Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is rib recontouring and why is it gaining popularity?
Hello and welcome back to the Maths For New podcast and welcome to the second episode now of the Bali investigation into rib recontouring which is the fastest growing cosmetic procedure in the world right now.
which Beck from this year's Season of Maths, Athena from last year's Season of Maths, and a group of other influencers, including girls from The Bachelor, Below Deck, Geordie Shore, are all here in Indonesia right now, staying in this same hotel. to undergo and be essentially the first Australians to get this done. Because as of right now, this surgery isn't even available in Australia.
And if you haven't listened to yesterday's first podcast in this little series, go and do so now, because in this episode, I will be sitting down with Athena and Beck to ask them, what made you want to do this? Do you think things like this set a dangerous example to your hundreds of thousands of followers? And also, do you feel like guinea pigs for this procedure?
Because as I just said, it is so new. It's only been performed so far, I think 3,000 times across the world, and it isn't yet available in Australia. But before we get to that, though, I do want to take a minute here to address the backlash. Whew.
So over the last 24 hours now, the announcement of this little series I'm doing on the podcast from my promo with Beck arriving here in Bali has had millions of views, thousands of comments, and people have a lot to say, which to be fair, I expected. But firstly, I just want to say, regardless of your personal thoughts on cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery, all of that,
This is the world that we now live in. And as I explained in yesterday's podcast, I don't agree with most things that people get done. I don't, like, I'll be honest. But again, who am I? Who is anyone to tell others what they can and can't do with their bodies?
And in this episode, as I speak to Athena and Beck and later on some of the other girls, you will constantly hear this phrase, my body, my choice, which... They're all saying, and I do get it. And then I suppose while being here, I've also started to question, am I a hypocrite with all of this?
Because for many years now, again, this is me being completely honest, I have sat interviewing many celebrities about going under the knife and I have sat there listening and I have silently judged them in their own search for what their own perceived perfection. And as they've been speaking, I've just thought,
none of this is necessary like you are stunning as you are just stop with this again i keep saying it's not necessary because to me most of the things that these girls are doing it's just not necessary but the issue i kind of realized yesterday while meeting a lot of the girls as they arrived and kind of having a chat and even speaking to some of the surgeons and people involved
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Chapter 2: What backlash has the podcast series received regarding cosmetic surgery?
I know that, I acknowledge the irony in the fact that me here documenting something ultimately is giving it more attention. But for me, I am a journalist, like that is my job, yes.
But also, and I think those that listen to every episode or have maybe read the book or just know me personally, they will know that at the heart of everything I do and the reason I did agree to come on this trip is because I just believe in transparency in everything. And, you know, if I didn't come here on this trip, it was still happening. Those influencers were still coming.
They'll still do the rib thing and they will still spam their, you know, results, the glamorized before and afters, the extreme, like, look at this, look at this change I've had. onto their Instagrams and into the news feeds of millions of young Australians who would look at it and be like, oh, maybe that's something I should do.
But then in my mind, at least me coming, I think, well, I can maybe bring a more balanced perspective to the all. And, you know, anyone out there who is looking at those before and afters and then questioning, fuck, is this something I need to do? Is this what I should do? Do I need to slowly follow this, what is now another impossible beauty standard?
I want them to then, before they make their mind up, hopefully listen to these episodes and spend just that little bit longer questioning, do I really want to do this? What's it actually going to entail? And why am I doing this? And then another person yesterday who announced in a comment, which I'm not sure why they did this, that they were unfollowing me because of this series.
And they also said that, They don't think my coverage on cosmetic surgery has changed at all in any way since that first job I spoke about. And to that point, I actually feel compelled now to politely, actually not politely, unpolitely disagree with you. Because back then...
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Chapter 3: How do Athena and Beck justify their decision to undergo rib recontouring?
journalists we didn't really have voices and we couldn't have an opinion you know we pushed out content that did glamorize surgeries and diets and transformations without a single sentence allowed by us the journalists writing those pieces to actually say like hey i don't personally agree with this because we just had to interview the celebrities write up their quotes as they said it and push them out like promoting whatever they've just had done
And only their words, that was all we could push out. We were essentially silent people just making those pages happen. Yeah, with the journalists, but we weren't allowed to have an opinion But now the difference is traditional media is dying. Most magazines are gone or are on the way out. And creator-led content like this podcast right now is how things are different.
Like journalists like me who do content or podcast or have big social followings, whatever, we often have bigger audiences and reach and ultimately power than a lot of those old school traditional media where journalists still can't really... give their opinion on things. And, you know, that's why I am here saying this rude thing is happening. It's happening around the world.
It's increasing at a very fast rate. And, you know, my job as a journalist is to report on things that are happening around the world like this. But my voice as a creator, and I've already said, oh, sorry, I'm getting a good point. And a monkey has just come past my window. Sorry, I feel like I had so much momentum then of this thing I was getting to. And I was like, oh shit, a monkey.
Again, the difference now is my voice here as a creator, me as a journalist, yes, sure, I'm reporting on things that are happening. That is my job. But me as a creator... I can now give my opinion. I can say my thoughts. I've already said, I don't agree with this. I think it's maybe just a step too far and something that people don't need to do.
And I'm going to give that opinion constantly throughout this. And as, and as I speak to Athena, Beck and the other girls, like I will be giving them that opinion because this is my platform and I can, whereas I couldn't years ago in the magazine. And you know, as I speak to them, they'll also be giving me their opinions and,
And, you know, what it comes down to is the fact that these days we do live in a society where essentially every scroll on any social media app tells us that, you know, we're all one procedure away from becoming the person we're supposed to be.
And there's an entire billion dollar industry that's built around convincing ordinary people like you and I that we have all these problems that are just waiting to be fixed, which... We don't. And journalism, it's no longer about pretending we are outside of the story or we're silent while reporting on the story.
Sometimes we have to become part of the story while also sometimes contributing to the very thing we're questioning. Before I now get to my chats with Athena and Beck, I'm going to share another personal thing. And this is a verse from my song, which is one of the most important songs ever.
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Chapter 4: What personal insecurities do the guests share about their bodies?
Salkku X. We meet again. Five numbers. Five wishes. Estimates. Conclusions. Power. As a reward, the X-Pen G6 electric car is completely yours. For ten weeks, solve the code in the address power.fi.x. Don't miss it.
Hello and welcome back to the Maths Winning Podcast. I'm joined by someone who's not been on this for a while. No, it's been a hot minute. Hello, Athena. Hi, Josh. You miss me? Yes. How's life post-married at first sight? You're a year and a half free now. Yeah, free. I feel like I'm being dragged back in again. Yeah. I never expected to see you here in Bali.
No, I actually was surprised to see you here. Yeah. Yeah. Are you joining us? I'm not getting the rip thing, though. No? You don't want a snatched waist? Not in the slightest. But who am I to judge? Well, look, I'm sure there's plenty of things you've done. Yeah. We won't go into that. No, the reason I was surprised to see you here is because, you know, every year I get to know the masked girls.
And you are one who never struck me as, like, insecure. And when we talk about surgery and transformations and that, it's often, you know, people who have had insecurities or maybe they've lost a lot of weight. But you never struck me as that insecure. I don't necessarily agree that people get surgery from a place of insecurity.
Like, for example, a thing a lot of people don't realize is I've had my boobs done. You can't tell because I don't sit up here. I've had children. I breastfed. They drop low. But I have had breast augmentation, which, again, I want to point out is way more invasive than the surgery I am receiving here. Would you like to see? No, I was saying that. I was like, no, hold the mic there.
Don't show me your tits. It'll cost you. Maybe later. But no, but the reason I got that done is because not from a place of insecurity. I genuinely liked my boobs beforehand, but I wanted to enhance my boobs. Like I just wanted to have bigger boobs. It wasn't because I was insecure about my current boobs. I just wanted bigger boobs.
So to me, that's interesting because I think we naturally assume if you're changing something, it's because you dislike the original, whereas you've just completely changed that for me. Yeah, like to be fair, originally when I had my boobs done, I was quite upset because it is quite a dramatic change from what you're used to.
And then I almost felt lost because I was like, where are my little boobs gone? And then I had to change my... My outfits, my clothing choices, like what works when you have a smaller chest didn't work when I had a larger chest. So it was like a huge changeover. But then once I got used to it, I love my body now as it is. I don't even realize or I don't even recognize that I've had my boobs done.
These just feel like mine. So there was no long term regret? There was no long-term regret and I feel like with this procedure that I'm getting today I'm going to probably experience the same thing. I have looked into it. I think that naturally women have always wanted an hourglass frame and now I'm able to achieve that without a hugely invasive procedure which is what I'm doing.
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Chapter 5: What are the potential risks and recovery expectations of rib recontouring?
I feel like, again, everyone's anatomy is their own choice. So like whether or not you're on your 12th boob job or not, you know, probably don't, 12's a bit extensive, but whether or not you're on your 12 food job or not, like that's your choice, it's your body. Women have always rallied behind my body, my choice.
I feel like as women, you've got nations over in the US, especially where they've taken away the right for abortion and you've got rallies where you're saying my body, my choice, but then you've got those same women rallying against women who are getting cosmetic procedures going, why are you doing this to your body?
It's like you can't say my body, my choice and then take away my choice and my voice for my body. So again, I'm not the blueprint for anyone else. If this is, I'm just on here sharing my journey because I do have this huge platform and I want to be very transparent with my audience how I achieve this result.
And I just, yeah, I just want to give everyone the information and then they can make the choice with their own bodies. If this is something they've looked into, well, I'm sharing my journey.
As Zafina then left my little studio to enjoy her last few hours of being a person with the ribs how they were when they were born and not in a corset for the next, what, I think four weeks, Beck then popped in for her pre-surgery chat. And I'm going to be honest,
Firstly, I was shocked at just how polar opposites her and Athena are when they were both giving me the reasons why they were here in Bali doing this. But not just that, but I was also surprised at the emotional things that Beck... opened up about before them revealing that this rib thing isn't the only surgery that she's planning on getting done.
There's a lot more on her list that she wants doing over the next few months. And as she listed all these things, I, as someone like, we're not really even friends in all honesty. I've met Beck, I think,
five times in total now and essentially you guys listening have all been there for those five times because they've always been recorded but yeah as Beck was detailing all these things I felt like personally compelled to almost step in and be like Beck you don't have to do this like stop speaking down on yourself so much No one wants to look like me, obviously. Sid the sloth over here.
Don't put yourself down like that. Shut up. Someone give me free teeth. No, I'm just kidding. When we spoke about me doing this and I was asking your reasons, obviously you have lost a lot of weight in recent years. And every time I've met you this year,
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