If there was a penile enhancement surgery as cheap and effective as breast enlargement surgery currently is, I think you'd easily see that many operations happening. At the same time, most women don't seem to cite "huge penis" as a requirement for their sexual gratification, while many men feel this way, probably due to the society they grew up in. Regardless of the reason, men do all they can to be attractive to women, as do women for men, in general. Men are obsessed with a woman's body where women seem obsessed with a man's soul.

I think the reason men don't undergo penile augmentation surgery is precisely because it can't be endorsed as safe. But if getting a bigger penis was as safe and simple as getting a breast augmentation (which, granted, may not be all that safe or simple in the grand scheme, but still - ) I think you'd see huge numbers of men lining up to get it done.

I agree with everything in this item except the implication that men don't feel pressure to have fantastic penises the same way women feel pressure to have fantastic breasts. I'm sure we do - we just don't have the same ability to actually do anything about it.

I would argue that Viagra and like drugs, much-used and much-hyped, are the male equivalent of boob jobs. And honestly, if all you knew was what you saw on TV and in magazine ads, you would conclude that "erectile dysfunction" is far and away the No. 1 health problem in the United States.

Women get boob jobs because they believe men will want them more and women will envy them more. This is not self-esteem. This is other directed esteem. Self esteem is exactly that - you esteem yourself, unconditionally, as you are, finding intrinsic value and worth.

There is nothing intrinsic about fake books. It's about as extrinsic as you can get. And I have yet to meet a single woman with a breast job who didn't undergo a radical post-operative transformation of her wardrobe - clothes becoming much tighter and more revealing. They then bask in both the positive attention (he wants me!) and the negative attention (she's jealous because he wants me!). It's ridiculous to think of this as boosted self-esteem, when it's entirely bestowed by the perceived or actual increased attention and approval of others.

I wonder if lesbians get boob jobs - and does it corelate to the rate that heterosexual women get the inserts?

If implants do indeed make women happier about themselves, in and of themself, then I would expect that straight and gay women would seek implants at the same rate.

If implants are more the realm of straight women, well then, I would say that society has implied that boobs that don't look like the women in the magasines (presented mostly as straight women) are defective. And the real reason that women seek boob jobs, is not so much that they want to do it for "themselves" as much as they need to do it to comply with the expected image of a woman wants male attention.

Conducting research that makes people who don't like breast implants uncomfortable! Tut tut!

I graduated from there, and I'll tell you what, that place is just a HOTBED of research that people with political agendas don't like-- why, they pretty much manage to honk off everyone at one time or another! It's almost like they're trying to learn about science and behavior, not reinforce any individual or group's belief system.

The shame, oh, the shame!

There is a danger in making steadfast traditional feminist ideology the new "ideal" women have to adhere to. Should a woman not undergo breast augmentation simply because to do so would strip her of feminist cred? Would it make her a sellout? Should she feel bad about it?

I do agree that women - and to a far lesser but still alarming degree, men - are under a lot of pressure to conform to a nonsensical bodily ideal. I hate the thought of people getting so wrapped up in that bad cultural undertow that it moves them to alter themselves simply to escape the misery of being outside the ideal. At the same time, I think we ought to recognize that there may be perfectly good and acceptable motivations for altering oneself.

If a mature and emotionally together flat-chested woman goes out and gets augmented to a B-cup because wants to be able to shop off the rack and have her clothes fit better, I'm not going to knock it, nor am I going to pretend that she's some kind of horrible victim of society's misogynistic bullshit.

Let me say that, from my experience, cosmetic surgery *can* boost self-esteem. One friend of mine got a nose job. Nothing too extreme—she just had a bump that she didn't care for removed. Another friend of mine recently got breast augmentation that I personally thought was unnecessary (she was a natural C and went up to a D), but she absolutely loves her new girls and, when compared to my natural D ladies, I totally understand why.

Both of these women didn't –need- any of these surgeries (by the difficult standards portrayed in the media) to be beautiful—they were both knockouts before hand, but they were personally unhappy with the little bump or nature's effects on heavy breasts despite what others said to the contrary of their opinions. I have natural Ds but at 25, I'm already seeing nature's effects and know that I will eventually want to undergo some procedure to maintain the bouncy youth of my cherished bosom (and everyone I talk to about this says I'm nuts because they just don't feel what I feel about myself and want me to look the way *I* want to look for *me*.)

The point is that both of these women are very happy with their new and "improved" parts and they did it for no one other than themselves. Because they are happy with the results, they're just a tiny bit happier and more confident about themselves.

Moral of the story: not everyone who gets plastic surgery does it because society has pressured them into it. Sometimes (I'd wager to say most times) women get plastic surgery for themselves; because modern medicine has made these procedures safe, effective, and in most cases affordable enough to serve such common-place vanities.