Back to School Boobs?
I remember on my first days back at school, eager to compare new coloured pencils, show off my surf-branded backpack and secretly admire the kid’s whose parents allowed them to cover their books in Nickelodeon themed contact. Nowadays, teenage girls as young as 15 are returning for the new school year ready to show off their new, surgically enhanced lips, noses and of course breasts. No titting way you ask?
Now when I talk about ‘cosmetic surgery’ or ‘boob jobs’, I’m not referring to the reconstructive surgeries that attempt to replace or repair congenitally malformed or amputated areas of the body. No, I’m talking about the surgery that is performed strictly for aesthetic reasons. The enhancements that are undergone in the hope that one will become more ‘socially accepted’.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons recently reported that more than 64,000 cosmetic surgery procedures were deliberately scheduled and performed during the American school holidays last year by girls younger than 18 years old. And over 3,500 of these procedures were breast augmentations. That’s on average 2,200kg grams of silicone. Weighing more than 25 baby elephants.
Similarly in Aus, a study conducted by The Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons found that in a survey of 4000 young Australian girls, 25 percent of 11–18 years olds said they’d like to enlarge their breasts. In addition, over 100 of these participants said they’d already undergone some form of cosmetic surgery before.
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An Australian Breast Augmentation advertisement[/caption]
Impressionable, adolescent girls are obsessing over their appearances and lack of “celebrity standard bodies” and being ‘okayed’ to alter their underdeveloped figures. Why can’t girls now just go through the awkward, four-skin-tones-too-dark foundation wearing, Nokia phone using and, flat chest stages like the rest of us did? I mean, I know teenagers have insecurities and boob jobs are a quick fix to the first-world problems of having ‘mosquito bites’ for breasts, but have we gone too far allowing children to get them? Yes. A-boob-solutley.
Breast augmentation surgery has occurred for over 50 years now with the first being performed on a 40-year-old woman after giving birth to her 6th child. This is where cosmetic surgery is all fine and well. I understand women wanting a breast touch-up after a voracious human baby has sucked the life out of her once loved lady lumps. But when it comes to 18-year-old girls just wanting to look like cosmetic, Instagram queen, Kylie Jenner, that’s where I’ve got a problem.
Cosmetic surgery was once desired in order for one to stand out. Now with the industry growing so rapidly, these body-altering procedures are ironically used as a way for teenage girls to fit in. I mean do we seriously live in a society where going through puberty naturally just isn’t good enough anymore?
Everyone seems to have their own opinions of plastic surgery and if or when enough is enough. But the issues surrounding aesthetic cosmetic surgeries, tends to bring some deeper, theoretical arguments to the surface.
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Breast Augmentation advertisement for a site that allows men to donate the funds to women[/caption]
Feminist author and journalist Naomi Wolf conveys one particular feminist standpoint on cosmetic procedures. She says it is a way of contorting one’s body to fit unrealistic and artificial standards of beauty. In her book ‘The Beauty Myth’, Wolf states that although women have ‘breached the power structure’ by acquiring equal rights to men when it comes to voting education and professional careers, she argues that beauty myth is the last remaining feminine ideology that still has the power to control women.
In this study breast augmentation and other cosmetic surgery is also compared to foot binding: a historic and extreme form of body alteration that is marketed as a woman’s choice through societal pressures. She associated the two painful procedures and referred to how women are subconsciously being levered into making ‘inappropriate’ cosmetic modifications to their bodies.
Contrary to this extreme view, other feminists make the argument that breast augmentation and other such surgeries grant women power. This theory emphasises the fact that a woman is making active decisions about her own body cognizant of the risks involved.
Young writer, Grace Gold from a popular blog xojane, publicised her choice as a feminist to get breast implants. Strongly advocating for equal rights and respect including the choice to go under the knife. Gold comments “through this respect we can give to others what we ultimately want for ourselves: the freedom to be who we are, and to lead lives of our own choosing”.
On an individual level, I don’t believe it is my place to judge the choices other women make about their bodies. On a cultural and social level however, the question isn’t “does this surgery make a women feel good about herself?” it is the matter of “why does it make her feel good about herself?”
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18 year old Maci Bookout before and after breast implants[/caption]
When an 18-year-old girl says her newly enlarged breasts have made her feel ‘happy’, what she really means is that she’s temporarily fulfilled by the ability to satisfy a patriarchal society’s idea of an attractive and worthwhile woman. I think instead of encouraging these girls ‘to do what makes them feel good’ we should be trying to eradicate the ideals of society that tells these 11–18 year old girls that they’ll be truly happier with bigger breasts.
