This is a rush transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," April 25, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "He Said, She Said" segment tonight: It's estimated that 12 million Americans have cosmetic surgery and procedures every year, and many of them are to improve looks. But obviously some of those people are mothers who leave the house looking one way and come home looking completely different and the kids are going, "Ahh." Well now there is a children's book that deals with this new phenomenon. It is called "My Beautiful Mommy." Joining us now to debate its merits, Marc Rudov in San Francisco, and FOX News analyst Margaret Hoover in New York.
So you know, it's pretty funny. Let's hold this book up. This is the book, "My Beautiful Mommy." And you know, it's funny but it isn't funny. I mean, here's the kid, Mom comes home, and all of a sudden Mom's nose is a lot smaller than it was yesterday.
MARGARET HOOVER, FOX NEWS ANALYST: Or Mom comes home and she's got a bandage over her face, a bandage around her waist, a bandage on other parts of the body. And the kid is wondering what did they do to my Mom?
O'REILLY: So what does the book tell them?
HOOVER: Actually, the book is pretty reasonable. The book is just a how-to guide with your kids. You sit down with them. You read it before the surgery. You read it during the surgery. You read it after. The kid realizes all of this is normal. Their mom is going to be OK, and the mom is going to feel better about herself.
O'REILLY: But the mom looks different though.
HOOVER: The mom looks different. And they even say the mom looks prettier. And this is supposed to be good for the child to understand.
O'REILLY: Do you think it's good?
HOOVER: Here's the problem: What is the problem, I think, with our culture that 40-year-old moms who have had three kids feel like they need to go get a nose job and a boob job and a tummy tuck so they can look like they did when they were 19 before they had kids?
O'REILLY: There's nothing wrong with looking good, Rudov, is there? Is there anything wrong with this?
MARC RUDOV, MARCRUDOVRADIO.COM: There is nothing wrong with looking good, but it depends on how you get there. I think this book is a very sad, pathetic statement about our superficial culture, especially about the way women behave. You know, a plasticized woman reminds me of a termite-infested house with fresh paint and new shutters: beautiful on the outside, weak on the inside.
O'REILLY: I don't know. Pamela Anderson may disagree with you on that.
HOOVER: Bill O'Reilly may disagree with you on that.
O'REILLY: Now you just said women. Some men get plastic surgery, too, do they not?
RUDOV: Yes, but women get 91 percent of it. And what women — what mothers should be teaching their daughters is if you want a flat tummy, you go to the gym. You work out. You sweat. You sacrifice. You eat good food. You don't pay a couple of grand to some surgeon who brings in a Hoover vacuum cleaner to suck out the fat.
HOOVER: Such an appropriate adjective, Marc. I really appreciate that.
O'REILLY: She's offended by that Hoover reference, Marc.
RUDOV: There are Hoover vacuum cleaners.
HOOVER: I'm offended by that remark.
O'REILLY: Isn't there, though, some substance to what Marc says, that children are now being taught immediate gratification? You don't have to work for the good bod. You don't have to eat the healthy food. You can go to Dr. X, and he'll vacuum out the fat and make you look glamorous. And then the kid goes, yes, that's what I will do. I'm not going to work.
HOOVER: It would be much more appropriate if the mass media didn't send these notions that you've got to be skinny, you've got to be — you have to be all these things.
O'REILLY: Who's sending these notions?
HOOVER: The media.
O'REILLY: It's my fault now, your average cosmetic surgeon?
HOOVER: Marc, you would agree with me on this. Because you and I both agree those women's magazines where you flip through every page and you see skinny person after skinny person with big (EXPLETIVE DELETED) and small stomachs. Look, this is not helpful for the women in our culture. What's helpful is develop a self-esteem, feel good about yourself, feel like you're a whole, complete person.
O'REILLY: But that's not what this book is telling kids to do.
HOOVER: The book is preparing the kids for the harsh realities of their moms coming home in bandages.
O'REILLY: Go ahead, Marc.
HOOVER: What's wrong is that moms go home to get made up.
RUDOV: The magazines and this book are a reflection of what women are not doing. They're not causing women to do it. That's just nonsense, what you're saying.
HOOVER: That's not what I'm saying, Marc.
RUDOV: Little girls...
HOOVER: Listen to what I'm saying. Listen to what I say.
RUDOV: Little girls are growing up today thinking that plastic surgery is a natural part of life. They don't know anything else. They're getting — they're inheriting their mothers' insecurities. And women shouldn't be doing this. Women should be focusing on building the foundations of their daughters and not just focusing on the external.
HOOVER: I couldn't agree with you more, Marc. I couldn't agree more.
RUDOV: It shows you once again what women really think about.
HOOVER: I couldn't agree with you more.
RUDOV: Women are the ones who are objectifying themselves. Stop blaming men for objectifying them.
HOOVER: Wouldn't it be great, Marc, if we — nobody is blaming men for this. But wouldn't it be great if we lived in a culture where women feel just as good about themselves at 19 as they do at 40, as they do at 60? And there's this concept of aging gracefully, where you don't have to go to the hospital and get bandages all over yourself and read a children's book about it to your kids so they don't freak out. The real notion is how you age gracefully.
RUDOV: Women are responsible for how they feel.
O'REILLY: So you're blaming women for all this, Rudov?
HOOVER: Well that's the program. Marc's misogynous.
RUDOV: Women are responsible for how they feel about themselves.
HOOVER: Marc, it's a lot bigger than just women. This is a cultural issue. This is much larger than just women. This is a cultural concept we need to work on.
RUDOV: The culture is comprised — the culture is comprised of individuals.
HOOVER: Individuals who are men and women both.
O'REILLY: But 91 percent of the women are doing this.
All right. I'm going to sum it up. I agree with you, Marc, that individual decisions have to drive a person's life. And if you're going to have plastic surgery, you should understand it's going to impact your children. I don't know about the dopey book. If you want to buy it, buy it. But I don't think there's anything wrong with improving yourself. I mean, I can't, so I would never do it. Did that come out right? But I can understand why people do it.
All right. Margaret, Marc, thanks very much. And watch your mouth here, Hoover. I'm just saying.
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