Occasionally I actually get to watch a TV show and even more occasionally I get to watch one I like. I was pleasantly surprised this fall by a new sitcom on Fox called “The War at Home.” It is a sleeper that I have no doubt will soon be put to sleep if for no other reason than I have enjoyed watching it. In the very first two months of its first season, it has confronted issues such as teen sex, sexual identity, interracial dating and drug use (not necessarily among teens.). More importantly it has done so not in a preachy way, but in a way that shows these issues are a part of everyday life for the average family and that they may not be as black and white as we think. There is no moralizing on this show – there are just ordinary people getting tripped up by the challenges of living and parenting in our culture. I don’t even know if it knows how smart it is. The people who promote it and choose its advertising sure don’t. Had I named this show it might have been called something like “Everyday Ethics” – which means it surely would have been cancelled by now. So imagine my distress when I watched this past week and found myself booing instead of cheering. This week’s conflict was resolved by the parents agreeing to breast implants for their teenage daughter! What?!?! How could this smart, contemporary purveyor of liberal values get derailed so quickly and easily? Since when are teenage breast implants a pressing cultural problem? What parents in their right minds would agree to that?
After hyperventilating, I started an internet search. Sure enough, there are a plethora of reports out there detailing the trend of cosmetic surgery becoming popular in younger and younger age groups. Last year, over 1800 girls under the age of 18 had their breasts augmented. Parents are taking out financing to do it. The mind reels with all the ways in which this is wrong. Teenagers are still forming their identities and values. They want desperately to fit in and be admired. Learning to accept oneself and find one’s strengths is a skill that needs to be modeled and nurtured by parents. By focusing on breast size and not self worth, such parents are encouraging their daughters to accept the shallow societal depiction of women and their value in the world. I could rant on about this, but others have already done so and done so better than I could. Now my interest is more academic. I always tell my ethics students that in order to understand an issue, in order to make a robust argument, one must examine the arguments on all sides. The problem is, I can’t come up with an argument for getting breast implants for one’s teenage daughter.
4 comments:
Great post, Kristen! -- What's disturbing is that studies have shown that studies that breast implants do not have measurable psychological or psychosocial benefits for women -- we do prohibit other forms of the self-harm (e.g., seatbelt laws, alcohol consumption) -- and although autonomy is something we value tremendously in the US, isn't this going too far? (More about breast implants at http://blog.bioethics.net/2005/04/breast-implant-blowout.html
Also, what seems to be forgotten in this discussion is that breast implants often limit the ability of women to breast feed their children post surgery. I'm not convinced that teenagers understand this consequence.
I admit I did not see the episode you refer to. I tried to watch the first episode and was so disgusted I had to turn it off, and I haven't watched since. The whole tenor of the show was (imho) incredibly mean-spirited and vulgar. I've successfully managed to block most of it out of my memory, but I do recall a "joke" along the lines of the father saying that if his teenage daughter saw the boyfriend's penis, the dad would cut it off. I'm not one of the morality police, but I think that's wildly inappropriate for prime-time television. I can't say I find myself too surprised that the show's writers would think that breast implants for teenagers were A-OK.
As far as letting a teenager get breast implants, if you want the pro argument, just consider this: if mom has already had her own breasts enlarged and believes it's making her a happier, more well adjusted person, why would she deny this to her daughter? This is what passes for parenting these days--which is precisely what turned me off about this TV show.
Like 95% of people who express "moral outrage" at the prospect of a young woman receiving breast implants as a "sweet 16" gift, what I consistently read between the lines of "this is bad parenting" is really "I disapprove of breast implants and teenage sexuality, and this embodies both!"
Most people in wealthy nations consider breast implants for women attractive, just as they consider thin women attractive. Sure, there's a vocal minority of "purists" as well as weasley men who think that if they just say the "right" opinions they'll garner the (sexual) favor of "morally outraged" women. But when the chips fall and we observe the honesty of people's preferences in their actions, the favor obviously slants towards a big pair of saline DDDs.
If anything, I think those of you "morally outraged" are offended most by the innate honesty of observation youth possess because they have not yet been indoctrinated by your "higher" ideals and ethics. They see the utility of improved physique and enhanced powers sexual attraction, and so plainly desire it; just as they also desire wealth, skills, and social status.
Additionally, the health risks by nay-sayers have really been blown all out of proportion (no pun intended!) The risks are comperable to any surgery, and most people also have their wisdom teeth removed with little reservation. Sure, there's the statistical chance of major nerve and blood vessel damage when your wisdom teeth are removed, but we take that in stride. Likewise, we roll the dice with breast implants just as we also do with taking on a new job or a new relationship or a mortgage.
More disconcerting for me than something as obvious as young women receiving breast implants at age 15 or 16 instead of waiting until they're 18 or 19, is the vast majority of moralizers and ethics imposers who disguise their personal disgust as "advice" regarding personal health and cognitive outlook. It's just the "war on drugs" and "war on rock and roll" all over again. Those who chastize breast implanted women today would be burning KISS records 30 years ago.
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