The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Femininity and the ‘need’ for breast implants

Abstract

In 2011, the Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) scandal generated a public debate in which the deliberate fraudulent actions of a company that profited through the production and sale of a dangerous medical device came to include a questioning of the morality of, and sometimes even vilification of, those who had had such devices implanted in their bodies. In this debate, the social meanings that attach to breasts and to breast implants came to the fore. This paper draws on empirical research with women who have had breast augmentation surgery to consider the various ways in which they position themselves in relation to these debates, and so with the imagined boundaries between‘cosmetic’ and ‘reconstructive’ breast surgery, and between medicine and beauty. It argues that women face risks and dangers if they have or do not have breast surgery, for the lines drawn in relation to breast surgery reflect and reinforce boundaries between good and bad femininity.