Dying to be Bootyful?

In the news recently is the tragic death of a New York woman from illegal silicone injections administered by an unlicensed friend. Fiordaliza Pichardo was unhappy with the size and shape of her thighs and buttocks. Despite her husband's protestations that she was beautiful and attractive, Pichardo had been regularly receiving silicone injections. The friend, Elsa Then, is a cosmetologist but is not licensed for what amounts to cosmetic surgery.

The day after the injections, Pichardo started having trouble breathing and discomfort in her chest. Apparently the silicone had caused a pulmonary embolism, having traveled to her lungs and clotted there.

This follows on the heels of two cases in Tampa of women who were getting silicone injections which were administered illegally, to enhance their buttocks. Both women were hospitalized and nearly died from the procedure.

In the quest for beauty, women are being victimized by their own low self-image. Once, women wanted to reduce the size of their derriere, but these days everyone wants to be bootylicious. The problem lies not in the cost of cosmetic procedures that put legal and safe surgery out of the reach of many women, it's the pervasiveness of ideals of beauty that convince women that whatever they are, it's not good enough.

The moral of these stories is clearly that going for cut-rate or store-front cosmetic procedures is dangerous. In addition to the stories of women who were horribly scarred and disfigured by illegal cosmetic procedures, there is also the possibility of serious health risks.