's time we start to recognize that this botox/surgical look is really unattractive. I understand wanting to look brighter but smooth as a baby's bottom at pushing 60 makes a woman look like a waxy feline (I wonder if the term cougar came from older women with excessive plastic surgery looking more feline like).
@goodcheapfun: Preach it. I think that what the look says is not "attractiveness" per se, but "I have money." It's (if I reach back to Sociology 101) pot-latch spending, par excellence -- expending limited resources to demonstrate your power.
What's the point of all the plastic surgery if you're still going to cake on a ton of makeup? I didn't realize increasing how fake you look was a beauty ideal.
When one has plastic surgery, they don't look younger but rather like they've had plastic surgery. I can't figure out for the life of me why people do it so much.
@TexasCrude: I always think there's a sort of work ethic which sometimes gets attached to beauty - like, it's the effort which will be rewarded, not the effect.
@TexasCrude: Its totally weird. I really don't get it. But, as this story implies, maybe its a signifier of wealth, fuck if you look oddly shiny and...unnaturally taut.
@TexasCrude: I agree, as far as the really bad, borderline-obsessives go, although I think the good work kind of goes unnoticed - Sharon Stone, Jennifer Aniston, Angelina, Helen Mirren etc spring to mind.
@whatsergem: Yes, I think that might be the point. That woman above doesn't look like a 25 year old, she looks like a 45 year old who's had cosmetic surgery and, critically, *not* like a regular 45 year old who *hasn't* had cosmetic surgery. Just showing off your money, vanity and leisure time, really.
@Diziet_Sma: Oh yeah, definitely. I've seen instances in which plastic surgery has fantastic effects but then I see Priscilla Presley and some other women who go to great lengths and end up looking like pre-Jocelyn Wildenstein and I just fail to compute. It's so unnatural and unattractive.
@Diziet_Sma: Oh dude, Stone and Aniston not subtle . The the others I think it's obvious if you think about it for two minutes but it doesn't slam you in the face.
@TexasCrude: Totally, it maker the no sense. I can only think it has something to do with a mathematical equation involving intelligence, insecurity and disposable income. I know that's harsh, but, seriously - what the hell else can it be? Maybe bad eyesight, I guess. . .
@TexasCrude: One time when I was in my gym's locker room I realized I was in there with 4 women who had the same hair, same breasts, noses, lips, it was creepy as hell. It was like an over-aerobicized mini village of the damned.
@Diziet_Sma: Poor eyesight? Like how the cross-eyed cats from yesterday's pet thread would stand by the litter box and pee on the floor? I'm sorry, I caught that post late last night and was rolling with laughter on my couch. This seemed like a good place to bring it up.
how happy would it make me if cosmetic surgeons had to start taking medicaid patients with cleft palates to make a living? maybe this ole recession (COUGH depression) has a silver lining after all.
@J.D.Regent:I know he's in a smaller town, and might not be your typical plastic surgeon, but my mother works in a plastics practice and it's not all boobies and botox. Most of the practice is working with burn patients, breast reconstruction for mastectomy patients, tendon reattachment and good ol' mole removal. The do have patients for purely cosmetic procedures, but they are few a far between. They also see a lot of children with burns or that need stitches on their faces or hands. I hate that the Dr. Rey types have given all plastic surgeons a bad name, because they are not all greedy, women hating assholes.
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I had heinous, MASSIVE surgery five years ago which, in addition to saving my life, left me with nothing much in the way of abdominal muscles (11-inch incisions from breast-bone to pubes will do that!). Pilates gave them back to me, and has strengthened me in many other ways, as well (not least in the discovery that I can, in fact, stick to an exercise program, if guided by a good teacher).
Private lessons can be expensive, and just like with anything else that the middle and upper middle class take for granted -- if you can't afford them, you should stop going. In my town, I could easily go to group lessons at my park district, and while the quality wouldn't be the same, it would cost 10% of my private sessions, and it would be pretty darn good.
So, I say: Yay Pilates!
/end lecture.
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What I want is a female meritocracy, rather than a cheerocracy.
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I once sat next to a guy at a hand car wash in Chicago. We were watching a Hummer get washed, and I made a snarky comment about the car. Turned out it was his. And he was a Chicago Bear. He asked for my card, tho, which was nice given my snark. Of course, this was after he asked if I practiced criminal law (I don't).
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usually, kinda dorky (NOT in a good way), 30-something guy, wearing ed hardy shit, hair gelled up, and some tacky sunglasses.
exactly the type of person i DESPISE.
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When one has plastic surgery, they don't look younger but rather like they've had plastic surgery. I can't figure out for the life of me why people do it so much.
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Go team sunscreen and ROC eye cream!
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@otherginger: Ha ha! True, dat.
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Not in the OC!
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also: Great for playing poker
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