September 18, 2007
Australian navy defends paying for breast implants
SYDNEY (AFP) - The Australian military Sunday defended its decision to pay for some female sailors to have breast implants, saying the operations were not carried out for cosmetic reasons.
Australian Defence Force spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic did not say how many women had had the taxpayer-funded operation.
But he said the military would consider paying for plastic surgery for personnel where there were medical, dental or compelling psychological or psychiatric reasons.
Any suggestion that breast operations were carried out to make the women "look sexy" were not only wrong, but insulting, Nikolic said.
"Under defence policy we do consider the holistic needs of our people, both physical and psychological," he said.
"That is a long way from saying, however, that if someone doesn't like their appearance, defence will fund things like breast augmentations as a matter of routine -- that is just not correct."
Defence Association spokesman Neil James also defended the practice.
"For psychiatric or psychological reasons, this has been recommended after a medical evaluation," he told state radio.
"It's not being done because someone just wanted it.
Posted by ronnie at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2007
Australian magazine offers new breasts as top prize
SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian men's magazine has outraged health experts by launching a competition in which the top prize is new breasts for the winner's girlfriend.
Zoo Weekly has urged men to submit photographs of their girl's cleavage so that readers can vote online for which woman most deserves 10,000 dollars (8,450 US) worth of plastic surgery to improve her chest.
"It's impossible to think of a more romantic gift than new breasts," magazine editor Paul Merrill said in a statement.
"It's the gift that keeps on giving."
But health experts attacked the competition, describing it as unethical and in poor taste.
"I'm disgusted and appalled, and very doubtful they can even offer major body modification as a prize," said Jenny O'Dea, a public health researcher at Sydney University.
"You simply cannot treat women in this way, like objects there for men's satisfaction."
The Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons said it was medically unethical to offer surgery in a competition and that it was inappropriate for a man to win such a prize and offer it to his girlfriend.
"What would we think if a women's magazine ran a lottery for a penis enlargement and asked women to volunteer their boyfriends," society President Howard Webster said.
Sexuality researcher Julie Mooney-Somers said it was also possible that women could be entered into the competition without their knowledge.
"What's to say these women even want a boob job or that it's even safe for them to have it," said Mooney-Somers, an academic at the University of New South Wales.
"There may be some very horrified women out there thanks to this."
Posted by ronnie at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)