Italy's cosmetic breast augmentation bill: Bio-power or pro-social response?
By Rachael Liberman
According to an article in Italian news agency ANSA, the Italian government sent a bill to Parliament on Monday that would ban cosmetic breast surgery for women under eighteen. Currently, those under eighteen need parental consent for breast augmentation, but under the proposed bill, procedures will be strictly prohibited unless the patient can offer a medical rationale. The article cites an informative study by Italian research agency SWG (the English version of this news article offers only acronyms) that offers various resulting percentages (methods not included): 39% of women say that an “abundant chest enhances self-esteem,” 36% of Italian girls under 18 are unhappy with the way they look, with 17% of girls concerned about their breasts. Further, the article states, “Health Undersecretary Francesca Martini, who drafted the bill, said that demand for such operations was increasing among girls bombarded by images in the media that made them feel inadequate.”
Due to language inadequacies, I am not able to analyze the SWG report or the bill that the Italian government sent. Additionally, I am approaching this from the social location of an “American,” so I may be missing some historical and cultural considerations of the Italian experience. However, this bill on cosmetic breast surgery raises some concerns about the politics of the body that are not necessarily location-specific. First of all, who defines the “medical basis?” The caveat that a rationale needs to be provided indicates examination and judgment, both of which are subjective. Secondly, what about those women who want breast augmentation in order to feel more feminine? Now, it could be argued that femininity is oppressive or a social construction, but nonetheless, there are women (including those under eighteen) that want to “feel more like a woman.” Does mental health count? Lastly, isn’t prevention the best medicine? In other words, why not develop media education courses that teach young girls about body image? How does lawfully engaging with breast augmentation surgery curtail the larger issue: women’s discomfort with their bodies as a result of various normalizing practices (not limited to just media).
What is interesting is that this acknowledgment of women and body issues and this resulting bill in Italy (the first of its kind in Europe) should be a positive moment. After all, the Italian government is attempting to drive cosmetic surgeries down so that young girls cannot include it in their imagination of embodying media-generated (normalized) aesthetics. However, this bill, based on the information contained in the ASNA article, is actually giving power to medicine and the government regarding what people can and cannot do with their bodies. Additionally, it is further suggesting that the desire to have large breasts is a result of “the media” (the article does not offer any additional sources of influences) and that individuals cannot possibly want to alter their bodies for any other reason. By limiting breast augmentation to “medical reasons,” individuals are forced to experience disciplinary power, or bio-power, masked as pro-social regulation.
Beauty Work: Individual and Institutional Rewards, the Reproduction of Gender, and Questions of Agency
Body Politics from The Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology
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What an strange law. It is hard to imagine how to prove the existence of “medical reasons” for cosmetic surgery. Do you think this means that the Italian governing body means to outlaw breast augmentation for girls–without directly doing so? I wonder how likely it is that this law will also be applied to adult women in Italy, and if there would be any cosmetic procedures that would be similarly prohibited for men?
Keri
While I agree that the media has a large influence on the “ideal body” that young women aspire to have, there are many other factors that go into a female wanting breasts. I know many young women who want larger breasts to feel more feminine and sexy. I disagree with the article that femininity is oppressive. There are plenty of women out there who are not feminine, and I doubt that has any correlation with the size of their breasts. For small chested women, it is sometimes difficult to feel completely matured when one’s body resembles that of a prepubescent teen. For women whose mother’s have large breasts, it can be a huge disappointment to be small chested. Since most females develop breasts in middle and high school, it should be expected that the girls who do not develop with their peers will want to find other ways to fit in. Cosmetic surgery is obviously a huge decision, but I believe that parents are responsible for helping their children to make the right life choices (generally speaking). In this situation, however, I do not believe the law is overstepping it’s boundaries. People do not stop growing before the age of 18, so no doctor should even be willing to operate on someone before that age. And I agree with Keri-what medical reason could there be to get breast implants? It is far more likely that one would get a breast reduction for medical reasons.