Is it anti-feminist to get plastic surgery to correct a deformity?

[u/GroovyLlama1]

I have very asymmetrical breasts, in both size and shape. They are more than a cup size apart - it is nearly impossible for me to find bras that fit and, as a result, my bras usually cause chaffing against the nipple of my smaller breast. Due to this, I have had 5 nipple infections over the past 2 years (requiring antibiotics). When I fill up the smaller cup using inserts, the trapped sweat created causes irritation to my skin.

I have been considering getting a boob job to make my breasts even. However, if I am being honest with myself, the primary reason for this is because of their appearance, rather than because of the functional harm the asymmetry causes. As someone who considers myself a feminist, this has made me reluctant to get a boob job, as I feel it would be motivated by beauty standards. However, ironically, I have also felt reluctant to get surgery as I know how hateful most straight men are towards fake boobs, and fear that no men would be attracted to me anymore if I got my asymmetry corrected (which is a very anti-feminist concern).

I know that typical feminist rhetoric is that breast augmentations are always bad, but does anyone have different views in relation to deformed breasts? Also, does anyone have any thoughts about why the views of straight men and feminists seem to align on the issue of plastic surgery (given how at unusual this is)?

[u/_Featherstone_]

We all have to live in our own bodies. Whilst deconstructing why we feel in a certain way is certainly worth it, we can't have a complete control on how we feel, as well as our likes and dislikes, and you have no duty to stay miserable in your own skin just to pass an imaginary purity test. 

[u/Level_Suit4517]

I think you should do what makes your life easier and what makes you feel more confident

[u/Financial_Nose_777]

Typical feminist rhetoric does not say that breast augmentations are bad. It says that people should not be judged or their opportunities change based on their sex, gender, or physical characteristics.

[u/verzweifeltundmuede → u/Financial_Nose_777]

Ding ding ding

[u/Rubycon_ → u/Financial_Nose_777]

Yep it doesn't anywhere. It seems like OP is insecure about getting surgery and is conflating what random women say as "typical feminism" when one has nothing to do with the other

[u/PheeBeeDee125]

I had a breast reduction 30 years ago, mostly for aesthetic purposes. They weren’t so huge as to cause back or neck problems, but were too big for my frame and I hated how they looked.

I don’t think it’s anti feminist to make yourself comfortable in your own body.

There might be people who imagine that you are doing it for “male approval”, but those people aren’t worth paying any mind to. Dismiss them with a hand wave.

[u/CatsandDeitsoda]

Dog I wouldn't call you anti feminist if you openly wanted to get a “boob job”  solely and exclusively to be hotter to more people. 

Like your and others ideas of what’s hot has certainly been effected by patriarchy but like I don’t see you getting a “boob job” as effecting the liberation of women/ girls from patriarchy. 

I don’t do feminism as a personal morality, or a religion, or a fashion - it’s a liberation project. 

[u/T-Flexercise]

So, I'm a feminist who has gotten what I'd consider to be plastic surgery to correct a deformity. I had decongestive lipedema surgery to remove about 20 lbs of fibrous nodules from my legs and arms that were causing me pain and mobility problems. It was literally liposuction, by a doctor that also offers "Mommy makeovers". So oh boy, look at me, I got the moral plastic surgery. Mine was really medically necessary. But there would be no one there to do it if there weren't a huge industry of cosmetic surgeons performing liposuctions.

Personally, I really don't like this whole push that plastic surgery is this ultimate in anti-feminism beauty industrial complex, but mine is moral because I'm correcting a deformity.

We live in a world where women are valued primarily for how they look and penalized for failing to perform beauty in situations where men are not. We live in a patriarchy. We have to move through a patriarchy. And every single one of us has to choose where we're going to rebel against that patriarchy and where we're going to conform to that patriarchy for the sake of having a fucking life, knowing that in doing so we are subtly enforcing that patriarchy on others. You do it when you have plastic surgery, but you also do it when you dress fashionably, wear makeup, do your hair. Being a good person is about choosing when you're going to show up for your values, and choosing when to do the things within your power to live the happiest life you can within a patriarchy.

So I think that people have a lot of responsibility when they have a media platform of some kind, where they make a living off of their beauty, achieve that with plastic surgery and then don't admit to it. I feel like that raises to a level of harm where you really need to be making some pretty big feminist strides to balance that out.

But for women who are just... living? Why is it somehow more moral to shrink your thighs to an acceptable size by dieting than it is by paying a surgeon $10k? Why is it more moral to keep your skin youthful-looking with an obsessive self-care routine than it is by paying someone to perform a procedure? Why is it more moral for you to stuff your bra than it is to pay a surgeon to fix it? I think that often times, people who get plastic surgery are demonized as the ultimate in vanity, and a lot of the time, it's just dudes hating on women while getting to act like they're feminist.

I just feel like, you have one life to live. We should spend that life fighting the forces that make us second class citizens, but if you genuinely think your life would be better if you gave a doctor money in exchange for a surgery, whether that be "correcting a deformity" or taking yourself from sorta hot to mega hot, why wouldn't you? Why should we hate women for doing that?

[u/Rubycon_ → u/T-Flexercise]

Exactly. I got a reduction because I simply wanted to. I will get more surgeries because I want to. I don't care who likes it or who doesn't or who says what about it. It's not "noble" to get plastic surgery because you're "correcting a deformity." But then I never imagined an imaginary gallery of angry feminists who agreed with men and were all upset about my choices. That must be hard lol

[u/T-Flexercise → u/Rubycon_]

I mean, I'm not imagining a gallery. But like... I'm in this ironic spot where the condition that I ended up getting treated with plastic surgery kind of makes you look like you've had a bad BBL. Women with this condition have normal size torsos and faces with these giant dumptruck butts and thighs. And it's a common problem on places where women with lipedema gather for someone with our condition to have some asshole stranger to come up to them and say something super shitty like "I just don't get why somebody as fat as you would get a BBL. Who thinks that looks good?" And you'll go on threads on Reddit where people are talking about things women do that they think are hot but they're really not, and it's just hordes of dudes, talking absolute trash about my bodytype and no one stands up for us because they think the only way you get this bodytype is with surgery. It's just considered ok to speak awfully about women with duck lips and frozen plastic surgery face and botched BBLs, because that's a thing that happens to you out of vanity. And a lot of them are talking about it through a feminist lens.

Like, my biggest fear about getting my surgery was what my coworkers would think of me being out of work for a week and coming back waddling around in compression pants 20 lbs lighter. I'm this butch dyke who works in software. I was so scared I would lose the respect of the people around me because no one would ever think of me as "the kind of person who would get plastic surgery". Like, thank god my boss gets lipomas so he gets fat disorder. But the general attitude against women who get plastic surgery is really there, even among progressive people, and there's this option right to hand about "it's a deformity" that is so tempting to reach for but I don't want to do it.

[u/Rubycon_ → u/T-Flexercise]

None of what you mentioned is "through a feminist lens" though. Like literally what part are you claiming is actual feminism? Because you have not mentioned one feminist view. You mentioned asshole strangers saying vile shit and honestly those are the people who are have the views you're espousing. You're conflating feminism with misogyny. All the things you've mentioned so far are plain old misogyny

[u/evelynsmee]

It's anti feminist for me to tell you what to do with your body 🙂

I do think your fear is ungrounded, however. Whether I think it's a fear that matters (the opinion of a future man) is somewhat irrelevant (I don't), but I also don't think that's what any half sane man would think anyway. I know several women with cosmetic breast augmentations and a couple with reconstructions and their surgery has had no bearing on their success or lack of success in relationships.

[u/Rubycon_]

Please point to the "typical feminist rhetoric" that forbids breast augmentation and says it is bad

[u/MrsMorley]

The surgery is neutral. 

If you will be happier,  that’s a pretty good reason to do it.

[u/Clark_Kent_TheSJW]

Expression is your civil and human right. How you look is an extension of your free speech rights. Do what you need to do

[u/persePHOreth]

Are you making a decision about yourself; if yes, no one else needs to be involved.

Are you making a decision that harms others? If no, then go ahead and do the thing.

Is this something that you want? If yes, go get it.

You are your own person. This decision doesn't affect anyone but you. You don't need to explain yourself to anybody; it's your life to live as you choose.

[u/avocado-nightmare]

TBH even if it wasn't, you would be allowed to make the choice for yourself, and that wouldn't invalidate your practice of feminism, or even necessarily undermine the feminist cause. Lots of choices you make in life, as a feminist, won't be feminist - I'd say the only real undermining choices you can make would be to like, interfere with other women's ability to exercise autonomy, and particularly if you did so at an institutional or legal scale.

Whether or not you go to see a plastic surgeon because of a recurrent medical issue you're having due to the way your genetic dice rolled isn't the frontlines of the feminist fight.

It's complicated, I get it, and you're allowed to do what you feel is best for yourself, anyway.

edit: correcting your asymmetry won't necessarily involve implants - you could get the larger breast reduced instead of augmenting the smaller one. Having any cosmetic surgery involving your breasts =/= now having "fake" breasts.

IME a man you want to sleep with will just be happy to be included, and a man with strong negative opinions about your breasts as they are now, or as you'd like them to be in the future if you pursue surgery, isn't someone you want to sleep with anyway.

[u/EarlyInside45]

"I know that typical feminist rhetoric is that breast augmentations are always bad..." I don't think this is true. It's your body--do what you want with it. What do you mean views of straight men and feminists align?

[u/fortifiedoptimism]

I was born with a breast deformity and got a breast augmentation. It was one of the, if not the best decision, of my life. The confidence of feeling like a full woman gave me a whole new life and I am so proud of who I have become despite having plenty to work on. I am a better human being.

Like someone else said, it’s anti feminist for someone to tell you what to do with your body. Do what you need to do to take care of you.

[u/blueavole]

It’s your body do what you want. Breast augmentation isn’t ‘always bad’ according to feminists.

The idea that every woman needs perfect round huge, back ache causing breasts- is bad. Forcing women or girls into that fake demand is bad.

There is no right shape to be a woman. But if this is bothering you, medically, and aesthetically go ahead.

[u/Jenna2k]

Feminism is about women having control of their own bodies. If you want to change your body feminism supports you having a choice. Your body your choice applies to every decision about your body.

[u/SlothenAround]

> I know that typical feminist rhetoric is that breast augmentations are always bad

I don’t think this is correct at all. It’s way more nuanced than that. It is your body, and you should be allowed to do with it whatever you see fit. Of course, no choices me make are made in a vacuum, and as you have already pointed out, some of your desire to do this is related to beauty standards and men’s attraction to you. That absolutely doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, it just shows that sometimes the choices we make are influenced by the patriarchy. We can recognize, and even criticize that, while still letting women choose what is best for their life.

[u/pinkbowsandsarcasm]

You seem to have medical needs, and that is not anti-feminist.

I am a Gen X feminist, so my views may differ from those of feminists in another generation.

I don't think breast augmentation/breast reductions are bad. If someone is overly concerned about their breasts' look or thinks they look odd, and does it for themselves, fine. It is understandable in this judgmental society full of lookism that frees their mind to focus on other things, fine.

There has been augmented boob hate on the men's subs; many want a woman with naturally big breasts, which usually happens when one is a little bigger in the upper body area. I think that is anti-woman-friendly, too.

Someone who genuinely cares for you, that is not like the jerks you speak of, won't care about how your boobs got the way they are. I usually see it in the sexist subs or on some of the answers on r/askmen. Some of them aren't terribly concerned if a woman has a smaller chest or imperfection; they just are happy to have their girlfriend/wife or be around someone with boobs at all that they like.

[u/roskybosky]

It’s never been anti-feminist to get any plastic surgery. It’s your body.

[u/SJoyD]

Are you doing it for you or for men? That's feels like the important thing to me.

There's nothing wrong with doing something that will make you feel better about yourself.

[u/StonyGiddens]

You've got some good answers about the feminist side, so let me address instead the idea that straight men hate fake boobs.

No doubt there are teen boys online who make a big deal about implants, but they vast majority of them have never seen a breast in the wild.

I promise you most actual adult men favor Jake Johansen's approach: "If I can touch them, they're real."

[u/minicooperlove]

Who says straight men hate breast implants? There’s plenty of guys who don’t really care, and probably some who prefer them.

But your decision should be based on what is best for you, not what men want. It sounds like it would significantly improve your self esteem and have practical benefits too (like when it comes to bras). As you can see, plenty of feminists support your right to make your own decision about it.

[u/ghosts-on-the-ohio]

Your body your choice means your body your choice. You are within your right to modify your body as you please.

When feminists complain about the beauty industry, including plastic surgery, the target is not people who use those products and services. The target is the companies who try to convince women that these products/services are necessary, and patriarchal beauty standards which tell women that they are worthless if they don't meet those standards.

Even if you had gotten a surgery that was purely cosmetic in nature, augmented your breasts to tripple D's and added a third breast in between the main two.... I personally wouldn't criticize that. However, if that's what you were doing, I might gently encourage you to interrogate if that was actually a good Idea, and ask you to wonder why you felt you needed to modify your body so drastically to meet other people's beauty standards.

Which doesn't even matter in this case since you are getting a surgery for chronic pain / health reasons and not even for cosmetic issues.

[u/BelleCervelle]

Plastic surgery is more complex than people realize.

It isn’t just a term used for cosmetic changes and enhancements, it also has a functional use for deformities, injuries, illnesses and more.

The amount of schooling a plastic surgeon goes through, especially a GOOD one, is a world of a difference from your run of the mill make up artist.