The 'silent generation'.
Young people who no longer talk on the phone because "they are going to spend half an hour telling me about their sorrows"
Generosity breaks records: a passing outburst or an attitude towards life?
They call it
an hourglass waist,
although time does not pass by it, as demonstrated by the fact that this type of silhouette, considered a canon of femininity, is once again taking over the
fashion catwalks.
In reality, the so-called wasp waist never went away, nor have the corsets and shapewear that have accompanied us - and tightened - for centuries: one of the oldest representations of a female figure with a corset dates back to the 1000 BC and corresponds to a statuette of the snake goddess from the Minoan culture.
Now, to this angel and demon of lingerie is added a
revolutionary surgical procedure
that allows us to achieve that 'ideal' of beauty "without hospitalization, without medical leave and without scars," explains
Jorge Planas,
director of the Planas Clinic in Barcelona, one one of the few centers that carry out this outpatient operation in the world.
The technique, developed by the Russian plastic and orthopedic surgeon
Kazbek U. Kudzaev,
consists of
'shaping' the XI and XII ribs
with a small
10 millimeter saw
through small incisions made in the scapular line on both sides of the body.
As 'beast' as it may sound, this procedure has little or nothing to do with the
extraction of floating ribs
also for waist reduction, an operation that is not exempt from demand even though it requires general anesthesia and entails a long and painful postoperative period.
Permanent corset for three months
"Minimally invasive waist reduction
does not leave scars
and allows those who have a straight waist to give it a
more feminine shape,
but it also makes it possible
to correct asymmetries
such as those caused by scoliosis. However, right now, the main demand comes from trans people who want to feminize their silhouette," explains
Pablo Gentile,
Marketing Manager at
Clínica Planas, to Yo Dona.
Even so, not even these latest generation surgical procedures can do without the
corset,
since, after the operation, it is necessary to wear one
for three months
that can only
be removed for five minutes a day.
To the question of how many centimeters of the waist can be lost with minimally invasive surgery, Kudzaev answers that "we are not talking about centimeters, since that depends on how the patient follows the postoperative recommendations, but there are those who have obtained
reductions of more 10 cm.
One patient managed to reduce her waist circumference by
14 centimeters
but, in her case, she wore the corset for five months instead of 3".
The
postoperative period
requires
not performing demanding physical exercise,
but allows, for example, cycling or walking.
And now, the million dollar question: how much does it cost?
The intervention
is around 6,800 euros
and includes: 1. Informative medical visit.
2. Preoperative tests.
3. Preanesthetic visit.
4. CT.
5. Anesthesiology service.
6. Surgery.
7. Postoperative follow-up.
Narrow waist, even though I can't sit down
Kim Kardashian had to "learn to breathe differently" to be able to wear the Thierry Mugler dress she wore to the Met Gala in 2019.GETTY IMAGES
The one who could barely walk, and surely couldn't pedal, was
Kim Kardashian in her
Thierry Mugler
dress
during the
Met Gala,
the great fashion party in the United States.
"Anna, if I don't sit down to dinner, you know why it's her," the socialite told Vogue editor
Anna Wintour
in a video of the event.
In fact, Kardashian herself later explained that she had had to learn to breathe differently to be able to put on the piece.
Thus, the same woman who, with her physique, once encouraged the hope of seeing more realistic bodies in the world of fashion, now contributes to establishing a canon that experts point out as harmful to health.
Although, as Gentile explains, "in the case of
transgender people, the
minimally invasive waist reduction
procedure
is part of the
transition process
and, in the case of other people, it can help psychologically to improve their quality of life," The truth is that, taken to the extreme and, above all, if corsets are worn, the obsession with the wasp waist can have negative consequences on our body.
Valerie Steele,
director of the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, explains that "
corsets
have probably been the most controversial piece in the history of fashion. At their peak, during the 18th and 19th centuries, they displaced
organs.
and cause spinal problems.
Why are we willing to suffer so much for a wasp waist?
The French music-hall singer Polaire, in 1890, wearing an extreme corsetGETTY IMAGES
Countless television series such as
Bridgerton
or the world of erotica have contributed to keeping alive a stereotype of femininity that, in reality, does not fit reality.
According to an article in the journal 'Adaptive Human Behavior and Psychology', although the relationship between shoulders and hips for men and waist and hips for women are attractive to the opposite sex because they are indicators of genetic fitness, reproductive potential and health, among others, the wasp waist is not real.
The
wasp waist
, points out one of the researchers cited in the article, is the
sublimation of a trait
that is
biologically attractive to the opposite gender,
but ends up being unrealistic and harmful to women.
So, you will have to have a waist to dribble that, and more.
Medicine