Breast Enhancement

The narrow debate between silicone breast implant makers and the Food and Drug Administration over safety is all about silicone leakage, granulomas, the cushy hand-feel of silicone versus a bag of salt water, and so on. What's missing are the broader cultural questions, such as why a 17-year-old girl asks her parents for breast implants for a high school graduation gift.

"Hoping to meet guys," two 23-year-olds--call them Sue and Gail--were driving to Palm Springs for a mini-vacation. "We were laughing about men and what they liked," Sue recalls, "and in the process I made a couple of 'flat' jokes about my breasts or the lack thereof.

The first night she pulled out her new breast enhancement system, a motorized contraption with large, clear plastic domes resembling something only a space-age sex symbol might wear, Linda Langer wondered aloud: "What am I doing ?" The new vacuum-based system, known as Brava, is worn beneath a large zip-up sports bra at least 10 hours a day for a minimum of 10 weeks.