Since starting my stint in Student Teaching, I have acquired a morning commute five days a week. That means a lot of time in the car and a lot of time listening to the radio. I haven’t religiously listened to the radio for years, so this has been an interesting experience. KS95 has been my station of choice since that’s what I grew up listening to. I’m annoyed by the number of times that they repeat songs in a short amount of time, but I have found solace in the morning show with radio personalities Bangs, Ryan, Fish and Rudy. One segment that has really caught my attention is called ‘Love ‘Em or List ‘Em.’

The basic concept of the show is that one person calls and tells listeners about their troubled relationship and then people call and weigh in on whether the original caller should end their relationship or stick with it, quirks and all. Last week, there were calls about one woman’s horrible marriage proposal (“Do you wanna?”), a boyfriend’s sickly genes, and a self-image motivated husband. The latter call was the one that occupied my thoughts the longest.

This caller and her husband made a commitment to take care of their bodies and essentially stay beautiful. As everything does, though, the caller is getting older. She discloses that she is nearing the age of forty and that she is starting to see wrinkles on her face. Normal signs of aging that everyone goes through. But this doesn’t seem to sit well with her husband, who is offering to pay for any kind of plastic surgery procedure she wants to help hold off signs of aging. The woman has made it clear that she doesn’t want to undergo plastic surgery again. She didn’t like her first experience and truth be told, she really isn’t bothered by the wrinkles and signs of aging she is starting to see.

What bothered me most about the show was the response of a lot of callers and even the morning show hosts. A number of people were saying that she ought to be grateful that her husband is willing to let her do these things to her body to stay young. There are claims that just about every other woman in her position would gladly take the husband up of his offer. There is even talk that she owes it to her husband to stay looking young and beautiful-- this was something that they had committed to doing, after all.

I was and am deeply bothered by this. It’s horribly unfair that women are held to such standards even when, as this caller expressed, they’re not comfortable with surgical upkeep and when they are simply not interested. She feels comfortable in the skin she’s in. I wish that more women felt this way. But the truth is, according to a 2014 study by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, more and more women are opting for some kind of a procedure, minimally invasive or otherwise. Minimally invasive procedures saw a rise of 6 percent from 2013 to 2014.

It’s sickening how a woman can be so easily reduced to their appearances. I hated that there were so few callers who took into account the original caller’s feelings about her own appearance. The fact that the offer to go through her choosing of surgical procedures was more important than the fact that she is happy with her appearance is appalling. Not only are we holding women to the standard that we need to look drop-dead gorgeous all the time, but we can’t seem to support each other. I held out hope while listening to this show that other women would call in and tell this caller that her husband needed to take a hike or at least that they needed to talk about this issue together and be honest. But that didn’t happen, unfortunately. I can count on one hand the number of male and female callers who sided with the caller who just wanted to be happy looking her age.