•23-Year-Old Heidi Montag Post-Plastic Surgery Looks At Least 30!

Recently, Heidi Montag, one of the cast members of The Hills underwent 10 plastic surgeries in one visit.  Ridiculous!  Now, the 23-year-old looks over 30!  Why would you do that to yourself???  And, where was Spencer Pratt during all this?  Although Heidi is no super celebrity, she is still a young woman in the spotlight that’s giving young girls the wrong idea.

Heidi Montag Post 10 Plastic Surgeries

She had:

• Mini brow lift
• Botox in forehead and frown area
• Nose job revision
• Fat injections in cheeks, nasolabial folds and lips
• Chin reduction
• Neck liposuction
• Ears pinned back
• Breast augmentation revision
• Liposuction on waist, hips, outer and inner thighs
• Buttock augmentation

Apparently, she told the reporter that she wanted to get cup size H, for Heidi.  Seriously?!?!??  Wow.  I don’t even know how to defend in with a quote like that…

Now she looks unnatural, uncomfortable and just plain not as pretty as she was before!  Crazy…

•Hostessing in Japan: 3 pros and 3 cons

New York Times recently published an article describing the new and booming job opportunity of hostessing in Japan (“Young Japanese Women Vie for a Once-Scorned Job”).  Given the lack of employment for young women in the economic downturn, many of them have turned to hostessing as an option, and sometimes even a career goal.  The articles notes that in a 2009 survey of 1,154 high school girls, “hostessing ranked No. 12 out of the 40 most popular professions, ahead of public servant (18) and nurse (22).”

Hostessing does not mean prostitution; however, the pressures to have sex with their clients do exist.  Hostesses tend to drinks, offer conversation and flirtatious talks, and entertainment in general.  Oftentimes, they would go on off-site dates with their clients.  Though sex isn’t in the package, “special perks” are.

For a country where “almost 70 percent of women ages 20 to 24 worked jobs with few benefits and little job security”, hostessing provides financial stability, especially for women without college degrees.  These women are paid from anywhere between $100,000 and $300,000 a year at these kyabakura (cabaret clubs), all dependent on the popularity of the hostess.

So the question comes down to: does hostessing help or hurt the position of women in Japanese society?

Critics:

• Emphasizes women’s role as an “object” of desire
• Reinforces a gender-bias in Japanese society by attributing high “value” to a low status position
• Avoids the problem of massive gender inequality in education, politics, employment and other sectors

Proponents:

• Encourages financial ascendancy for women otherwise pigeon-holed to low-paying or temp jobs
• Creates external opportunities post-hostessing, such as book deals and tutorials
• Follows a similar trajectory as “acting”, which was regarded as a lowly and promiscuous job in previous generations, before becoming acceptable in recent times

So, all being said, do you think “hostessing” is good or bad?