Would you rather be dead and pretty than ugly and alive?
Fascinating
story from
Time Asia about cosmetic surgery and its omnipresence in modern Asian life. This little chunk is a pretty good sample of the article:
The cultural quirks of the plastic surgery business in Asia also extend to sexuality. In China, Korea and Indonesia, where virginity is highly prized, young women go in for hymen reconstruction in time for their wedding night. In Japan, Indonesia and Korea, men ask for penis-enlargement procedures, in part to avoid shame when bathing en masse. In Thailand, with its sizable population of so-called "lady boys," a thriving industry has sprung up to provide male-to-female sex-change operations.