The Case of the Missing Areolae: Race and Breast Reduction Surgery — Page 3:
11 Performing surgery on the female breast as a method of dealing with breast cancer is acceptable. At the other end of the continuum, enlarging the breast is also acceptable. However, modifying the breast as a matter of choice is not as acceptable as would such modification be if it were in order to deal with denying death its grasp, or to enhance cultural desirability, especially to men within a heterosexual context. Even articles that purport to present a first-person narrative of a woman who had breast reduction surgery because of the weight and size of her breasts sometimes conclude with extensive information about breast cancer resources (cf. Beard).
12 Both Gilman (218) and Haiken (232) state that the history of breast surgery starts with breast reduction surgery. While Haiken argues that “the operation has not changed significantly since the 1920s,” since the publication of her book in 1997 most surgeons have moved beyond making incisions resulting in an “anchor” scar, attempting to decrease the extent of post-surgery scarring so as to achieve a result more “pleasing” in appearance. Yet the criteria for a “pleasing” or a “perfect” breast are so culturally delimited as to trouble anyone concerned about the embedded and hidden nature of racial preferences, as well as, of course, male preferences.
13 Pleasing to whom? The surgeon? The butcher in the corner shop? The public at large? The woman? But then we know to be skittish at how free she is, in a patriarchy, in honestly knowing what she, herself, as her self in her self, really wants.
14 Still, the physical presentation of the breasts in terms of the requirements of the woman's body plays an important role.
15 Perhaps. Yes, proportionality is important. Really? The size of the breasts should be in proportion to the size of the body, supposedly. But do specific objective measurements exist for calculating proportionality? Her experiences tell her that subjectivity permeates the entire process. She could have had her breasts taken down to an A—a superior grade in another context—if she had. She went for a B.