With each passing year, our country experiences drastic increases in
superficial behavior. We hold ourselves to unrealistic standards of
physical appearance as we strive to sculpt our bodies into the perfect
silhouette. Though both men and women are subjected to such appalling
ideals, the scrutiny of women is held at a much higher degree. It is
astonishing that women can be duped into believing their natural
physical features are below par. Because of the pressure for perfection
that dominates our society, many women turn to extreme measures, such
as plastic surgery.
Some
of the most common surgeries include nose jobs and tummy tucks,
however, boob jobs - or breast augmentations as surgeons call them -
are climbing at an exponential rate of popularity. In fact, 329,296
women in the United States received this procedure last year ,
according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
A recent
article in The Columbus Dispatch noted after a 14-year absence because
of multiple lawsuits, silicone breast implants are back on the market.
This reestablished availability has women excited and eager to undergo
the surgery because patients say it feels more natural than saline,
which has been used as a safer alternative.
Not only do silicone
implants cost more than saline ones on an average of $1,000 to $1,500,
but many potential health risks are at play - infection and rupture for
starters. Women are also subject to capsular contracture, which is when
scar tissue develops around the implant which tightens and squeezes
causing breast pain and changes in nipple sensation. The Food and Drug
Administration recommends that women who have silicone implants receive
a yearly MRI - and additional cost of roughly $2,000 that insurance
companies do not pay for - to check for leakage that cannot easily be
detected. How could any of this sound appealing? And to top it all off,
you don't even get a lifetime guarantee. "All breast implants break
eventually. That's one thing that everyone agrees on," said Diana
Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women and
Families, according to the Dispatch.
A utopian world is not
one in which everyone shares what is perceived as ultimate physical
beauty. Rather, it is a world where everyone appreciates the beauty of
what comes naturally.