It’s frightening how far some people will go in the pursuit of “perfection.” But honestly, perfection for whom? Reshaping or removing bones from your body to look “hot” is insane. And yet people are doing it. Voluntarily. All thanks to celebrity worship, the rise of Ozempic, and the bizarre world of social media beauty trends that treat the human body like a customizable avatar.
One of the most extreme examples is rib removal, which resurfaced in a New York Post report featuring 28-year-old Emily James. She spent $13,750 on a surgery that took out six ribs, three on each side, to shrink her waist from 32 inches to 24. Instead of a dream body, she got seven months of agony. “I don’t recommend rib removal surgery to anyone,” she said on TikTok. She also pointed out the obvious downside surgeons warn about. “There are no longer ribs protecting my liver and kidneys,” meaning any serious impact could turn catastrophic.
The older version of the operation, called rib resection or “ant waist surgery,” has existed since the 1970s. Surgeons typically remove the 11th and 12th ribs, the short “floating” pair. It never became mainstream for one simple reason. People understood bones serve a purpose. But body trends are cycling through faster than common sense, and the renewed push for tiny waists has created space for a new procedure to slip in.
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Women Are Spending a Fortune to Have Their Ribs Removed
Rib remodeling, or RibXcar, offers a less severe alternative, at least on paper. Instead of removing bones, surgeons partially fracture the floating ribs through small punctures and bend them inward. Dr. Thomas Sterry, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York, described it as “softening the outer cortex” to create controlled fractures that reshape the waist. Patients then wear a corset for nearly every hour of the day for months to hold the new contour.
Women are signing up anyway. Sterry’s patient, 27-year-old accountant Shiqi Ma, paid around $10,000 to shave her waistline before her wedding. “My new waistline makes me feel sexier,” she told The Post. Others, like 38-year-old Stevi Dee, added rib remodeling to a second Brazilian butt lift as casually as adding a side order. “It was a $5,500 add-on,” she joked, despite knowing it meant living in a corset.
Doctors performing the procedure claim it gives a natural look by shaping the body. Psychotherapists, on the other hand, feel less positive about it. Lesley Koeppel, a New York City clinician, cautioned that linking self-esteem to dramatic physical changes can make people vulnerable. She explained that while the procedure may give a temporary lift in confidence, lasting emotional strength depends on personal growth, not on a cinched waist.
The trend raises an uncomfortable question about where aesthetic chasing goes next, and how far people feel pressured to sculpt themselves to match bodies that barely exist offline.
The post Why Women Are Spending a Fortune to Have Their Ribs Removed appeared first on VICE.
