Cosmetic Surgery

A new study published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery’s August issue asserts that there is a link between breast implants and suicide.  The Los Angeles Times, when reporting the story, included the shocking headline, “Breast Cancer Linked to Suicide Risk.”  Why couldn’t we have seen it sooner?  The telltale signs were all there to be seen – bad body image, low self-confidence, small and/or unattractive breasts.  It’s just that we could not have envisioned something as immediately gratifying as fake breasts to lead something so immediately fatalistic as suicide.   It’s not like we could have predicted that women would only receive partial emotional benefits following surgery, or that once the luster of new, perky breasts has worn off, these women return to what they always were: unhappy women.  I think we need to examine the types of women who are choosing to undergo the procedure to better understand what it is about ourselves that makes us think that bigger boobs or tighter buns will be the key to unlocking our emotional happiness, when nothing else has affected that sort of change in our psyches before. 

There are two parts to this issue.  The first lies in the nature of the study itself.  The second speaks to the heart of all of us.  First of all, why is it that we are so focused on headlines?  Is it because most people do not bother to read the story once they know the gist of it from the headline and blurb that follows it?  Is that effectively enough in our IM, PDA, water-cooler-conversation world to suffice as knowledge?  Do we need only to mention that we have heard of a story for people to presume that we know all about it?  Is our society really that shallow?  Judging by the way stories are reported in the news these days, the answer probably lies somewhere between ‘yes’ and ‘definitely.’  The reason I take issue with the LA Times headline is because it is sensationalistic to a fault.  Of course we are interested in breast implants!  Of course we are intrigued by suicide!  Put them together and what have you got?  More people reading the headline and espousing falsities to their peers. 

If you read the article, you will find an obvious reason for what the headline asserts: that women who decide to get breast implants may be at higher risk for suicide than women who choose not to get them.  Think to yourself: what woman in her right mind would be so unsatisfied with her breasts that she would go through with this procedure?  Therein lies the heart of the second issue.  Why is it that we believe that changing just one thing about us will bring about precipitous changes in all other aspects of our lives.  Sure, bigger breasts will get you noticed, but that brings about a whole other set of issues.  They might even get you a husband or a job, but bigger breasts cannot solve our emotional problems.  In fact, they may make them worse. 

Bigger breasts are not psychologists, nor should we presume them to be.  Bigger breasts cannot make our parents love us or erase the pain of abuse or neglect.  They are what they are: cosmetic solutions to emotional problems.  No matter how big (and perky and attractive) the band aid is, it’s still a stopgap measure to temporarily stall larger psychological issues.  The sooner we realize this, the better off we will be.