A few days ago, on Oprah, (yes, I'm male, and do on occasion watch Oprah), I watched an episode on beauty.  One of the segments brought to life a brutal beauty practice by some in China.  The process is called leg lengthening, and is done by sawing in half the leg bone below the knee cap.  The legs are then equipped with a metal device, that involves hammered in nails, which stretch the gap between the bones, and forces the body to regenerate bone to close the gap.  This results in the lengthening of the leg.  This horrific practice requires many surgeries, is beyond painful, and takes at least a year to recover.

Why would one choose to have this surgery one may ask?  This is answered by the pressure on many Chinese women to be taller, which equates, for them into beauty and power.  Certain height requirements, sadly enough, are on job descriptions, government hiring, and even personal ads for dating.

It is saddening that these standards are in place, and that women, and even some men need to engage in this practice to attain their goals, get hired, or even get a date.  What ever happened to respecting people for who they are, and how tall they're supposed to be?  How does one change that standard?  Maybe it'll be a strong group of females and males standing up and speaking out on these outlandish procedures, and I hope that happens, and happens soon.