Breast Implants Are Female Mutilation

Since I first heard about women getting breast implants other than for prosthetic purposes, I’ve taken a hard stance against this disturbing trend. And now, finally, thanks to Marianne Mollman and her essay in the Huffington Post, people are starting to call a spade a spade, or should I say a scalpel a scalpel: “breast implants” is just a nice way of saying female mutilation, even if it is self-induced. To clarify, I’m NOT referring to reconstructive surgery after illness or injury. I’m referring to vanity- or insecurity-fueled desecration of a woman’s body.

The comparison to genital mutilation in developing nations has been made by the essay and spin-offs on the topic. On one hand people are saying that unsafe and unclean tools are frequently used in developing nations; however scandals like the France’s Poly Implant Prothese are demonstrating that unsafe tools and materials are being used in developed nations around the world as well. This company sold around 400,000 implants over a 20-year period until 2011 when it declared bankruptcy—financial bankruptcy, that is, but they should have declared moral bankruptcy as well.

Investigations into the company now show that, to save costs it used industrial-grade silicone (the kind used in mattresses) instead of medical-grade silicone in implants surgically inserted into hundreds of thousands of women. The implants are raising red flags that the cheaper silicone is more likely to cause leakage and raise a woman’s risk of cancer. Duping women and potentially jeopardizing their lives in the name of profits is a serious and misogynistic violation against women.

People are also saying that, in developed nations, women voluntarily choose to have breast implants. While that is true in most cases (I’ve heard of parents paying for breast implants for their teenage daughters which is disgusting and negligent to say the least), mutilation of women in developing nations sometimes happens by choice, as well, out of fear of the social implications. Unfortunately, it also happens against women’s and girls’ free will. Neither is truly free will. If we as a society send messages to women and girls that they are inadequate, ugly, or less “feminine” if they don’t have large breasts, then the potential self-loathing or lack of self-esteem may drive women to the surgeon’s office. I’d say that this is less-than-voluntary and more like brainwashing. We’re bombarded with images of women in the media who look more like cartoon characters than human beings. Is it any surprise than women feel they can’t measure up? No human being can.

Women and men alike have an obligation to speak out on this topic, to tell women considering having implants that their bodies are just perfect the way they were created, to stop subjecting themselves to superfluous surgery in a desperate attempt to feel beautiful, sexy, loved or to obtain male or female attention or validation.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

trina f.

1:35AM PST on Feb 23, 2012

I ditto the article's message!

send a green star

Eternal G.

6:16PM PST on Feb 7, 2012

Which they choose to inflict upon themselves!

Sarah M.

9:24PM PST on Feb 6, 2012

Thank you! I completely agree!

Sandy E.

2:00PM PST on Feb 3, 2012

Time we spent time making the INSIDE of us beautiful i.e. love, forgivness etc...after all whats the big deal of big boob if they really aren't yours?

Debbie C.

1:49AM PST on Feb 1, 2012

Large breasts run in my family and I'd thought about reduction. But, the idea didn't seem natural. God made me this way for a reason.

I think women should think higher of themselves than to be vain enough to get implants just to look good. Women who have implants are playing with fire. The chance of one of the implants leaking or popping would drive me insane. How could you not think about it?

Sarah L.

2:58PM PST on Jan 29, 2012

It's not natural for breast implants, it's dangerous and it's gross....

Megan S.

12:51PM PST on Jan 28, 2012

They target us, selling us products to make us "beautiful" because they want money, collecy out taxes to subsidize food production, strip the food of its nutrients, then sell it back to us, and then make us unhealthy (unnattractive) so we will pay for surgery.

A terrible rut of exploitation they have put us in...

I agree with others that breast implants are not on the same level as female circumcision, but implants (unless for cancer reasons or the like) are unnecessary and a sad reflection on our society.

For every woman, there is a man who will love her for her brains, personality, character, and body.
If a man will not love a woman because her breasts aren't "big enough" for him, then he needs to get his head out of his ass.

I ♥ my breasts :)

Charles W.

12:22AM PST on Jan 27, 2012

@Alex I: "it is mutilation.
one must cut through the skin, then pull the muscle off of the rib cage, and pulling it up off the rib cage causes the muscle to rip in many places. then a large foreign object is forced in between the ribs and the already bleeding and ripped muscle."

By this criteria, Alex, ALL surgery is mutilation. The dictionary definition of "to mutilate" is "to deprive of a limb or other essential body part; to render imperfect by damaging or excising a body part". IMO, breast jobs do not do this.

alex l.

9:00PM PST on Jan 26, 2012

it is mutilation.
one must cut through the skin, then pull the muscle off of the rib cage, and pulling it up off the rib cage causes the muscle to rip in many places. then a large foreign object is forced in between the ribs and the already bleeding and ripped muscle. the muscle is then pulled over the foreign object and sutured closed. after her chest is sewn shut, the woman's chest is bandaged heavily because if not THE IMPLANTS WILL TEAR THROUGH THE SUTURES DUE TO THEIR WEIGHT AND SLIP OUT FROM UNDER THE MUSCLE.
you would then end up with implants under your skin, and internal bleeding.

anyone who thinks this is not mutilation is free to look at pictures of the surgery. they are also free to look at the pictures of a woman's breast after her implants have been taken out because she now has cancer due to them.

society tells us that if we are not pretty, we are not much. men are allowed to publicly and loudly announce what they feel about a woman's body - humiliation either way it goes. this is not choice, it is fear.

jayasri a.

5:05PM PST on Jan 24, 2012

Thank you for sharing.