Jason Gonzalez Women in Media Butt Augmentation

05/12/12

The media has created this false image of the perfect body. The perfect body is unattainable because it simply does not exist. People in general are constantly being brainwashed into believing such unimaginable things that the media portrays. Plastic surgery has become the social norm for getting rid of your flaws. Women, especially young women are obsessed with achieving this perfect body because of what the media portrays as socially acceptable. Changing one's body image may sound simple but in actually it could be potentially life threatening. Don't be fooled by television shows like Dr. 90210, plastic surgery is not always glamorous. There have been numerous cases of non-licensed individuals performing illegal surgery on innocent people. Even other women are constantly judging women on their appearance. It's no surprise that woman would go through these extremes in order to achieve a perfect body. In researching this paper, I found that silicone butt-injections have become a popular choice among women. It's quite fascinating that there is a black market for this type of procedure that is usually done in a hotel room under unsanitary conditions and being performed by an untrained and unlicensed individual. These individuals are commonly referred to as Pumpers or Shot Girls. The question in which I want to ask is why do women go through these risky procedures, is it all for vanity? I like big butts and cannot lie, most of us have heard this popular lyric more than once. The song baby got back, is one of the most iconic songs that were ever produced in hip-hop. This song first debuted in the early 90's, when the fashion trend was

skinny and not curvy. Fast-forward to the present and the top female celebrities have a bootylicious body. Celebrities such as Nicki Minaj, Megan Fox, and Beyonce all have curvy bodies and very noticeable (ass)ets . Women are taking notice to the trend of enhancing their backsides, illegally. The main reason that women are taking this risk is because they are constantly being judged based on their appearance. It's no surprise that in a survey conducted by Glamour magazine; of the 300 women asked to document every negative or anxious thought they had about their bodies in a day. 97% of them admitted to having at least one I hate my body moment. It's a startling percentage to think that most women are unhappy with their bodies and as the article suggests, we all play into this idea of celebrity body worship.1 There have been countless stories of women being injected in their derriere with liquid that is told to be medical grade silicone. Even though being unlicensed, untrained, and injecting silicone into someones backside is illegal enough, authorizes have found a shocking truth. Recently a South Florida transgender woman was caught practicing cosmetic surgery without a license but the shocking part is the number of unsafe substances she was injecting in her patients. Authorizes found that this women was injecting mixtures of cement, glue, mineral oil, and tire sealant.2 Its no surprise that most of these innocent woman getting the injections have died. A British student by the name of Claudia Aderotimi died after going to America for an illegal butt enhancement. The main reason why Aderotimi went through this dangerous procedure was because she

1 Dreisbach, S. (2012, May 02). Shocking Body-Image News:97% of Women will be Cruel to Their Bodies Today. Retrieved May 10, 2012, from Glamore: www.Glamore.com 2 Murray, R. (2012, November 19). Transgender woman arrested after injectioning Fix-A-Flat into patient's rear end. Retrieved May 10, 2012, from Daily News: www.nydailynews.com

thought it would make her a Hip Hop star.3 It just adds fuel to the fire, the hip-hop industry in particular are most known for exploiting women in music videos. When was the last time you didnt see a women shaking her tail feather half-naked in a video? A celebrity like Nicki Minaj has become almost as famous for her posterior as for her voice. I still wanted to know if women were actually being influenced by what they saw in pop culture. Throughout my research I found an interview that was conducted by Vibe magazine that sheds some light on what some women might comprehend about this procedure. The women being interviewed, who remains nameless, is a Boutique owner from New Jersey who got illegal butt injections from a women who was rumored for having unsafe substances. The women was asked the question of why she went through this procedure knowing the risks and responded. Its like I need to have a big booty for somebody to want me, thats the concept I get from the whole thing and thats where that came in. She was then asked if she was influenced by pop cultures obsession with women like Kim K and J Lo, to which she responded. Definitely. Nobody was thinking about butts until Puff Daddy comes along and say J Lo has the most in the world, so its something that everybody pays attention to now, butts.4 Its makes sense that women would go through this procedure to seek more attention from the opposite sex you cant say that for all women. In order to conduct this test more affectively, you need a larger sample size of women to survey. Even though I dont totally agree with all of her statements, I was surprised that she did return for more painful injections. A woman by

3 Bates, D., Fernandez, C., & Bains , I. (2011, Febuary 12). Tragic bottom implant girl thought having illegal injection would make her a hip hop star. www.mailonline.com

4 Magazine, V. (2012, May 05). When Big Butts Kill. Retrieved May 10, 2012, from Vibe: www.vibe.com

the name of Vanity Wonder was my influence for researching this topic, she wrote a book called Shot Girls, which talks about the black market of illegal butt injections and her experience with butt augmentation. What was quite fascinating was that despite the amount of pain that vanity went through from each injection, she still continued to enhance her butt. She describes her first experience with butt injections in her book. It was a sharp pain that shot down my leg, into my knee and skin, then back again. Ive never been struck by lighting but Im pretty sure thats what it felt like.5 Martin Lindstorm is a branding expert that has written several marketing and advertising books. In 2008 he wrote a book call Buy-ology, which simply talks about why we buy. The entire book focuses on neuromarketing, basically with the use of FMRIs EEGs and SSTs, they can all measure how the brain responses to certain brands, logos, and commercials. What I found most interesting was that he conducted one of the worlds largest experiments on cigarette smokers. He basically found that when a person smokes, it stimulated an area of the smokers brain called the nucleus accumbens or the craving spot.6 The nucleus accumbens not only lights up when you smoke but also when you drink, do drugs, have sex, and even gamble. So when this part of that brain craves one of these things, the body demands a higher and higher dose every time. The point is that maybe these women, without knowing it, are trying to satisfy their addiction. It would come to no shock that plastic surgery has increased over the years. People that are uncomfortable in their own skin, turn to surgery as a means of
5 Wonder, V. (2012). Shot Girls . Bloomington, Indiana , United States of America : Author House . 6 Lindstorm, M. (2008). Buyology . New York , New York , UnitedStates : Crown Publishing Group .

instant self-improvement. I would still consider butt augmentation to still be rather new in the world of plastic surgery, since it hasnt been perfected until recently. An article written by the New York Times in 2006, had some interesting facts about womens obsession with there backside. The article states that efforts to enhance the size of the posterior, have dated back to ancient Greece, when Spartan women would perform butt kicking dances in order to increase the look and feel of there butt.7 It seems that its almost a natural thing that women in general have always questioned, how do I make myself look more attractive? We live in a modern society in which women are now being feed this image of body perfection at such a young age. Natalie Del Rio was 18 years old when she had her butt augmented, legally. She always felt that she looked good from the front but never from the backside because no one ever told her that she was fine the way she was. I would guess that her mother never told her that she was prefect already because Natalie states Now my mom says I look like a Coca-Cola bottle. I guess thats the goal for these young women, they need to have curves like there favorite soda beverage. Its surreal how these surgeries were first marketed towards older women; predominantly in their late 40s and early 50s that wanted to try and improve imperfections with there bodies. Plastic surgery knows no age and with the use of the media portraying this image of perfection, girls as young 11 years old have questioned getting surgery. In an issue of Psychological Bulletin, researchers Shelly Grabe and Janet Gyde found of the 15,000 subjects used in a range of experiments, found that exposure to

7 Singer, N. (2006, March 02). Skin Deep; How to Stuff a Wild Bikini Bottom . Retrieved May 10, 2012, from The New York Times : www.nytimes.com

media that depicts ultra-thin actresses and models, had significantly increased womens concerns about their bodies. Even though the results are not anything that we havent heard before, Grabe suggests that people are resist to the idea of societal influence like the media. Weve demonstrated that it doesnt matter what the exposure is, whether its general TV watching in the evening, or magazines, or ads showing on a computer, if the image is appearance-focused and sends a clear message about a womans body as object, then its going to affect women.
8

Vanity Wonders book Shot Girls, is the first of its kind because it shows the illegal side of hydrogel butt injections. Throughout her book I was trying to find out whether or not she was influenced by the pressures of society telling her that she must have a bigger butt, in order to find a suitable mate. She never states that she was influenced by the pop-culture trend of big butts but rather her motivation was strictly to better her professional career. I would love to believe that but as you can tell from the pictures of Vanity Wonder below, there is not doubt that she went a little overboard with the injections. She also emits that she acquired more attention from the opposite sex and states that it increased her confidence. In answering the question that I posed in the beginning of the paper, I believe that subconsciously your brain is seeing these images portrayed through the media and creates an ultimatum, either you risk you life for happiness or you live your life in torment.

8 Grabe, S., & Hyde , J. (2008, May 13). Concern Over Strong Media Influence On Women's Body Image. Retrieved May 10, 2012, from Medical News Today: www.medicalnewstoday.com

Bibliography
Bates, D., Fernandez, C., & Bains , I. (2011, Febuary 12). Tragic bottom implant girl thought having illegal injection would make her a hip hop star. www.mailonline.com .

Dreisbach, S. (2012, May 02). Shocking Body-Image News:97% of Women will be Cruel to Their Bodies Today. Retrieved May 10, 2012, from Glamore: www.Glamore.com

Grabe, S., & Hyde , J. (2008, May 13). Concern Over Strong Media Influence On Women's Body Image. Retrieved May 10, 2012, from Medical News Today: www.medicalnewstoday.com

Lindstorm, M. (2008). Buyology . New York , New York , UnitedStates : Crown Publishing Group .

Magazine, V. (2012, May 05). When Big Butts Kill. Retrieved May 10, 2012, from Vibe: www.vibe.com

Murray, R. (2012, November 19). Transgender woman arrested after injectioning FixA-Flat into patient's rear end. Retrieved May 10, 2012, from Daily News: www.nydailynews.com

Singer, N. (2006, March 02). Skin Deep; How to Stuff a Wild Bikini Bottom . Retrieved May 10, 2012, from The New York Times : www.nytimes.com

Victorian, B. (2012, April 09). Butt Shots and Black Men- Are They to Blame for the Problem? Retrieved May 10, 2012, from Frugivore: www.frugivoremag.com

Wonder, V. (2012). Shot Girls . Bloomington, Indiana , United States of America : Author House .