Thigh Anxiety

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A more common procedure is liposuction for love handles. While liposuction is promoted as safe, a recent study by doctors in California showed that one patient in 5,000 dies, usually after a surgeon removes a large volume of fat. Robert del Junco, a head and neck surgeon who leads the Medical Board of California's commission to investigate cosmetic surgery, says some doctors now operate after only a weekend seminar's worth of training.

Despite the risks, it's likely that more men will undergo cosmetic surgery in the future, especially as the technology shortens recovery times and the procedures become less intrusive. Some men are even seeking lunchtime fixes: a quick collagen injection to smooth out wrinkles, a speedy dermabrasion to reduce blemishes.

The effort to look young and attractive is going beyond gender, as our culture becomes more androgynous. Obsession with appearance is likely to become less a matter of gender than of class; people, no matter what their sex, are likely to spend whatever they can afford to enhance their looks.

Inevitably, more men will develop the kinds of body and appearance neuroses that many women have suffered for years: eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and general self-loathing for not measuring up to an impossible ideal. It may disappoint women, who have always thought men would be less obsessive about facial flaws and extra pounds--real or imagined. But we'll be sympathetic. We know how it feels.

From Mother Jones(March/April 1999). Subscriptions: $18/yr. (6 issues) from Box 469024, Escondido, CA 92046-9024.

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