Ruminations in Korea

While reading a post written by Brendon Carr on Marmot’s Hole, my blood pressure began to rise steadily.  The post dealt with whinging English teachers who voluntarily put themselves into situations and then scream and yell and cry when some powerful government agency, lawyer, or avenging angel doesn’t ride in on a white horse and save them.

Brendon wrote:

The writer feels doubly betrayed because his Embassy refuses … to come down like the Hammer of Zeus™ bringing the full weight of U.S. power onto the heads of the hagwon owners. …

What irks me about this clown’s article is he has the gall to compare himself to the third-world women and factory workers who are trafficked to Korea to work as slaves. He wants the National Human Rights Commission to set up a special, “fully-staffed” bureau to avenge the English teachers … Get over yerself, buddy. You got cheated on a contract — that’s not a “human-rights violation” … So what?

Ok.  First off, let me say that I KNOW English teachers get screwed over a lot here. It is NOT OK that it happens.  Of course it shouldn’t happen. Yes it would be wonderful if all teachers everywhere were treated with respect and dignity and were given their full rights and protections under the Labor Standards Act.

That having been said, I must make two statements based upon Bayesian probability that to me appear to be universal truths.  Although these statements are, of course, subject to Popperian falsifiability, until empirically proven wrong, I remain convinced of their truth:

1. Regardless of how bad any foreign teacher has is treated at any given language institute, the Korean teachers at that same institute have are treated worse.
2. The majority of foreign English teachers bring the majority of their problems on themselves.

To test the validity of my first statement, I challenge any foreigner at any institute who thinks he or she is being treated worse than the Korean teachers to ask those teachers how their respective work situations compare.  Some things to look into. Ask how many of the Korean teachers (English, math, history, or any other subject) make more than KRW 2,000,000 per month.  Ask how many of them are given free housing.  Ask how many of them receive round trip plane tickets anywhere.  Ask how many of them even get bus fare.  Ask how many of the Korean teachers get their full vacation time granted under the Labor Standards Act.  Ask how many of them work fewer hours than you.  In my experience, the universal answer to all of those questions is NONE!

I don’t say this to suggest that because foreign teachers are treated better, it is ok for the institutes to get away with the things they do.  I mention this to say that when foreigners complain to the Korean teachers about their situation and working conditions, the Korean teachers can, in no way, sympathize with the foreigners.  The Koreans wish they had it as bad as the foreigners, and they resent the Foreigners for complaining when they have it so good comparatively.

Another, although seemingly less common, phenomenon is the plight of the institute director who truly is trying to do his best for the foreign teacher, and simply can’t figure out what this foreigner is complaining about. An example of this is a conversation that I overheard while sitting and chatting with one of the top-ranking US diplomats in Korea at that time in his office.  I have no idea how that woman got connected through to his phone.  Perhaps it was her yelling, hysterical wailing, and incomprehensible blubbering.  However, she got through, I am grateful that I was able to be privy to the conversation.  As best I remember, the conversation went something like this:

Him: This is X.

Her (sobbing and crying uncontrollably throughout the conversation): YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!!!!

Him: What’s the problem?

Her: My institute director!!!  You have to help me!  You have to make him stop treating me like this!!!

Him:  What’s wrong?  What’s he doing?  Are you OK?

Her: I can’t believe he keeps making me do it!!! It’s not right!!! I can’t live like this!!!  I just can’t do it every day!!!!

 Him: I’m sorry. I don’t understand. You have to calm down and stop crying so I can understand what you are saying.  Take a deep breath and tell me what the problem is.

Her: It’s terrible!!!  You have to make it stop!!! The embassy has to help me!!!

Him (getting a little irritated): I don’t know what to do, if you don’t tell me what happened.

Her (gaining a little composure): My institute director!  He is making me live in this appartment that is so far away from my school.  It takes me 30 minutes one way to get to and from work! (sobbing again) You have to make him move me closer to the school!!!!

Him (nearly roaring with mixed anger and incredulity): WHAT?????

Her: You have to make him…..

Him (cutting her off): Look!  Just a minute.

Him (shouting across the office): Miss A, how long does it take you to get to work?

Miss A: one hour.

Him: Mr. B, how long does it take you to get to the office?

Mr. B: 45 minutes.

Him: Miss C, how long does it take you to get to the office?

Miss C: about an hour.

Him: And it takes me about 45 minutes to get to work.  You see.  Can you understand that your institute director has ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE what you are whining about??  I bet he would give his right arm to be able to live only 30 minutes away from the school!

Her: But what can I do?

Him: Look!  If you don’t get what I am talking about, then I can only suggest one thing.  GO HOME!  Just go home!

This leads me to one brief side note. In his post, Brendon refers to people feeling “doubly betrayed because [their]Embassy refuses … to come down like the Hammer of Zeus™ bringing the full weight of U.S. power onto the heads of the hagwon owners.”  When I get calls from institute teachers, which are mercifully becoming fewer and fewer these days, it is not uncommon for the caller to begin by complaining that the stupid, useless Embassy was totally unhelpful and wouldn’t do anything except email him/her a list of lawyers that are willing to help foreigners. 

Just as a bit of information for you about the US Embassy (i don’t know about other countries’ embassies), if you don’t already know it, the US Embassy is a diplomatic entity.  It’s main purpose is to provide a diplomatic link between the host country and the USA.  The embassy cannot and will not get involved in personal or civil disputes between Americans and Korean companies or employers.  The embassy cannot even suggest a specific lawyer to assist with a particular problem.  They embassy can only give you a list of lawyers that have expressed a willingness to assist foreigners.  THAT IS ALL THE EMBASSY WILL DO.  The official word from the State Department is as follows:

The Embassy, by regulation, cannot enter into any case, conduct any investigation, or act as a lawyer for any personal mishap or employment dispute experienced by a U.S. citizen. We cannot investigate, certify, or vouch for employers. It is up to each individual to evaluate an employer before signing a contract, and to use common sense when traveling this far, including keeping sufficient funds available to return home should the situation become untenable.

In criminal matters, the embassy’s role is limited to providing the aforementioned lawyer list and making a visit every now and again to ensure that you are being treated no worse than the Korean inmates.  They can do NOTHING to get you better treatment than Korean inmates. Again from the State department:

If you violate Korean … laws, the Embassy cannot assist you other than to provide you with a list of attorneys…

So.  If you are a foreign teacher, you will get no sympathy from the Korean teachers in the institute and the embassy can’t do anything for you. So, what can you do?  The first thing to do is to remember the old addage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  The best way to handle problems is to avoid problems in the first place.

Brendon advises the following for would-be English teachers:

(1) Don’t come here! (2) Since you’re going to come here anyway, dummy, make sure that you have six months’ living expenses (a single young person can live in Korea on about $1000 a month) and cash for return transportation home. Odds are good that you’ll be cheated. At least if you take steps to make sure you’re not helpless, it will be a mitigated disaster instead of an unmitigated disaster.

I fully concur with this advice.  However, I want to expand it.  My first bit of advice is exactly as Brendon says. DON’T COME HERE!!!  Just don’t come. As Brendon points out, the US Embassy virtually screams “DON’T COME HERE TO TEACH ENGLISH, LEAGALLY OR OTHERWISE!!”  The US Embass says:

WORKING IN THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA:  Americans going to the Republic of Korea to teach, model or work for a company (part-time or full-time, paid or unpaid) must enter the ROK using the appropriate work visa.  Changes of status from any other visa status to a work visa are not granted within the country.  Any foreigner who begins work without the appropriate visa is subject to arrest, costly fines, and deportation.  Persons working without a valid work permit and who have a contractual dispute with their employers have little or no entitlement to legal recourse under Korean law. 

TEACHING ENGLISH:  The U.S. Embassy in Seoul receives many complaints from U.S. citizens who enter the Republic of Korea to teach English at private language schools (”hagwons”).  The most frequent complaints are that the schools and/or employment agencies misrepresent salaries, working conditions, living arrangements and other benefits, including health insurance, even in the written contracts.  There have also been some complaints of physical assault, threats of arrest/deportation, and sexual harassment.  Some U.S.-based employment agencies have been known to misrepresent contract terms, employment conditions or the need for an appropriate work visa.  Since Spring 2005, Korean police have investigated a number of foreign teachers for document fraud.  Several Americans have been arrested and charged with possession of fraudulent university diplomas which were used to obtain employment in Korea.  A comprehensive handout entitled “Teaching English in Korea: Opportunities and Pitfalls” may be obtained at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul or via the Bureau of Consular Affairs homepage at http://travel.state.gov/ under Travel Publications.

If you choose to ignore this clear and obvious warning, you likely are setting yourself up for problems later.  However, there is still hope for you to minimize your risks. I cannot say this emphatically enough: “KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GETTING INTO BEFORE YOU GET INTO IT!”

It never ever ceases to amaze me that the same people who will read every single word on a video rental membership application and make sure they understand every possible nuance of late fees before signing the membership application will go and sign a contract without carefully reading, considering, and understanding what it means in a Korean context. They will rely on statements made by complete and total strangers, pack up their bags, and fly 6,000 miles from home without scrip or purse, never having made any effort to check on the schools reputation, ask for references, or investigate any other aspect of the school.  This is part of what I mean when I say that teachers bring most of their problems upon themselves.

Another part of foreign teachers bringing problems onto themselves is the inability/unwillingness to do what is expected and know their role in society and to conform with societal and cultural norms. One afternoon, I was waiting to have lunch with the high-ranking diplomat mentioned above.  As I sat outside his office door waiting for Mr. X to finish his appointment, a man walked out of Mr. X’s office.  He had long, curly, unwashed hair falling past his shoulders, full beard, an earing, knee-length denim cut-off shorts, flip-flops, and a bright-colored t-shirt.  I asked Mr. X who that guy was.  I was told that the meeting went something like this:

Him: How can I help you.

Guy: I don’t know what to do.  I show up on time. I do my work.  But, no one respects me at the institute.  I’m a professional, and they should treat me with respect.

Him: Have you looked in a mirror?

Guy: Huh?

Him: Have you noticed that almost all professionals in Korea wear a dress shirt and tie.  Have you noticed that bus drivers wear uniforms?  Have you noticed that even garbage men wear uniforms?  Look at the way you are dressed.  Look at your hair. A Korean would never be seen out in public looking like this and certainly never be allowed to work in a professional environment looking like that (which was true at that time).  If you want to be treated with respect you have to look, dress, and act respectfully.

I personally do not frequent places many places where English teachers hang out. One of the reasons is that I get easily frustrated watch a bunch of grubby, unkempt, long greasy-haired men and other people that look like they crawled out of the shallow end of the gene pool and into Darwin’s waiting room gripe about how they are treated badly at work.  They should be lucky they are allowed to work looking like that.  I think all institutes should have strict dress codes.  However, suggesting a written dress code is unnecessary as every Korean knows how to dress for work.  It’s just the foreigners how walk around with the attitude of “I’ve just got to be me.  What does it matter how I look if I do my job well?”  The short answer is that to Koreans, it matters A LOT what people look like.  You as a foreigner are more noticeable and should therefore be trying extra hard to get the respect you so desparately want, but so seldom deserve.  Appearance and attitude go a long way to help avoid problems and to help resolve problems that do occur.  The State Department addresses this issue as follows:

SOCIAL STATUS OF TEACHERS: Teachers are usually treated with great respect in Korea. However, it is also important to exhibit the kind of personal qualities and behavior that help maintain that respect. A foreign teacher who does disrespectful things, such as dressing or behaving too casually or informally, or losing his temper with a boss he considers unreasonable, would be held in great disdain by most Koreans, and runs the risk of getting into serious trouble with both his employer and the Korean Immigration Office. In other words, one should always present a mature, discreet, dignified and respectful manner. As a foreigner in Korea you will be highly visible, and you may find living here to be like living in a fish bowl, with everyone around you watching what you do with great interest. Remember that Korean society is more conservative in many ways than American society, and abide by local norms.

THE ESL PROFESSION IS NOT CONSIDERED PROFESSIONAL BY SOME KOREANS: By and large, Koreans do not think teaching ESL is a professional occupation. In fact, many believe any native speaker will do. This of course is based partially on reality - many ESL instructors in Korea have not had any professional training.

How generous of them to state that “many” ESL instructors have not had any professional training… I would say VERY few have had any professional training.

Korea is not a commune where everyone is on equal footing.  Like it or not, Korea is governed by Confuscian social principles and hierarchies at all — and I mean ALL — levels of society.  Everyone knows their place.  Everyone in the house knows their function and place. You are not the Lord of the Mannor here. You are not even on the same level as a servant.  You are a foreigner, and outsider, an other, a stereotype, a virtual non-entity.  After almost 18 years dealing with and living in Korean society, most foreigners think I have gone native, but to Koreans I am still as foreign as if I walked off the boat yesterday.  You can only be as involved in Korean society as the Koreans will let you be and you have to work very hard to even crack the surface.  Again, the State Department addresses this issue:

FOREIGNERS ARE NOT KOREAN: Korean society in general makes a great distinction between one’s inner circle of family, friends and business colleagues, and outsiders. One should always treat one’s inner circle with complete respect and courtesy, while one treats strangers with indifference. Korea is not an egalitarian society; one is either of a higher or a lower status than other people. How do foreigners fit into this scheme? The simple answer is - they don’t. Foreigners are completely off the scope.

If you act like an arrogant, snobbish prat, yell at people who are just doing their jobs, act like you are entitled to better treatment because you are a foreigner, or act like you should be treated the same way you are treated back home, then you are going to get in trouble.

In 18 years, I have NEVER been stopped, inspected, or taxed by Korea customs when entering the country, including the time I wheeled in 209 pounds of computer equipment.  Yet, I hear of people that are always stopped and searched by customs.  I walk slowly and quietly through the line, hand them my customs declaration form and answer every question they as quietly and politely.  On the other hand, I have seen countless foreigners react with the attitude of “Who do you think you are asking me to open my bags? See. There’s nothing in here you foreigner-hating loser.”  I know one person with that attitude that has be subjected to a full search of his bags on at least five occasions that I know about.

In 18 years, I have been in exactly two fights with Koreans, and one of those was completely my fault, as I should not have stuck my nose where it didn’t belong.  However, there are the types of people that have been here for three months and already have been in several fights, had stitches, been banned from bars, and spent more than one night in jail.  Instead of walking away when people try to cause trouble, some foreigners can’t seem to rest getting in the Koreans’ faces and acting like a tough guy.  You are a foreigner.  One way or another it will eventually catch up to you and you will lose.

So. What do you do if you insist on coming to Korea and something happens while you are here? Do you refuse to come to work?  Do you waive the contract in the air and threaten to sue the school for breach of contract?  No.  That will get you nowhere…other than probably fired and given only two weeks to leave the country.

First, as Brendan points out in his article, A contract in Korea does not have the same meaning as a contract in most western countries. What constitutes a contract there is not what constitutes a contract here. The contents and effect of a contract there are not what the contents and effect of a contract are here.  You must accept that the nature of a contrac here is different that the nature of a contract where you are from.  Don’t assume that what your institute is doing is necessarily a breach of contract, and don’t assume that what you are doing is necessarily in line with the contract.  In a great many cases, it turns out that regardless of what the teacher thought, it was actually the teacher and NOT the institute that was the intial breacher of the contract.

Second, most disagreements are settled out of court. Outside of a big business environment, civil suits for breach of contract and other such claims are still look down upon and as a disgrace to the parties involved.  Filing a lawsuit for something as relatively small and petty as a couple thousand dollars is seen as a failure to be mature and adult enough to reach a solution to the problem.  Another thing is that you almost certainly cannot aford me, my firm, or other lawyer or lawfirm in town.  Basically, unless your valid claims is for AT LEAST KRW 20,000,000, you are much better off trying to resolve the matter outside of the court, over dinner and/or drinks with you institute owner, and in a highly respectful manner, showing deference to his/her position as your boss.

Thus, if you ignore the warnings not to come her, and if you don’t take the proper steps to clarify the meaing of the words in the contract and investigate your future workplace and working conditions, and if you can’t act like a mature adult and work things out own your own, don’t whine about your situation, don’t complain to the Korean workers, don’t expect your Embassy to ride to your rescue, and don’t expect me or any other lawyer (foreign or Korean) to work for free. You bear a great deal of responsibilty for your situation.

You are engaging in a risky business with a large number of shady employers and knowing that you will likley have no practical means of resolving problems in your favor.  Understand that.

If you happen to be one of the few people who did everything they could to avoid problems and were truly and  blindsided by the institute’s evil machinations, then look to resolve the situation peacefully and maturely.  If that doesn’t work and you have a way of remaining in the country legally after you are fired or quit, then try small claims court. If you can’t invest the time in a small claims court or if you cannot easily quantify and prove the amount of damages, then take Mr. X’s advice, treat it as a learning experience and go home.  Just go home.

"She’s got looks that kill!

She’s got looks that kill!"

- Motley Crue

I have had several discussions over the past week or so, mostly with Jae from My Resonating Life, regarding women and beauty. What is beauty? How do women see themselves? Why have cosmetic surgery? What are the pressures that society puts on women?

Given that I am a man, I don’t understand a lot about these issues. However, I do know what I see, and I see some disturbing things here in korea that I thought would improve, but which have only gotten worse. To be honest, it distresses me.

When I first set foot on Korean soil back in 1988, one of the first observations I made was that women here wore entirely too much makeup. I speculated that garden trowls must sell well here because it seemed that every girl had one with which to apply her makeup. I thought it strange because it seemed that some very pretty women making themselves uglier in a misguided effort to make themselves prettier.

I have asked girls, in my own special sensitive way, why they wear so much make up. One of the surprising answers has been that they have a bad complexion so they need to wear makeup to cover these imperfections. I have an idea. How about not clogging your pores with all of that goop?

Makeup use has not diminished since then. In fact, the situation has worsened as more and better products have become available. As more and more money is thrown at marketing beauty through television, movies, magazines, etc., this quest for beauty has so taken the minds of Korean men and women that women are turning in droves to hacking, slashing, stuffing, and sucking their faces and bodies to conform to what marketers have convinced Korean women and men is beautiful.

The lengths to which women here will go to in order to seek beauty through surgery has become so extreme that it is now costing people their lives. My thoughts and discussions were prompted by the death of a 25-year old woman here in Pusan a couple of weeks ago. The story finaly hit the English-language news in this article in the Korean Herald.

In her six-page suicide note, the unidentified pharmacy major said she always wanted to be beautiful. However, she explained, her last hope to attain the look she wanted failed with an unsuccessful plastic surgery.

Here is a young woman who felt so bad about the way she looked that she turned to a knife in order to make herself look more like something that someone has convinced her she should look like. When the surgery failed to make her look perfect, when the knife failed to give her self-esteem she did a Peter Pan out the 13th floor of her building.

How widespread is the problem of low self-esteem and dissatisfaction with looks among Korean women?

Marie France, a well-known beauty clinic based in England, released a survey on the weekend that suggested almost 79 per cent of Korean females who responded are not satisfied with their appearances.

One 26 year old woman said:

"If I had a lot of money, I would go for cosmetic surgery. I think a pretty face gains you more attention in modern society. Why is it so bad that you want nice face?"

I was stunned by the completely screwed up view of herself, but I am told that a huge number of Korean women think that way. My question to her is, "What is so wrong with your face?" It is truly gut-wrenching to see a very nice looking, healthy woman who think she needs bigger eyes, smaller cheeks, bigger chin, more chiseled nose, etc. What is wrong with they way you look?!?

Personally, nothing makes me cringe like seeing a Korean women with unnaturally large, unnaturally round eyes who reveals shiny scars across her eyelids every time she blinks. The women generally are unaware of the obviousness of the scaring because they can’t see themselves with their eyes closed.

Also, there are very few things more aesthetically displeasing that a woman with breasts that are unnaturally larger than they should be. Just a note, breasts are supposed to move when you run and they are not supposed to stand straight up when you lay on your back. Breast implants are supposedly designed to make people appreciate a woman’s beauty, but to me, as with eye surgery, I mostly notice that something just doesn’t look right and I am slightly uneasy until I discover what it is. Breast implants, if you are so vain as to want them, should be an enhancement, not a distraction.

This addiction to appearance is not new to Korean society as many women have sought plastic surgery since the early 1990s. However, it seems to be getting more serious as something called the "eoljjang syndrome" has found its way into the nation’s vocabulary. Eoljjang is slang, meaning pretty face in English.

Eoljjang cam about through a bunch of Korean girls throwing to gether a "hot or not" sort of website.

From the original slang, a second new word has emerged. "Momjjang" is now the pop term for those judged to have good body shapes.

This fixation on looks has increased to the point where bad people are being idolized simply because they are cute.

A fan site for an attractive female bank burglar was recently organized. Regardless of evidence against her, some believed she was too pretty to have committed such crimes.

Beauty stereotypes are thrown at Korean women from all sides. The girls are raised and molded under the influence of these stereotypes. Boyfriends will tell their already rail-thin girlfriends that she needs to lose weight. Women are just merciless to each other. Magazines are full of unrealistically beautiful women. You can’t turn the TV on without seeing at least four or five channels pitching diet products. There are always four or five channels seeling underwear or lingerie, but the underwear is being modeled by foreign women, not Korean women.

Because of this you have Korean women who are turning more and more to anorexia, bulemia, laxitives and other eating disorders and medication as they try desperately to make themselves ridiculously thin. At the same time, they are trying to develop a body to fill the underwear modeled by the foriegners. You simply cannot do both.

You can’t look like Olive Oyl and a Victoria’s Secret model at the same time!

Not only are people, male and female continually told what they need to look like, how beautiful they need to be, and so forth, Korean TV goes a step further. Korean TV incessantly and mercilously makes fun of and blasts people that look normal. Thus, if you are a normal-looking person and see a normal looking person on TV, you are made to feel worse as people savage the normal-looking person and degrade them.

Kim Hee-jin, a professor of mass communication at Yonsei University, agrees.

Some shows feature guests who make fun of other participants for perceived flaws in their appearances.

"If they do not stop these behaviors, it may have a bad influence on young audiences," Nah said, adding strong regulations for such TV programs are necessary.

This is true. But I think it is a cycle…Society is like that, so TV does it, so society does it. Got a pimple? rest assured some Korean will come up to you, point at it and say very loudly "WOW!!! You have an enormous zit on your face!" God forbid you are even slightly overweight. You will never hear the end of it.

"Serious complexes and morbid addiction to beauty are a kind of mental disease," Miso Clinic psychiatrist Oh Dong-jae said. "If you keep living with these complexes, you may develop depression.

"Though you don’t have a pretty face, you may have a lot of other abilities. You must find them out and develop them. You must know facial beauty is not the most important thing in your life."

I think this psychiatrist has made an error. Who wants to hear, "You are ugly, but you can still do stuff." Wouldn’t women be much better off if they were taught to be happy and satisfied with with they way they look. Most girls and Korean women do not realize that the women in those magazines have every last flaw and blemish meticulously air-brushed and digitally edited away. You can’t do that to a real person. The proper view should be that even though you don’t look like this artificial creation in a magazine or on TV, you are still a beautiful person.

The most extreme example of this "beauty at all costs" mindset is that larger and larger numbers of people are turning to osteogenetic surgery…or limb-lengthening procedures… Here is a Taipei Times article with a fairly good description of that procedure

Kong Jing-wen has paid ?5,700 (US$10,075) to have both of her legs broken and stretched on a rack. The pretty college graduate is now lying in bed, clearly still in considerable pain three days after a doctor sawed through the flesh and bone below her knee to insert what looks an awful lot like knitting needles through the length of her tibiae. . . .

These giant steel pins are connected by eight screws punched horizontally through her ankle and calf to a steel cage surrounding each leg. Once the bone starts to heal, these cages will act like a medieval torture device — each day over the next few months Kong will turn the screws a fraction and stretch her limbs more and more until she has grown by 8cm. . . .

Each procedure has three stages. First comes the operation in which the legs are broken and steel pins — 27cm long and 8mm in diameter — are pushed through the bone. These are fixed to an external frame by eight or so screws, each of which is 4mm in diameter. Next comes the stretching, which is carried out over several months (depending on how much the customer wants to grow) by turning the screws each day and lengthening the bone at the point where it was broken. When the stretching is completed the external frame is removed. In the final stage, the steel pins are left in place for about a year as a support for the newly regenerated bone.

Once it has hardened, the pins are removed. . . .

Bones stretched too rapidly will not grow strong enough to support the body’s weight. Legs extended at different speeds can become misshapen and nerves can be damaged. Horror stories about other less capable surgeons appear from time to time in the Chinese media.

Young women have reportedly been left with their feet splayed outwards on legs that are weirdly twisted; the bones of others have never properly healed and they keep breaking at the slightest knock.

In one of the worst reported cases, a 31-year-old woman was left in the frame for a year because her bones proved so brittle that they could not support her weight after being stretched. Her feet still point in odd directions and she is unable to squat.

It is simply disgusting that someone would even think that they need to subject themselves to this procedures simply for the sake of making a boyfriend or potential employer happy. It is dangerous, painful, and this particular surgery makes what were once normal-looking legs into unnatural legs with freakishly long shins.

Be happy with yourself! I am much more attracted to natural beauty. I would take someone who wears no make and goes natural that some beautied up, make-up covered, surgically altered woman any day. Nothing can compete with the healthy glow of a natural face. Make up, surgery, accessories, hair product, etc. only take away from the beauty of nature.

Women should be proud and happy to show their natural beauty, and not forced into depression and even suicide becuase they feel that they have no chance of living up to the impossible and unobtainable demands that males and other females place on them.