In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Breast Equality

Jill

Looks like men and boys are now obsessed with their boobs, too — and are getting plastic surgery to alter them. Score one for equality.

I’m being sarcastic, of course. This article is incredibly depressing. It’s no secret that some adolescent boys have puffy or fatty deposits on their chests, often caused by hormonal fluctuations. It’s no secret that some adult men have similar deposits, either because they have more fat on their bodies overall, or because that’s just the way their bodies are shaped. Women in this country have been shamed because of our imperfect bodies for decades, and we’ve long been presented with increasingly unattainable beauty standards that we’re expected to strive for. It brings me absolutely no happiness that men and boys are now experiencing something similiar — I’m all for equality, but not when we’re bringing everyone down.

Nathan Johnson, a 31-year-old actor in Manhattan, had the surgery when he was in his early 20s.

“I was definitely a morbidly obese child,” Mr. Nathan said. In his late teens, he lost weight, but was left with a sagging chest. “I had these big pockets, little pointy sagginess that looked like pointy breasts. No matter how much I dieted or worked out, I couldn’t get rid of them.”

Dr. Guy performed the surgery, but Mr. Johnson remained nervous about removing his shirt until a year later. “People love my body now,” he said. “And I take great care of myself now.”

Note that it’s people who love his body — not he who loves his body.

The Times article ends with the uplifting story of a young man who had this procedure done and is now an outgoing Hollywood agent. The surgery, apparently, gave him the confidence that he never had — which is something I can understand, and which is why I can’t blame anyone who has plastic surgery in an effort to fit a physical ideal. But I really wish we would push a societal shift toward body acceptance and a de-emphasis on beauty instead of spreading body image issues to more people. Maybe that way, the young man in question could have been confident without having to pay thousands of dollars and undergo a painful surgical procedure.

25 thoughts on Breast Equality

  1. I hear you Jill, though I don’t really know how far we can go in de-emphasizing beauty. We can criticize unrealistic standards and widen the range of that which is held up as beautiful. Yet people – men and women, gay and straight – will continue to have their preferences, those preferences will get expressed, and people will still want to adapt to those preferences.

  2. Kind of suprising that it’s only now we’re seeing corporate recognition that there’s a boatload of money in fostering body-hatred and obsessions among men (beyond the old mainstays of anti-balding and greying products aimed at those who are beginning to age), just as they’ve been doing with women for untold years. Well, that’s one way to transcend patriarchy, maybe better for next quarter’s bottom line than stopping hawking the garbage and procedures altogether.

    It’s not just the plastic surgery… I’ve noticed a surge lately with the cosmetics companies filling radio and TV with ads for expensive skin care, depilation methods, “male enhancement” and other crap designed to instill body insecurity, but wrapped up in a message that it’s macho (or rather, that it won’t make you seem gay) to do these things. Maybe they’ve been there longer and I hadn’t noticed before, but it seems like a meaningful increase.

    Also, while I agree that it may be helpful to individuals to go through with plastic surgery if it helps them get over their body issues, it distorts perceptions of body norms even further so that people who are unable or unwilling or can’t afford to get these procedures are increasingly penalized. Think of the ultimate result if anti-aging surgery continues to increase in popularity… anyone who appears to be old due to wrinkles, sagging skin and other traditional markers of aging will not only have to suffer the stigma of age, but also of poverty, since these characteristics will become uncommon among the middle and upper classes.

    People (especially women, due to far heavier institutional pressure) spend so much emotional and monetary resources allaying body image issues. It’s depressing to see the expansion of this trend.

  3. the young men in Dr. Copeland’s digital images were a bit different: Rather than bearing the broad, flat chests of Greek athletes, their pectoral areas assumed a fuller, more feminine shape.

    Uh huh.

    So, it seems to me, there’s another reason not to be happy about this: not only is “now everyone’s insecure about their bodies!” not necessarily the best kind of equality to shoot for, but it kind of sounds like what we’ve got here is men terrified, and a media and advertising push to make more men more terrified, that they might look a tiny bit like women.

  4. And also the one kid, whom you’re supposed to pity (and I do, a little) was so traumatized because he got made fun of when he took his shirt off in public, so he never did it again.

    Gee, it must be

    awful

    to have to expect jeers and harassment when you appear topless in public. It must be awful not to be able to take off your shirt as a routine thing whenever you feel like it. It must be awful to have people stare at your tits. Of course, as a woman, I can only imagine what that feeling must be like…

    And of course, if a woman wanted to have her tits not just reduced but taken off, to avoid harassment and humiliation, we wouldn’t just be talking about self-esteem and the beauty culture — we’d call her downright pathologically self-hating. But that’s different. Somehow.

  6. Fuck that shit, it’s easier jumpin’ in the pool with a T-shirt and lying about how you have a skin condition or something. Er… so I’ve heard.

  7. some adolescent boys have puffy or fatty deposits on their chests, often caused by hormonal fluctuations.

    They’re called breasts. Males have, in their DNA, all the tools needed to build breasts, and will do so under the right hormonal circumstances. Just like females.

    (Yes, they can lactate, too.)

  8. Sophonisba, that WAS well said! It’s been a passing thought…

    For years, I have worn bras only when I “have” to- when I was pregnant or when I felt being without one would be “unacceptable” to others. But for the most part I rarely wear one. It would be wonderful if Society weren’t so damned obsessed with breasts… and BOY would I love to walk around topless on hot days!!

  9. which is why I can’t blame anyone who has plastic surgery in an effort to fit a physical ideal. But I really wish we would push a societal shift toward body acceptance

    I was so sad when my brother told me he was going to have this surgery (he lost a LOT of weight as he grew up, and had some extra skin and fat deposits), and waited for me to read him some feminist riot act about plastic surgery. Like I was about to yell at him, or something.

    Just as you said, there are larger forces at work here, and I understand why he felt he needed to do it. But I was also sad that it seemed totally normal that he felt that way.

  10. This isn’t at all about men being afraid to look a little bit like women. It sounds to me like this is about men trying to avoid harassment, which I’m sympathetic to, because I live my whole life trying to avoid harassment. Harassment sucks. I blame the harasser, I blame society, I blame beauty standards…but what’s with this hostility towards men who get the surgery? Why should they have to suck it up in order to satisfy our hope for a cultural change?

    People do the best they can.

  11. but what’s with this hostility towards men who get the surgery? Why should they have to suck it up in order to satisfy our hope for a cultural change?

    Who says they should suck it up? What the go through is perfectly awful. They deserve as much sympathy as anyone else who has to deal with day-in, day-out nastiness, abuse, and harassment for the grievous crime of having tits. Which is to say, they deserve as much sympathy as 90% of all women. Which is to say, a lot of sympathy.

    What they don’t deserve is more sympathy than 90% of all women. But that seems to be what many people are prepared to give them.

    Incidentally, if I were to have my tits surgically removed, I would still not be able to run around topless free from special notice, as these guys accept as their natural right. (Yes, I realize not everyone has to put up with US laws, but many of us do.)

    I’d like to think a grown man who goes through this indignity would have the lightbulb go on over his head, that he’d wake up and realize that hey, nearly half the world goes through what he used to. The jeers, the pinches, the sniggering, the laughter, the stares. And for most of us, cutting off parts of our body, even if it would work to stop the harassment, is just not feasible.

    People do the best they can

    Some people do. Not everyone does. For instance, a man who hasn’t bothered to mentally connect the shit he went through for having breasts to the shit women go through for having breasts? Isn’t doing the best he can.

    Any man who has, of course, deserves my applause and admiration.

  12. Over the past few decades, we have been in some ways approaching equality regarding appearance. Unfortunately, it’s that men are increasingly being held to unattainable standards similar (though not yet quite as harsh or all-pervasive) as those of women.

    My theory on why is because the other kind of equality, ie. equal freedom to be judged on character not appearance, doesn’t make nearly as much money for companies selling clothing, cosmetics or surgery. This is just a case of people realising there’s an untapped market, a bit like in the early 20th century when they began encouraging women to shave off their body hair.

  13. its just a huge shame that any of us would feel that way about any part of ourselves- regardless of gender. we all want to be “normal” but the problem is that nobody knows what normal is anymore….

    i find it quite cruel to think of this piece as a “score” for equality.

  14. i find it quite cruel to think of this piece as a “score” for equality.

    It helps to read the whole post. Note the line immediately following “score one for equality”: “I’m being sarcastic, of course.”

  15. The saddest example I find of this kind of thing is a Proactive commerical, where a young man who had bad skin says “If I couldn’t stand to look at myself, how could other people stand to look at me?”

    That’s just so depressing, telling people who have pimples that people won’t even stand the sight of you! I take no pleasure in seeing these kind of hang-ups laid upon men.

  16. The saddest example I find of this kind of thing is a Proactive commerical, where a young man who had bad skin says “If I couldn’t stand to look at myself, how could other people stand to look at me?”

    That’s just so depressing, telling people who have pimples that people won’t even stand the sight of you! I take no pleasure in seeing these kind of hang-ups laid upon men.

  17. I live in a large group house with a lot of self-aware folks– certainly a unique environment. I’ve found it incredibly interesting that the women members all appear to be generally satisfied with their bodies, while some of the men are notably more self-conscious about their figures and have a strict routine for their body maintenance, including working out daily and eating protein shakes. I think they’re fairly balanced about the whole thing, but several visitors to the house have commented how strange it is to see this reversal.

    But as someone who knows how heavy and unrelenting the pressures of body maintenance are, I feel sorry for them.

  18. The 31 year old formerly obese man may well have done it for business reasons – he’s an ACTOR. And even non-acting showbiz types feel that it improves their professional chances if they look good and standard.

  19. Incidentally, if I were to have my tits surgically removed, I would still not be able to run around topless free from special notice, as these guys accept as their natural right. (Yes, I realize not everyone has to put up with US laws, but many of us do.)

    Fun fact: in New York State, it is totally legal for women to walk around topless.

  20. Fun fact: in New York State, it is totally legal for women to walk around topless.

    Ouch….SUNBURN….heck, I don’t even walk around sleeveless.

  21. I’m just throwing this idea out there as a conversation starter/continuer:
    In previous eras of Western culture when everyone was more covered up, the standards for beauty were much LESS rigorous. Women weren’t constantly presented with images of the “perfect” body, nor were men. J.J. Brumberg’s “The Body Project” touches on this: young women of earlier eras in American history focused on their domestic skills and their characters, while today’s girls obsess about their appearance. Women didn’t measure their body fat constantly, or even think about choosing the most flattering clothes for their “body type.” No one knew if you had cellulite, thick ankles, or a lot of body hair. Men didn’t worry about “man boobs” or six-packs.
    I’m not advocating a return to a more repressive era, by any means. But it does seem that society was less obsessed with physical perfection. Can we find a balance?

  22. sophonisba:

    Being flat-chested doesn’t keep you from being sexually harassed. It’s just that instead of men telling you in the crudest and most insulting way possible how they want to sleep with you, you get men telling you in the crudest and most insulting way possible that they would never settle for sleeping with you.

  24. Ann, there also wasn’t the same ability to broadcast and manipulate images – they didn’t have Photoshop in the 50s and they didn’t have TV in the 1800s.

  25. sorry about that jill- went straight from the link on the main page and read the story through there… that’ll teach me to make sure i check on next time…

Comments are currently closed.