The Case of the Missing Areolae: Race and Breast Reduction Surgery — Page 5:
21 Browsing through the photos of breasts in Spiegel and Sebesta’s Breast Book (2002), she tries to remember her breasts pre-surgery, and she wavers about agreeing with Gilman that the areolae are larger the closer to the equator you get. In the photographs, the areolae of indigenous women of the Americas or the South Pacific seem no larger than those of their Aryan sisters of the north. Perhaps, like my physician friend, the photographers unconsciously aimed their attention only at breasts that had smaller areolae, as being the more beautiful breasts. Still why were her breasts and some breasts, and not even the darkest of breasts, sporting areolae covering almost one-third of the breast? Spiegel and Sebesta write that the areolae, along with the breasts, expand during pregnancy and retract after (53). Are women of the tribe of larger-sized areolae in a permanent psychic state of pregnancy, even if they never give birth to a human? What are they pregnant with? Was her drive to reduce her breasts a revolt against being quick with the unknown?
22 When medical culture and the public both came to the conclusion that breast reduction resulted in a decrease in physical, not just psychological, symptoms, this type of surgery came to receive more acceptance. That a woman would choose to undergo what in essence is major surgery must speak to her perception of her situation as being desperate.
23 Since this type of surgery increased in acceptance over the years, why is it still so difficult to find research articles that focus specifically on that type of surgery? Over time, one perceives a shift from “worship of breasts to domination of them” (Spiegel and Sebesta 53). One comes to understand the conflicted feelings that individual females and males, the medical establishment, the health insurance industry, as well as popular culture have about female breasts. Female breasts have been a focus for anxiety for a very long time. Combining anxieties about race with anxieties about female breasts leads to the inevitably of pathological projection.
24 Men are anxious about women’s breasts for reasons of sexuality, procreation and survival of their genes. As an effect of patriarchy, women are anxious about their breasts because men are anxious. An important way for women to survive is for men to have less anxiety about women’s breasts.
25 Who has control over female breasts and for what reason determines both their perception and handling. Early on, any removal or reduction of the female breast could be associated with the acquisition of power by that woman. On the other hand, the Medieval standard for beautiful breasts was that they be small, round, firm and wide apart. These breasts, as objects of male desire, were always white and often compared to two apples (Latteier).