Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 12:30:09 -0600 (CST)

From: lany25@webtv.net 

Breast Implants and "Disease" 

The prevalence of plastic surgery and medical treatments in order to make people beautiful is staggering. How does the medical community treat women who seek breast implants or other surgical procedures in order to alter their physical appearance? In an article titled "Breast Implants, the Cult of Beauty, and a Culturally Constructed 'Disease' ", R. Eugene Mellican investigates this question. Mellican outlines the problems within the medical community and its reluctance to seriously consider the possible effects of silicone breast implants. One of the most shocking items in the article is an excerpt of a 1982 petition to the Food and Drug Administration by the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS) in support of breast implants. The ASPRS stated that "the female breast that does not achieve normal or adequate development. . . there is a substantial and enlarging body of medical information and opinion. . . to the effect that these deformities are really a disease which in most patients result in feelings of inadequacy, lack of self-confidence, distortion of body image and a total lack of well-being due to a lack of self-perceived femininity (1)" While it is true that many women suffer from low self-esteem and a poor body image, the fact that an organization of doctors wants to classify small breasts as a 'disease' certainly can only serve to feed into this belief. 

The images with that women are bombarded with on television and in magazines and even in doctors¹ offices often reinforces negative body images. My female friends and I have had many conversations about our bodies and how we feel about them. Although as intelligent women we can intellectually recognize the absurdity of the 5'10'' 115 pound waif, there still remains a part of all of us that succumbs to the belief that we are "fat" and unacceptable. Often we do not stop to realize how pervasive physical images of women are in our society. There is never a large or unattractive anchor woman and overweight women are often discriminated against in the workplace. Whether we recognize it or not, we are constantly bombarded with images of "ideal" beauty. 

The emphasis that American culture places on big breasts is so great that in recent times many women have resorted to silicone breast implants. Not only have drug companies and doctors rushed to make these women "perfect" but they have also neglected to take women's health into consideration. Mellican notes that although the controversy over silicone breast implants has been widely covered in the past few years, companies that produced the implants have known since the 1970s that the implants could leak or rupture and that when the silicone leaked into the woman's body it could "provoke some kind of immune response (2)" One would logically assume that the release of this kind of information would prompt a halt in the use of silicone implants as well as spur research into the effects of implants on women's health. Instead, when Dr. David Kessler, the commissioner of the FDA, decided to remove silicone implants from the market, a female doctor responded with a critical editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Marcia Angell objected to the decision on the basis that it was patronizing to women and that women should have the ability to make their own choices (3) 

In an ideal world the medical profession would treat the pressure placed on women to live up to an ideal body image as a problem that needed research, instead of investing large amounts of money on surgical procedures that can do serious physical harm. The notion that small breasts could be treated as a 'disease' by a group of organized physicians is appalling. Not only should the cause for women seeking such radical procedures as breast implants be investigated, but the procedures themselves must be evaluated properly to ensure the health and safety of those who choose to go ahead with them. It seems apparent that a large portion of the organized medical profession is willing to sacrifice women's well-being in order to make a profit. Until the system is somehow overhauled, women have to question new procedures and insist on clinical studies and trials to ensure the best treatment possible.Notes

(1) R. Eugene Mellican, "Breast Implants, the Cult of Beauty, and a Culturally Constructed 'Disease' " Journal of Popular Culture 28 (Spring 1995) 7-8.

(2)Mellican, 12.

(3)Mellican, 13. 

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Text written by Rachel Levy