We're now using surgery to relieve social suffering. We're drifting from a standard of necessity rooted in you to a standard—"socially crippled"—that's dictated by others.
Eight years ago, when Ban was 23, she decided she was too short. How short? Around 5 feet 1 inch. That's 1 inch shorter than my wife and 3 inches taller than the minimum height for service in the U.S. Army. According to the Courier Mail of Australia, which published Ban's story two months ago, she said she had been taunted at school and called names such as "midget". When she got older, it became an issue of credibility and people not taking her seriously, particularly in her chosen profession of law and now politics. "I get tired of people focusing on the physical side of me because I feel like I have a lot to offer and I'm a qualified lawyer," she said.
So Ban changed her body. She went to Russia, where, as the Times of London put it, doctors agreed to "break both her legs in four places and stretch them slowly for 1mm every day for nine months." Then she wore plaster casts for three more months.
Result: Ban gained 3 inches. She entered politics, and today, she's a city councilwoman.
Slate | Broken is Beautiful
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