Signs of the Times

How you can tell if the country is still in a recession? Here are some clues:

(1) Colleges are still biting the bullet and lowering tuition costs; (2) Fewer teens are playing playing pricey video games; and (3) Your next-door neighbors aren’t getting boob jobs for their teenage daughters.

How times have changed.

In 2007, “the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported that American consumers spent more than $12 billion on cosmetic surgery,” said Maura Moynihan in The Daily Beast. But the 2008 profit plunge took a toll on boob jobs, which dropped by 62 percent in just one year.

Reporter Moynihan attributes the breast augmentation hoopla that took off in the 1990s to the increasing trend toward subordination of women “within the patriarchy,” which urged them to compensate for their female inadequacy by getting “Barbie Body” implants. “Surgical alteration was perceived as a means to ‘salvation,’” says Moynihan.

Stay tuned for the next chapter in this ongoing saga.

Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia.

Deborah Lambert