Over the last decade, demand for the most common cosmetic surgery procedures, like breast enlargements and nose jobs, has increased by more than 400 percent. According to Dr. Dai Davies, of the Plastic Surgery Partnership in Hammersmith, the majority of cosmetic surgery patients are not chasing physical perfection. Rather, they are driven to fantastic lengths to improve their appearance by a desire to look normal."【F1】What we all crave is to look normal, and normal is what is prescribed by the advertising media and other external pressures.They give us a perception of what is physically acceptable and we feel we must look like that."【F2】In America, the debate is no longer about whether surgery is normal; rather, it centres on what age people should be before going under the knife.New York surgeon Dr. Gerard Imber recommends "maintenance" work for people in their thirties. "The idea of waiting until one needs a heroic transformation is silly," he says, "By then, you"ve wasted 20 great years of your life and allowed things to get out of hand." Dr. Imber draws the line at operating on people who are under 18, however. "It seems that someone we don"t consider old enough to order a drink shouldn"t be considering plastic surgery."In the UK cosmetic surgery has long been seen as the exclusive domain of the very rich and famous.【F3】But the proportionate cost of treatment has fallen substantially, bringing all but the most advanced laser technology within the reach of most people.Dr. Davies, who claims to "cater for the average person", agrees. He says:"I treat a few of the rich and famous and an awful lot of secretaries. Of course, £3, 000 for an operation is a lot of money. But it is also an investment for life which costs about half the price of a good family holiday."【F4】Dr. Davies suspects that the increasing sophistication of the fat injecting and removal techniques that allow patients to be treated with a local anaesthetic in an afternoon has also helped promote the popularity of cosmetic surgery.【F5】Yet, as one woman who recently paid £2, 500 for liposuction to remove fat from her thighs admitted, the slope to becoming a cosmetic surgery Veteran is a deceptively gentle one."I had my legs done because they"d been bugging me for years. But going into the clinic was so low key and effective it whetted my appetite. Now I don"t think there"s any operation that I would rule out having if I could afford it." 【F5】
【F1】Despite the general negative findings, it is important to remember that all children who live through a divorce do not behave in the same way.The specific behavior depends on the child"s individual personality, characteristics, age at the time of divorce, and gender.【F2】In terms of personality, when compared to those rated as relaxed and easygoing, children described as temperamental and irritable have more difficulty coping with parental divorce, as indeed they have more difficulty adapting to life change in general.Stress, such as that found in disrupted families, seems to impair the ability of temperamental children to adapt to their surroundings, the greater the amount of stress, the less well they adapt. In contrast, a moderate amount of stress may actually help an easygoing, relaxed child learn to cope with adversity.There is some relationship between age and children"s characteristic reaction to divorce.【F3】As the child grows older, the greater is the likelihood of a free expression of a variety of complex feelings, an understanding of those feelings, and a realization that the decision to divorce cannot be attributed to any one simple cause.Self-blame virtually disappears after the age of 6, fear of abandonment diminishes after the age of 8, and the confusion and fear of the young child is replaced in the older child by shame, anger, and self-reflection.Gender of the child is also a factor that predicts the nature of reaction to divorce. The impact of divorce is initially greater on boys than on girls. They are more aggressive, less compliant, have greater difficulties in interpersonal relationships, and exhibit problem behaviors both at home and at school. Furthermore, the adjustment problems of boys are still noticeable even two years after the divorce. Girls" adjustment problems are usually internalized rather than acted out, and are often resolved by the second year after the divorce. However, new problems may surface for girls as they enter adolescence and adulthood. How can the relatively greater impact of divorce on boys than on girls be explained【F4】The greater male aggression and noncompliance may reflect the fact that such behaviors are tolerated and even encouraged in males in our culture more than they are in females.Furthermore, boys may have a particular need for a strong male model of self-control, as well as for a strong disciplinarian parent.【F5】Finally, boys are more likely to be exposed to their parents" fights than girls are, and after the breakup, boys are less likely than girls to receive sympathy and support from mothers, teachers, or peers. 【F5】