Wednesday, January 26, 2022

पर्वत स्तनाकार...60 Years of Silicone Breast Implants

 विंदा करंदीकर, जातक, १९६८-१९८३: "स्तन्यसूक्त : स्तनाकार आकाश । पर्वत स्तनाकार ।..." (मूळ प्रसिद्धी : मौज, १९६०)

In January 2022, Witness History Podcast of BBC  had: "How a Texas woman became the first in the world to have the popular cosmetic procedure in 1962."

Kira Cochrane

"...The implanted breast is obviously sexual, but has often lost some, if not all, sexual sensation. It represents fertility, but can interfere with breastfeeding. Kimball sees it as an image of health, which is also often the case for women who have had mastectomies, whose breast implants allow them to look in the mirror without seeing their surgical scars, without being reminded of a horrible disease. But unfortunately the implanted breast isn't exactly synonymous with health. The function of the breast that's enhanced for cosmetic reasons is its sexual display. The implanted breast represents a "perfect, unused breast", says Marilyn Yalom, author of A History of the Breast, "and I say unused, because they're not there for nursing. And that attitude goes back at least to the Renaissance, where you have men not wanting their wives to breastfeed, because the breasts will be used by the babies, they'll change their shape, and so wet nurses come in. There have been times and places, historically, where it was uncommon for women of a certain class to breastfeed."

The popularity of cosmetic breast implants also reflects just how utterly in thrall we are, as a culture, to gender distinctions. The breasts are the biggest physical sign we have of difference, and perhaps, at base, that's why they're so enormously popular. "It's an external symbol of a woman's gender, and we need and want that affirmation," says Biggs...."


 Breast augmentation: Late-generation models of silicone-gel breast implants, a spherical model (left), a shaped model (center), and a hemispheric model (right).

courtesy: Wikipedia