Breast implants: Mutilation or not?

Great Debates
21

And to respond to the OP, no, I don’t think it’s mutilation. www.dictionary.com defines mutilation as:

Breast implants do not deprive a woman of an essential part, disfigure by damaging irreparably - unless it’s a botched surgery. It could be argued that breast implants do “make imperfect by . . . altering parts”, but that is individual tastes.

I’ve never been tempted to have implants. I have enough for myself, and could probably donate to other women, if that were an option. However, I’m not going to pass any sort of judgement on a woman who gets them. Our own Michelle has discussed her implants in MPSIMS, and she hardly strikes me as a woman with self-esteem issues or an inability to have healthy relationships. Making a blanket assumption of that sort insults individual women you may know nothing about.

Breast implantation isn’t necessarily about trying to live up to an unrealistic standard of feminine beauty (though I think there’s a lot of that). It can be just one more version of body alteration that includes piercing, scarrification, tattooing and other forms of permanent, cosmetic change. Those practices have existed since before recorded history, and will continue to exist so long as individuals have control over their bodies. We’re not so far removed from our ancestors as we like to think.

22

I’ve always wondered whether they did breast implants in ancient India - all those statues of those goddesses with the perfectly formed “snack trays”

The first time I saw a woman with implants, I thought she looked just like those Hindu statues.

Later, when I nursed my daughter, I discovered you get the same effect from engourgement.

In my mind, its a personal choice thing - but I feel sorry for a society where something like this is such an important choice for so many women. I hate the fact that so many breast cancer patients exist, and I hate that so many women feel the need cosmetic agumentation.

I do think its very important for women not to do this until they’ve COMPLETELY finished puberty. I hate to hear of young women going through this - they aren’t even sure what they are going to end up with yet (and once they get there, then gravity will start its attack).

23

If you are against enlargements for purely vanity reasons, how do you feel about other vanity issues, like make-up, hair styling, stylish clothing? Granted, these are superficial treatments, and not invasive surgery.If a gal wants to pay for, and take the risks of, enhancement surgery, I’ve no problem with it, having a fondness for the bustier ladies :slight_smile:

Patrick Ashley

‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ -Edmund Burke

24

Um, what about implants after a mastectomy? A friend’s mom recently had it done to surgically restore her missing breast. She figured since she was getting it done, why not get the breasts she’d always dreamed of? So she had the one replaced and an implant also inserted into the other breast to make what was an A-cup a full B cup.

I don’t see this example as mutilation. If anything, it was used to heal a woman’s damaged self-esteem after a cancer ordeal. I’m sure you’re OP refers to young women who don’t like what nature gave them and resort to surgery. (And I’m still on the fence about that one.) I just wanted to point out that all implant surgeries aren’t necessarily evil.

Prairie Rose

If you’re not part of the solution you’re just scumming up the bottom of the beaker.

25

Sorry, phouka, I reread and see that in fact you did not. Originally I was quoting and responding to
BigDaddy’s statement. His seemed to express that the procedure was some how more credible for mastectomy patients, my statement may have been harsh, but it reflects the fact that, yes, that it is indeed bullshit.

How 'bout we sing ‘Kyle’s mom is a stupid bitch’ in D minor?

26

How about orthodontia? Is a getting an overbite straighted out by an expensive and painful metal brace the ultimate in superficiality?

Right, but the unspoken opinion of a few posters seems to be this:

Any woman who gets breast implants is ultimately doing it to be more attractive to men. Therefore the woman doing it is not only superficial, but also somewhat subjugated to men.

Now, make-up serves much the same purpose but it is much more common *and it is not an expensive surgical procedure, therefore it is acceptable for women to do.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you.
Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.

27

Wow! This thread has grown!

I must apologize for the use of the term “mutilation”. I could have chosen a better one.

I didn’t think of reconstructive surgery. I was thinking of women who say, “I think I’ll get a boob job!” To me, there is a difference between someone who wants to restore, as nearly as possible, a pre-operative condition; and someone who just wants bigger breasts because so-and-so has big ones, the SO likes big ones, etc.

I guess the point of the OP was: Why do so many women feel the need to alter perfectly good A-cups, when they are so attractive? If they are “doing it for themselves”, aren’t they really doing it for SOs or potential SOs?

28

Um, let’s not pretend that your opinion is fact. Personally, I like the look of a nice big rack. Nothing says “woman” like a large bust. But that’s my opinion.

Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you.
Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.

29

I guess that’s why they make A-cups and D-cups! :wink:

30

After reading some of the other posts a bit more closely, I’d like to venture an opinion that organized prison labor would not create a competitive market concerning goods in the general industry area. (Cripes! Everyone is terrified of anything getting in the way of any part of the market – which is busily slitting everyone else’s throat who might be seen as a competitor anyhow.)

In the past, several prisons not only supported themselves through major farms, but provided economical labor for cash strapped farmers nearby. Plus, they took on government contracts to cheaply produce goods like office products for government offices and military bases.

In the ‘iffy’ area of recycling, they could provide a cheap labor source for sorting through the recyclables and bundling them up to be shipped to the processing plants. (Anyone besides me notice how goods containing ?% recycled materials on the average cost MORE than the normal stuff?)

Prisoners could work for Second Harvest in gathering up foods still remaining in fields for donation to charities. Prisoners could work on farms where the produce goes to prison run canneries to provide food for the poor.

I don’t know, but I’ve watched my local County Workers – all UNION – out working on the roads and figure there has to be a better way. Three people patch a small hole in the road with a bag of tar. One is a driver and two are workers. All make about $12 to $14 an hour and take about an hour or so to fill the hole. I’ve watched road crews working and observed something like 6 people leaning on their shovels watching one person listlessly spread dirt, while two supervisors lean on a truck and make comments and a guy dozes in the cab of a dirt grader.

One friend worked for the County and felt that a good days pay deserved a good days work – and tore up those ditches with his hoe – and was told by the boss to slow down because he was making the others look bad and that they did not want to get done TOO fast because there were more jobs to do. He quit.

So, let prisoners start doing many of those jobs. Let them subcontract with other businesses to do ‘skut’ work. Like maybe assembling small parts, cutting out the pieces for chair supports, stamping out lids for jars and such.

31

CRAP! DID IT AGAIN! MY PROFUSE APPOLOGIES FOR THE WRONG POST. I DO MY POSTING IN E-MAIL MODE FIRST TO CORRECT MY ROTTEN SPELLING AND SOMETIMES FORGET TO REMOVE THE WINDOW. BELOW IS WHAT I MEANT TO POST.

I LIKE 'EM.

I have no problems at all with implants because I’ve met some beautiful women who, as they described themselves, had breasts that resembled two fried eggs with the yolks broken. Their appearance affected their self opinion.

I like a firmly rounded breast, especially in older women where gravity starts to draw what used to be up and high down to somewhere close to the knees. I’ve met younger women in their late 20s whose breasts were large but ‘caved in’ looking and it bothered them.

Hell, if I could afford it and wasn’t such a yellow dog of a coward, I’d have plastic surgery on my face to clean up what age and nature left me with. (Kind of get rid of the soft chin, fix my nose, tighten up the cheeks, remove some wrinkles, put hair back where hair used to be and so on. Make me look 20 years younger.)

A good example is Maryann and Ginger from Gilligans Island. Maryann is in her 60s and still look GREAT, due to plastic surgery and exercise. Ginger, who used to look so lovely is roughly the same age and looks roughly in her late 70s now.

I know some exotic dancers who have had implants and they look GREAT! A few had reductions which were boosted up by implants and look and feel so much better.

Hey! If they ever figure out a way to increase the size of a man’s schlong without there being any side effects – watch the stampede to the plastic surgeons! (Currently there are manual implants but they are not the same as the real thing. They need to be ‘pumped’ and the surgery is a bit painful.)

In the Orient, guys are getting little plastic BBs inserted under the skin of their wieners to make themselves more attractive to women. When erect, they’re all ‘lumpy and bumpy.’

So, I have no problem with implants and I figure that as genetics gets better, many a mother who’s family line is small breasted will probably have her unborn female child given a shot to increase breast size. (Guess what the dads will probably have done to their unborn sons?)

Right now there is a pill on the market from a home business which claims to increase bust size and they are making a bundle – though, to date, no reliable laboratory has determined that it works.

32

One thing that no one has mentioned is the high incidence of loss of sensation in the nipple after breast enlargments. it doesnt happen all the time, but from what I remember (sorry no cites) it happens quite a lot. I find it kind of sad that women are willing to put their actual sexuality at risk to be “sexy”, not to mention the back problems etc that come with large breasts. While I have my pierceings and my lip gloss, none of those involve serious risk of injury. Now just why high heels are the norm is the one that confuses me…ouch!

33

My very best friend had to have both breasts removed. She did the implants. She tried the silicon first but her body rejected them so the doctors removed them and put in the saline type. Her body also rejected those. Now she uses falsies. She has had 9 operations. I have been through all the agony and hurt and tears. It has been a horrible ordeal for me so I can’t even begin to tell you what it has done to her. Her husband wanted her to do the implants. The doctors told her that more married women chose the implants and single women because of their husbands. Something about it’s easier to accept what you haven’t been used to than to accept what you have always had. Meaning that a husband has always been used to the woman he married with breasts.
Enough rambling. I’ve heard too many doctors state that a foreign object in the body is not healthy. Sooner or later there will be problems. I wonder if these women who have implants will look back one day and wish they had not had them put in? I think it’s a matter of personal opinion myself, I don’t agree or disagee with it.

I’ve learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it.

34

Foreign objects in the body, in SOME instances is not healthy but, through major surgical developments, we now have a vast range of such objects used for major repairs.

Like artificial hips, heart valves, bone, finger joints, webbing used to reinforce weak and torn muscles after surgery, artificial arterial and vein splices, shunts to remove fluid buildup in the brain, implanted teeth, wires used to secure muscle and bone, bone glue, and we’re now using a specialized form of coral. Plus we have implants for penile problems, fake eyes and a form of surgically implanted hearing aide. Plastic, metal and glues can reconstruct a shattered face and we are experimenting with Teflon pads to replace worn, arthritic cartilage.

Your friend is one of the few who reject the implants but now days, breasts can be made from body fat – which is natural. That is often used extensively for mastectomies.

Plus, if the implant is positioned UNDER the layer of muscles behind the natural breast, it rarely affects the nipple sensation. (That was discovered and perfected by a lady surgeon.) Not too long ago, a surgeon replaced half of a kids brain – which had been blown away by a gunshot – with a plastic insert, and artificial bone because while he miraculously survived with some mental problems – but still functional – his skull kept caving in. So, in went the silicone insert and he looks normal today.

35

I stand by my position that reconstructive surgery after a masectomy is different than just getting a boob job to increase one’s sexyness/self esteem.

It’s not how you pick your nose, it’s where you put the boogers

36

So, by the same standard, a man who is losing his hair and starts using Rogaine would be different than a man who had chemotherapy and used it(if they were able to, I don’t know, just a hypothetical.)

I’ll buy that for a dollar.

37

Ok that’s a weak analogy, but you get the idea, perhaps hair implant or transplant or whatever that shit is they do would fit better.

I’ll buy that for a dollar.

38

And watch every woman they sleep with whimper in pain every time…yeah, that’s just great.

If men got penis enlargement surgeries just to up their fragile egos a little bit, they deserve to never have the chance to use that particular organ with women again. The majority of women prefer an average-sized penis. For me, anyway, anything bigger than seven inches actually HURTS. Physical pain. Often accompanied by bleeding and tearing of the skin, no matter how well lubricated.

At least large breasts never hurt anyone.

39

How about the (male) body builders who have had pectoral implants? I understand that the S. California surgeons who install these report a brisk business!

40

Funny you should mention that. Here I am at home semi-listening to a talk show. On this show is a guy who went to a plastic surgeon for pec implants. The surgeon, who was not licensed to practice medicine ANYWHERE, ended up giving him what basically amount to female breasts. The guy is now carrying a C-cup. Another woman who went to the same doctor ended up with implants that can slide all around her chest. If she pushes her breasts together, they stay that way until she pushes them back. The people on the show were saying that it looked like her breasts were “caught in an elevator.”

Now THAT’S mutilation.