| Fall 1999
Love Your Body Day: Panel explores gender issues Making a major shift: A letter from MN NOW lobbyist Susal Stebbins New cosmetic surgery technique makes emulating false standards of beauty dangerously easy Conventioneers discuss proposed Feminist Communications Network National NOW conference a "head-spinning" experience Headwaters Walk for Justice draws 700 participants
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New cosmetic surgery technique makes emulating false standards of beauty dangerously easy
By Jill Pearson-Wood Have it your way. Super-size it. Would you like fries with that? Today, women can order bodies the way you order combo meals at McDonalds, Burger King or other fast food restaurants. The latest cosmetic procedure available is the adjustable breast implant, which allows women to increase or decrease their breasts by several sizes for up to six months after surgery. The procedure, which was featured on ABC’s 20/20 recently, is also quick like fast food service—a one hour procedure and women go home the same day. When the implants are inserted, they’re empty. But once in place, saline fluid (salt water) is injected through a special filling tube into the implant. With regular implants, this filling tube is removed during surgery, but with expandable implants, the tube remains in place up to six months, allowing for many adjustments. One woman who had the procedure done was back in her doctor’s office a month later because she was unhappy with her size. “Well, you’d like to try to be a D and see what that’s like?” the doctor asked. “Yes. Exactly,” she said. “All right. We’ll make you a D today.” We’ll make you a D today. The ABC report said this woman is like many breast implant patients, who are unhappy with the size of their new breasts. But in her case, she was able to do something about it. In fact, doctors say the expandable implants could reduce the “need” for repeat surgeries. According to the 20/20 report, these expandable implants have been available for about 10 years, used mainly for breast reconstruction surgery. For those patients, the ability to expand gradually is crucial, because the skin needs time to be stretched. Recently, however, more and more doctors have started to offer adjustable implants as an option for cosmetic surgery. “I want to look more feminine, and I don’t right now,” the D cup woman said before her surgery. Other women featured on the show said the breast implants made them feel more sexy and attractive. One woman said she wanted to look like the girls on Baywatch. “That show influenced me a lot,” she said. I guess it’s no surprise that women are still getting breast implants today, since the entertainment and fashion industries emphasize bigger breasts. Just look at the latest Victoria’s Secret commercials. But what about the risks? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers saline-filled implants less risky than silicone gel implants, because if there’s leakage or rupture, it would only release salt water, not silicone gel, into the body. But saline-filled implants still pose the same surgical risks as silicone implants: complications with anesthesia, infection, hemorrhaging, hardening of the breast due to scar tissue and temporary or permanent change or loss of sensation in the nipple or breast tissue. And although expandable implants may decrease the need for further surgery to satisfy the patient’s desire for size adjustments, a study by the Mayo Clinic found that almost one in five women with breast implants return to the operating room within five years to fix problems with their implants. Plus, breast implants don’t last forever. “Breast implants are not lifetime devices and cannot be expected to last forever,” the FDA said. Besides the health risks associated with breast implants, the other troubling thing about these adjustable breast implants is that the procedure is too easy—a one hour procedure followed by recovery at home. I’ve had hair appointments that have lasted longer. But more importantly, it’s the reasons the women featured on 20/20 wanted the procedure: to be more feminine, attractive and sexy. It’s sad that women feel they need to undergo surgery to be more feminine. Don’t they get that many of the women they’re emulating have also had plastic surgery? The fact that women are attempting to emulate the false, unrealistic standards of beauty set for them by media and advertising makes the lessons learned from MN NOW’s Love Your Body Day event Sept. 22 (see story, Page 1), and other LYBD events across the country, all the more urgent. |