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To get the real story on fake breasts, let’s open In The Beginning: A Mouthwatering Guide to the Origins of Everything and turn to the page on implants.
Nowadays, having one’s breasts augmented seems nearly as commonplace as having one’s hair permed. One of the most frequently performed cosmetic procedures, more than 200,000 U.S. women had the surgery in 2000 alone. But it wasn’t always this way: once upon a time, breast augmentation was a highly questionable, semi-experimental procedure that frequently resulted in disfigurement and health-endangering complications. Of course, people subjected themselves to it anyway, jumping on the bandwagon whenever a new method came along.
The story begins in 1890, when Austrian doctor Robert Gersuny kicked things off by injecting paraffin into women’s chests. The results looked fine for awhile, but over time grew hard and lumpy. Worse yet, infection rates were alarmingly high, so by the 1920s the procedure had been totally abandoned. In its place, surgeons experimented with the transplantation of fatty tissue from the abdomen and buttocks to the breasts, but the fat was often reabsorbed by the body, leaving the subject with asymmetrical breasts and unsightly scars where the fat had been harvested.
Pains and Needles
While the painful failures scared women away from the surgical methods for some time, that did nothing to stop American worship of the well-endowed woman. Icons like Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner and Lana Turner helped solidify the gravity-defying, bombshell-shaped breast as the de rigueur “new look” in the 1940s and 1950s, and many women turned to “falsies” and bra-stuffing to keep up. It didn’t take long, however, for surgeons to get out their scalpels and needles again, and in the 1950s women began to have various types of synthetic and polyvinyl sponges implanted. This may have been the worst approach yet: the sponges began to shrink and harden a few months after surgery, and infections, inflammations and a cancer scare eventually doomed the s es to the graveyard of failed breast augmentation therapies.
Pros and Silicones
Increasingly desperate, surgeons in the late 1950s went for a collective Hail Mary. They implanted everything from ivory balls and wool to ox cartilage into their unwitting guinea pigs’ breasts – but none of it worked. During World War II, Japanese prostitutes reportedly injected themselves with silicone to better attract the patronage of American GIs, a technique that became so popular that silicone became a precious commodity. Topless dancers in the U.S. also got hip to silicone shots, but it wasn’t long before complications like discoloration and infection put a damper on the silicone fever.
Then, in 1961, everything changed. That’s when a little corporation called Dow Corning collaborated with two Houston cosmetic surgeons to create the first silicone breast prosthetic, made from a rubber sac filled with viscous silicone gel. The basic design remained unchanged for 30 years, though it was modified slightly for safety reasons in 1982. Ten years later, after nearly 100,000 women had the modified version implanted, the FDA announced that the polyurethane in the implants could break down into the body and form a carcinogen. As a result, many U.S. surgeons turned to the safer, but less natural feeling, saline implants (pictured) designed in France back in the 1960s.
This piece was written by Ransom Riggs and excerpted from the mental_floss book In the Beginning: The Origins of Everything. You can pick up a copy in our store.
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Comments (15)
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Completely ridiculous that anyone gets fake breasts (ok, maybe not mastectomy patients). Any girl I meet with fake boobs, I instantly think ‘mental illness’.
posted by cb on 1-10-2009 at 3:44 pm
what about acrylic nails? where did they come from?
posted by Alicia on 1-10-2009 at 4:00 pm
reading this makes my boobs hurt. paraffin? seriously?
posted by chambrey on 1-10-2009 at 8:12 pm
seriously,i just want a lift :]
posted by nikky on 1-10-2009 at 11:02 pm
Mental illness? Possibly. But only induced by our society’s need for constantly defining a woman’s beauty by her physical features. I say if you want breast implants, go for it. It’s your body do with it what you will as long as you are not intentionally hurting others.
posted by gsmithlbca on 1-11-2009 at 1:35 am
What if you were a woman with asymetrical breasts? For 30 years I stood awkwardly to disguise the fact that my left breast was about half the size of my right breast. Oversize shirts were my friend. 5 years ago, I had surgery to lift and augment my breasts, and I can finally stand up straight, and proudly. Eff anyone who ‘disapproves’….
posted by crabgirl on 1-11-2009 at 8:18 am
Mental illness? What about women who have had children and would like to repair the damage? There is a big difference between someone who inflates their chest to a ridiculous level, and someone who has implants.
As the joke goes…if you can touch ‘em, they’re real!
captcha– enjoyed way
posted by Amanda on 1-11-2009 at 12:09 pm
CB, it’s nice of you to be sensitive to women who have had to make a hard choice because of mastectomy. But when you meet people with implants, do you ask them whether or not they had cancer before you judge them? Classy.
On that note, it would have been nice if the article mentioned the quality of life improvements that plastic surgery can make, as well as the ridiculous societal pressures that do trigger most surgeries.
posted by beckerjess on 1-11-2009 at 4:36 pm
“During World War II, Japanese prostitutes reportedly injected themselves with silicone to better attract the patronage of American GIs”
Shouldn’t that be AFTER World War II?
posted by Bob Bobsen on 1-11-2009 at 10:09 pm
Having undergone reduction surgery myself, I cannot understand people who *want* to be bigger (as in HUGE)! Why invite back pain, permanently furrowed shoulders from straps, and the fact that nothing is going to fit properly? It was misery… And let’s not forget the rude stares. When I was referred to the cosmetic surgeon, I had to see his nurse first. The first question she asked me: Are you here to have your implants removed? She was incredulous that I a) had none, and b) just wanted to look normal. Even tried to talk me out of the size I wanted to be, saying ‘you won’t be YOU anymore!’ Baloney! I have been much happier afterward, thanks. Able to stand up straight for the first time since I was a teenager.
posted by mama9cats on 1-12-2009 at 11:27 am
I have to agree with a quote by David Spade:
“I like real looking fake ones, or fake looking real ones.”
touche
posted by tommy on 1-12-2009 at 11:53 am
Thanks CB… When I see posts like that, I instantly think “a**hole”.
posted by tiffany on 1-12-2009 at 3:25 pm
Actually, I had a good laugh with CB’s post. My back hurts enough as it is, I don’t need implants to make it worse.
posted by CK on 1-13-2009 at 7:04 pm
I agree with cb. Unless done for reconstruction/repair/balance, the idea of having fake enlarged breasts is bizarre to me. When I see photos of women with a crease line above their breasts instead of below, I know something is wrong with the world. Women have only themselves to blame for buying into the “societal” pressure. cb, it’s heartening to know there are people like you out there.
posted by cb fan on 1-16-2009 at 2:21 am
Great article! Thank you for putting it together. Potential patients will be better served going with a service like The Patients Advantage (www.ThePatientsAdvantage.com). It’s a great way to find the best surgeons and it does not cost anything. I found them when searching for breast augmentation surgeons. Check them out.
posted by Emiley on 1-28-2009 at 4:47 pm