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17 décembre, 2006 12:18

The feminine mistake
Better a brain implant
For vanity's sake, women objectify themselves and lose self-respect — all in the name of choice

By BEVERLY MCPHAIL

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved two brands of silicone breast implants, deeming them safe for breast augmentation for women at least 22 years old and for women of all ages for reconstructive purposes.

According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, breast augmentation was the second most popular cosmetic surgical procedure (after liposuction), with 364,610 women enlarging their breasts in 2005, a nine9 percent increase over the previous year.

The FDA approval of silicone implants raises issues of safety once again, while also provoking questions of female objectification, choice and empowerment.

By approving the implants the FDA believes the manufacturers' applications demonstrated "reasonable assurance" that the implants are safe and effective. Safety issues previously raised concerned the leakage of silicone into the body, with claims that the seepage caused a multitude of problems including fatigue, flu-like symptoms and immunological disorders such as lupus and connective tissue disease.

However, some scientific studies suggest there is no connection. More recent studies raise concern about the levels of platinum in women with implants, as well as their children.

Despite these concerns, the FDA approved the devices and instead stipulated that the manufacturers conduct a 10-year post-approval study that will involve approximately 40,000 implanted women. In other words, these women will become human guinea pigs in a large-scale experiment.

Beyond the "unknown knowns" about product safety are the "known knowns" about implants. These facts are not in dispute: Breast implants reduce the ability of mammography to detect breast cancer, are prone to rupture and deflation, cause loss of

nipple and breast sensitivity, can affect a woman's ability to breast feed by reducing or eliminating milk production, are associated with increased rates of suicide, can result in breast pain, cause capsular contractions (when scar tissue or the capsule that normally forms around the breast implant tightens and squeezes the implant, which often makes the breasts feel hard and misshapen), and necessitates repeat surgeries since the implants do not last a lifetime.

With these risks, both known and unknown, why do women undergo breast augmentation?

The most popular answer co-opts the feminist language most often used in the reproductive rights arena; that is, it is her body, her choice, and that having that choice is a result of female empowerment. Although initially it seems hard to argue against female choice and empowerment, in this case these words are used to distract us from what is really happening.

Columnist Katha Pollit notes, "Women have learned to describe everything they do, no matter how apparently conformist, submissive, self-destructive, or humiliating as a personal choice that cannot be criticized because personal choice is what feminism is all about. Women have become incredibly clever at explaining these choices in ways that barely mention social pressures or male desires."

In her provocative book of the same name, Ariel Levy terms such women Female Chauvinist Pigs, noting that some women are making sexual objects of themselves, in a parody of female sexual power rather than an expression of it.

Breast implants can transform women into sexual objects, literally and figuratively. Media critic Jean Kilbourne notes that since the augmented breasts lose much of their sensitivity they literally become objects for the sexual enjoyment of others rather than producing erogenous pleasure for the woman herself.

The social pressures are relentless that depict women with large breasts as sexy objects of male desire. These range from Barbie dolls to the swimsuited Pamela Anderson.

Meanwhile, women with smaller breasts are often made to feel less feminine or attractive. In 1983 the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons termed small breasts a disease named "micromastia" and deemed breast implants the cure.

It seems a shame that in a time of real female empowerment — for example, the first woman is stepping into the role of speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives — some women continue to believe that the only route to power is through breast implants.

It is sad in a time when women are achieving great things, such as the two female astronauts currently working in space, that some women believe larger breasts are a worthy achievement. It is painful to watch women seek self-esteem through the surgeon's scalpel while rendered unconscious rather than consciously seeking it for themselves.

It is disappointing that many women continue to be constrained by narrow, external and artificial standards of beauty and sexuality instead of claiming beauty and sensuality as their birthright — no matter the size of their breasts.

Women will know we have arrived when our success is predicated on other body parts, such as the power of our brains and the size of our hearts.

McPhail is a social worker, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Houston and a writer specializing in women's issues. She can be e-mailed at bevmcphail@earthlink.net.