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Breast Implants, Self Esteem & The Media

By Marianne Guarena

There has been an increasingly negative barrage of articles connecting breast implants and suicide or body image disorders.  While it is true that there may be a link, it is not necessarily a cause and effect relationship.  What many articles fail to note is that persons who are prone to body image disorders or thoughts of low self-worth often turn to plastic surgery on the outside to improve what is bothering them on the inside. 

This article is not referring to patients who experience depression as a direct effect of breast implant complications, or multiple procedure to correct true complications.  This article refers to when the surgical procedure fails to fulfill this need to be better, this need to be perfect, this need for popularity—the list goes on—the person becomes even more depressed. Getting breast augmentation doesn't make you depressed or suicidal, but predisposed depression can be exacerbated by feelings of failure and lack of fulfillment post-surgery.

I personally think when journalists take on a project such as an article on breast augmentation and the effects on self-esteem, it is usually one sided and vastly opinionated.  What is it today with journalists and the ever-growing negative opinion of those who wish to alter their bodies surgically?  Are we thought of as some shallow subculture whose minds can only fathom the interworkings of a breast implant (that being nil)?  Or is it just that the media of late simply cannot understand a healthy desire to improve the body?

It never fails to amaze me the belligerent twisting and darkening of plastic surgery patients which grace the pages of today's fashion and beauty rags every month.  What really counts here?   Is plastic surgery reported and remarked upon lately due to the rising trend?  After all, we have always sought to better out physiques and breast implants were always high on the list.  Is it some radical mystery that women love their breasts??  These are people's lives, for what the price of a sale?

Some may speculate that we do it for men, we do it for work, we do it because we are insecure, we do it because we need attention.  Has it ever occur to these pimps of propaganda that we do it because it feels good to have a nice shape or to fit into that top we always wanted to wear?  Did it ever strike anyone's mind that perhaps we just want to fill our breasts back up after they have been lovingly suckled dry by our children.  I don't see anything wrong with that.

Alas, according to the latest wave of printed trash, we're just falling victim to society's insistence on perfection.  Not that publishing photos of airbrushed, long leggy models with perfect thighs and perky boobs would ever make us want to emulate these icons.  Oh no, we wouldn't dare ever feel that type of pressure. *scoff*  The hypocrisy line winds well around the block and it's just getting longer.  Would you like fries with that?

But improving one's self esteem?  Absolutely!  Granted not all of us have a good level of it, but we're working on it.  Should we think breast implants will make us better people?  Of course not.  But I can comfortably say that when the low self esteem arises from a bitter pool of breast-envy, fixing the root of the problem can certainly affect our self esteem in a positive way.

So, the next time you see some negative article on breast implants and the insistence we should be thankful for what God gave us--don't succumb to the guilt.  We are happy with what God gave us, we just didn't develop it correctly during the puberty phase!  Breast augmentation is a personal choice indeed, but it is a choice and don't ever feel less because some sanctimonious freelance journalist implies you are.