Plastic surgery apps spark outcry

"Plastic Surgery for Barbara"

Two iTunes apps that encourage little girls to perform virtual plastic surgery on “ugly” women have caused an outcry, Business Insider reported.

One of the apps, called the “Plastic Surgery & Plastic Doctor & Plastic Hospital Office for Barbie,” was deleted Tuesday night after the activist group Everyday Sexism started a Twitter campaign calling for Apple to pull it from iTunes. More than 4,000 Twitter users rallied for the campaign.

The app, which launched last week, taught little girls about liposuction and encouraged them to perform it on the blonde avatar.

But there is another very similar app named “Plastic Surgery for Barbara.” This app is still available in the iTunes store. This app features “Barbara,” who “likes to eat a lot of burgers and chocolates and once she found out that she looks ugly,” according to the app‘s iTunes page.

This app has also sparked outrage on Twitter, with thousands of users calling on iTunes to remove it from its app store.

By Lee Shin-young, Intern reporter (sylee@heraldcorp.com)