Thursday, July 31, 2008

Breast enlargement, vanity and freak-shows

Is there any sane bloke out there who truly thinks Jodi Marsh or Jordan's bazookas look good?

The article of the week is by Bethan Cole in today's Independent and it reads :"Double trouble: Are breast enlargements imitation or mutilation?" It's, at last, a call to arms against the culture of body mutilation that is being perpetrated by contemporary media and celebrity magazines. I mean, aside from the geekiest, most desperate lads (those of the kind who tickle the pickle 12 times a day and then tell everybody at school about their masturbating record), and aside from lairy peer pressure of the cor-look-at-those-knockers variety, is there any sane bloke out there who thinks Jodi Marsh or Jordan's bazookas look good? They look FAKE.

And that's on a par with the Jackie Stallones of this world, i.e. people who are incapable of ageing gracefully and end up looking like a scary freak. Bethan Cole is right that "[c]ompanies such as Transform and the Harley Medical Group present the acquisition of fake breasts as being a consumer choice comparable to the purchase of a new car or a sofa, with pay-by-instalment price plans to boot", and absolutely spot-on when she argues that "we need to start loving ourselves a little more and stop worshipping dumb-assed celebrities who mutilate their breasts in the name of vanity".

Perhaps the trend reversal has already started thanks to Kiera Knightley. You may have heard that she recently refused to have her boobs airbrushed for her upcoming film, "The Duchess", and told everyone to leave her tits alone. Fair play.

*****

Another month, and more headlines about British Gas announcing a record 35% price hike. This is not quite clear to me. Does it mean that the increases announced last month and the month before (etc) have all been outdone? Or is it the same stuff? In any case, multi-zillion profit British Gas and the likes justify their extortionate rates by saying raw material is getting too expensive. But they've been putting the price up no matter what. And, like this article in today's Times points out, "Only a day before the announcement by British Gas that household bills would rise by a third, the wholesale gas price fell off a cliff". Thieves.

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