Very interesting piece about the history of beauty ideals, Ono! To be honest, I had to overcome my own and others' internalized misogyny when I was considering plastic surgery for a breast deformity. Being intimately deformed had ruined my self-esteem, to the point that I'd resigned myself to abusive relationships since age 15. Yet while some people in my world thought that, say, a rhinoplasty would be no problem at all, they were filled with scorn and disapproval about my wanting a reconstruction for... I repeat... a DEFORMITY. Because my deformity involved breasts. Their attitude was that, since breasts were such a quintessentially "feminine" feature and my surgery would not make my breasts more "functional," I should simply wear the deformity forever — else I'd be shallow and vain. In their opinion, breasts were only for feeding babies.

...and don't we all know that women's anatomy only matters insofar as we can gestate and nurture life, and that our feelings about said anatomy don't really matter? ;)

Anyway — whether this was feminist of me, misogynist of me, or both — I'm happy to report that going ahead with the surgery helped buoy my self-worth enough that I finally ended my pattern with abusive men. Maybe by going under the knife, I missed an epic chance to (silently) defy the patriarchy... but at least I allowed myself to shed the shame that once left me so vulnerable to abusive guys.... so there's a happy, feminist ending there. :D

Thank you for such a thought-provoking piece!