Breast Augmentation is a Worldwide Phenomenon

NEW YORK, NY, August 18, 2012 (Press-News.org) Breast augmentation is when breast implants are used to increase the size of a woman's breasts. This is sometimes called a "boob job." Breast augmentation is sometimes attributed to a patriarchal or media-centric American society, but the truth is that this procedure is a worldwide phenomenon, and that its roots go far deeper than a media-saturated 21st-century America.

Worldwide Phenomenon

The US is neither the country with the most breast augmentations (that's China) nor the country with the highest per-capita rate (that's Greece, where one procedure is performed for every 376 women every year). Breast augmentation is the second most commonly performed cosmetic surgery procedures in the world, after liposuction. Breast augmentation procedures in the US account for about 14% of the world's total, according to statistics by the International Society of Plastic Surgeons (ISPS).

Not a Recent Phenomenon

One thing people say when trying to claim that breast augmentation is the product of our contemporary culture is that the procedure is a recent phenomenon. They will point to the growth in breast augmentation procedures since the late 1980s as proof of this argument. However, the argument does not hold up.

First, breast augmentation procedures have grown in popularity since the 1980s not because the desire is new, but because the availability of a relatively safe and effective treatment option became not only widely available due to declining cost and increased financing options, but also became more socially acceptable because of the presence of several high-profile celebrities who admitted to and even celebrated the procedure.

And it is true that there was a time in the 1940s when women were seeking out plastic surgeons primarily for breast reduction, something that was changed by a marked change in preference toward a busty ideal for women.

However, long before that, women sought breast augmentation overwhelmingly.

Early Surgical Attempts

Plastic surgeons have been trying to enlarge the breasts since before they were called plastic surgeons. Among the first experiments was the use of paraffin wax to enlarge the breasts. This created granulomas, infection, pain, deformation, and, ultimately, the need for surgical correction. Many other substances were tried, from glass balls to transplanted fat to sponges, but none of them gave good, stable, long-term results. In fact, most often the results were deformation and injury.

Pre-Surgical Enlargement

Before surgical breast enlargement became a possibility, women sought larger breasts through other means, such as vacuum pumps, some of which hooked up to the faucet and created suction through aspiration. There were also patent medications, creams, and salves.

Using lingerie to increase the size of the breasts was common before this, including in the Victorian period, when corsets were used to minimize the waists and accentuate the breast by pushing them up and outward. In the West, this tradition goes back to the Renaissance, and even includes many bare-breasted fashions in the upper classes.

In India during the first century, women wore what was known as a kanchuka, a small, vestlike garment that pushed the breasts together and forward, to show off the breasts. Even before this, ancient Minoans used something that looked like a combination of a vest and corset to display breasts.

The Evolution of Breasts

And, of course, the enlargement of human breasts began long before we wore clothes at all. At some point in human evolution, women began to develop permanently enlarged breasts (as opposed to breasts that might become engorged by milk production), unlike all our primate relatives, who tend to have much smaller breasts. It, along with the work of many evolutionary psychologists, suggests that human males are evolutionarily conditioned to be attracted to large, round breasts.

This, of course, explains why breast augmentation is the second most popular plastic surgery procedure in the US and the world.

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Website: www.juvaskin.com