Call me old fashioned and backwards, but I detest pornography.
It permeates our culture in every conceivable way from film to advertising. The United States is top exporter of pornography in the world. In 2011, the United States was home to 244,661,900 pornsites. Germany was #2 with a mere 10,030,200! That factoid is stunning in its scope. The problem with pornography goes well beyond the obvious evils of objectification of women (and men) innate to pornography. It goes beyond it being a virtual or cyber form of prostitution. Pornography actually penetrates our brains and nervous systems and exerts a control that lives a life of its own even once the deed is done. More recent scientific evidence from the world of neuroscience has shown that brain anatomy is altered (http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspxarticleID=1874574&utm_source=Silverchair+Information+Systems&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=JAMAPsychiatry%3AOnlineFirst05%2F28%2F2014 – Discussion). German researchers studied did MRI scans of men’s brains while showing them a mixture of sexually explicit images and non-sexual imagery for an average of 4 hours a week.”Our findings indicated that gray matter volume of the right caudate of the striatum is smaller with higher pornography use,” the researchers wrote in the journal article, referring to an area of the brain associated with reward processing and motivation. Men who watched more porn also showed less activity in another area of the striatum, called the left putamen, which usually lights up in response to sexual images.
Columbia university neurologist Dr. Norman Dodge wrote a book The Brain That Changes Itself. In it, he described a study of men viewing pornography who looked like rats pushing the levers in experimental Skinner boxes:
“Like the addicted rats, the men were desperately seeking their next fix, clicking the mouse just as the rats pushed the lever.”
What does this diatribe have to do with plastic surgery you ask? A lot. Plastic surgeons have facilitated many a career of adult entertainers primarily through breast augmentation. Aesthetically, the emphasis has typically been bulbous and cartoonish breasts that resemble an adolescent males fantasy doll more than a flesh and blood woman:
The occult or hidden influence of pornography can also be seen in more mainstream plastic surgery. In the 1980s and early 90s, the plastic surgery mantra of augmentation surgery tended towards the “bigger is better” model. Dr. John Tebbetts exposed the dark side of this trend: (http://www.thebestbreast.com/the-history-of-the-high-five-measurement-system/). Through meticulous clinical study, Dr. Tebbetts made the important correlation between inappropriate implant size in conjunction with a woman’s anatomy and long-term complications. If an implant is too large for a woman’s tissues, the skin can be dangerously thin, with bottoming out, implant malposition and other complications that lead to a vicious cycle of continuous surgical revisions. As a surgeon, I try to abide by Dr. Tebbett’s principles for my augmentation patients. If a patient wants to violate their natural anatomy and my surgical recommendation, they are warned and even sign a special consent developed by ASPS acknowledging the consequences of their decision: http://www1.plasticsurgery.org/include/documents/ICR/ICR_TOC_17442.pdf
Plastic surgery of the breast in its purest and most artistic form should be about restoration or natural accentuation of a woman. If you stray from this ideal and aggressively distort a woman’s God given anatomy, serious repercussions can occur for both the patient and the doctor.
[googleplusauthor] is a Plastic Surgeon in Charlotte, NC specializing in breast augmentation, breast reduction, brazilian butt lift, tummy tuck, face enhancements, and liposuction. His practice Providence Plastic Surgery is a boutique Charlotte cosmetic surgery clinic with leading Charlotte plastic surgeon, Dr. Andrew Gear.
Our Charlotte plastics office is a Charlotte area plastic surgery facility specializing in breast augmentation, breast reduction, brazilian butt lift, tummy tuck, face enhancements, and liposuction in the South Charlotte area. Delivering premium natural plastic surgery and natural cosmetic surgery services to clients in Charlotte, Ballantyne, Matthews, Pineville, Waxhaw, and all of North Carolina and South Carolina.
