June 25, 2004

"Women with cosmetic breast implants are more likely to commit suicide, a new study says..." Apparently the rate is three times the "norm." Test was conducted on Finnish women, if that matters. It is suggested that there be psychological screening of those seeking the surgery.
posted by pyrrthon1 20 years ago
  • i'd prefer to know why men transfer their breast fixation to women...who then rush out to 'fill into the appropriate form'!
  • I want to know if anyone would actually prefer to fuck someone with implants. They can look nicer when the owner is standing up, but I'll take natural over fake for the hands-on portion of proceedings.
  • ah...two enquiring minds. monkeys seeking answers about mammaries.
  • Studies conducted to reach a conclusion that I could have told them always feel like a waste of money to me. People who commit suicide are generally depressed. Depressed people generally have low-self esteem. A woman who wants implants is displeased with her body. A woman with low self esteem is often displeased with her body. So the surgery itself beckons to people who are already more likely to commit suicide than the general public. rodgerd -- I always say that implants look amazing in clothes, silly out of them, and they feel absolutely ridiculous. Any woman with implants that I have ever fooled around with has complained that I do not pay enough attention to her breasts. I tell her that me playing with her breasts seems like the equivelant of her stroking a dildo while she is making out with me -- it's not me.
  • IANAplasticsurgerypatient, but having more self-image issues than two or three high schools combined, let me take a guess: I don't know if it's so much a case of seriously considering men's preferences so much as wrapping up your identity as a woman into this body part. These body parts. A little bit like the stereotype of male identity being embodied in [ahem] something else. They might be doing it for themselves, to feel better, to feel desirable, not necessarily because they literally think men like it more. I always thought it might be a little like anorexia, in the worst cases - they might start thinking that everything would be better if they had plastic surgery, blaming everything wrong in their lives on that one factor. Of course, not everyone who goes in for surgery is like that, but I think that might be one way that a bad mindset might feed into this situation. I am completely not surprised that this is the case; I'd agree with bernockle, that the connections between low self-esteem, bad self-image, and emotional imbalance aren't that hard to imagine.
  • Relatedly, Finland has the tenth highest suicide rate in the world, sez this. [tip for next incarnation: stay away from the Baltic sea and Finno-Ugric and Balto-Slavic languages]
  • The WHO seems to have different numbers - Finland takes fourth place. Quite a lot more male suicides than female, which I suppose I knew, but I didn't expect the difference to be so dramatic. This map is a little thought-provoking.
  • If all the men on the planet suddenly died, exactly how many boob jobs do we think would occur afterwards?
  • These two documentaries are fairly decent (ahem) explorations of our genitals and how they affect us psychologically. But my two cents: if you're willing to fill your chest full of bathroom tile grout because your self-image is that bad, it's not really surprising that you'd be more prone to suicide.
  • On the page for Private Dicks: If you like this title, we also recommend... Deep Throat Part II (1974)
  • I wanted to say what bernockle said, but in another way: What's the suicide rate of women who thought about getting implants, but didn't? Also, from the article: These studies do not indicate that cosmetic breast-implant surgery causes suicide, Sarwer said. Rather, it is more likely that psychological problems already existed before surgery, he said.
  • Ah, so getting a sex change wouldn't help me any either?
  • These studies do not indicate that cosmetic breast-implant surgery causes suicide, Sarwer said. Rather, it is more likely that psychological problems already existed before surgery, he said. Bingo. A lot of these women had issues to begin with. When the surgery didn't provide the panacea they thought it would, it probably compounded those issues and made things worse, not better.
  • How different are the motivations for breast implants are from motivations for penis enlargement procedures or hair implants? I mean, are there any different motivations for them other than low-self esteem? (sexy superstars trying to be more sexy notwithstanding)
  • There's always vanity. Fear of aging. Um... vanity. Reconstructive reasons, which are another thing entirely. Sexual reassignment surgery. And vanity.
  • On the other hand, I'd sooner throw myself off a thirty story building than have breast implants.
  • I forgot about vanity, Wurwilf. Thanks! The other two are also good reasons. Although fear of aging falls very near to low self-esteem.
  • Zemat, I work in a gossipy, scandalous office environment with 80% women and I've heard on separate occasions (from the women themselves) of women dumping the really nice guy who treated them really well because he just wasn't equipped to satisfy. I half feel bad for those guys, but I guess sexual satisfaction is also part of a relationship...I'm not sure where I stand on that cause it's not something I've had to deal with.
  • women dumping the really nice guy who treated them really well because he just wasn't equipped to satisfy. "is it in yet?" in my more rampant youth i only met one man that line applied to. maybe i'm out of touch, quite literally. are genital proportions changing or is it something else? i always see women dumping the nice guys because they still have a yen for a walk on the wild side. they hopefully find their way back.
  • umeboshi, I'm not really surprised by that statistic. But I prefer to think that those women weren't in love for starters so any displeasure was enough for putting them of. Anybody truly in love would be tolerant to even more awful "personality" flaws from their partners. dxlifer, maybe you were very lucky or not too demanding.
  • well zemat, a third option just occurred to me, but i'm too modest to talk about it. maybe i'm very lucky in more ways than one. i always thought the variations in shapes and angles more, um, interesting than size. i once considered assembling a book of photos called 'penile variety'.
  • De differentiis penis animalium by dxlifer the elder.
  • Err, I hope nobody implies the title is about diferent animal penis. I just don't know how to express "variety" in latin.
  • zemat..i love it. so stately and scientific sounding. that will give me a pretext for asking for the photos. but i'm really past the stage now, of the hunt. the hunt for new or the old ones i've known. *sigh