News Flash: Women Still Totally Inequal.

Two articles today illustrate just how far we haven't come, globally speaking, in the past umpteen generations: little girls having nose jobs and breast-reduction surgeries in Venezuela, and an article about women science in academia. The first is, is most ways, way more appalling than the latter, but the issues raised by both are equally deserving of ire.

"My mom says I should be a model, and I want to be one, too," said Ana, who attends six hours of [charm-school] classes a week, with girls aged 5 to 10. "She says I also have a pretty body."

...

Giselle Cesin, 18, a university student, said her mother had always put pressure on her to watch what she ate and, if necessary, to go under the knife. "When I was 14, she said, 'Get a nose job, have liposuction, get your breasts worked on,' " Ms. Cesin explained. She has had four nose jobs, the first at 14, and now plans breast surgery.

Thankfully, I don't know many US moms who would do that -- or at least, not a whole cultureful who try to turn their daughters into beauty queens from age 5 up (JonBenet's parents excepted, I suppose).

More on women in science later. Too much sun on my computer to see, and I'm hungry.