At 10:58 AM 12/18/97 PST, you wrote:
>I know this excludes non-US subscribers, but did anyone else
>see the HBO movie "Breast Men", supposedly the real
>story behind breast implants?
> Amazing show. Some science fact is stranger than science fiction.
>
>Dan Krashin
>Happy Holidays to everyone in cyberland!
I saw it. Watching it with my feminist-lens well polished, I found myself
appreciating the message that it was saying to the viewer. It strongly
acknowledged the impact that pop culture has on our self-image, but
stressed that a woman's body is her own to do with as she chooses. The
women who were portrayed were all self-assertive and self-aware people. The
men in the company of the women were seen as a little slimy. Men without
women near them were respectable, on the whole, except for the doctors at
the university (who were all egocentric jerks). As far as I could tell,
they had the main facts of the story correct. (as they put it, "The events
in this story have been slightly enhanced")
As a recap for those who didn't see it: A history of the silicone breast
implant from the viewpoint of the inventor (David Schwimmer) and his mentor
from the inspiration (Schwimmer is a voyeur of the flat-chested
girl-next-door) to the Penthouse glory days to the crash as the serious
side effects are presented, to the resurgence of Schwimmer as he takes
advantage of the situation to start a breast implant removal business.
Interspersed through the movie are clips of interviews, where we see
women's chests as they discuss why they have or didn't have an implant done.
This movie is totally campy, but very serious at the same time. The whole
situation is made to seem rediculous, (through their 70s offices with the
strange furniture and ugly colors, very "mod" haircuts) but at the same
time, it doesn't degrade the women who are choosing to have implants. The
interviews cover almost the entire spectrum (liberal, conservative,
feminist, conventional) and allow women to share their opinions and speak
their mind, even though their faces are never shown. They have very
intelligent and thought provoking reasons for their decisions. Schwimmer is
shown to be sensitive and aware (he suggested saline solution to begin
with, but his mentor wanted silicone) but he's the one that becomes a drug
addict and Penthouse Doctor. His mentor is shown to be venal, craven,
money-hungry, and somewhat ethical. He dies of a heart attack after the
breast-implant crash. Schwimmer rises to the top with this "Whole Health
Center" which will remove the implants for $2000 and then offer saline
implants for another $6000 ... though the original implants were only
$4000. He dies because he's too busy watching a woman's chest to pay
attention to where he's driving, and he gets hit by a Mac Truck.
Lisa Marie shows up in this, as well as Matt Frewer, Lyle Lovett, and a
bunch of other big name types, which makes this all very tongue-in-cheek as
well.
All in all, I thought it was a well-done piece, and I'd recommend everyone
to watch it.
Personally, I had been on a diet for the last two weeks so that I could fit
into this dress I have from last year (and the whole time I was kicking
myself for doing it, too. Me? Diet? What am I doing it for?!). After
watching this movie, where they have lots and lots of views of what women's
breasts -really- look like, in addition to those after-the-implant
airbrushed Baywatch Babes, I dropped my diet. This movie reinforced my
attitude on body image and self-worth and all that, and reminded me of my
core beliefs that a person's body doesn't have to be thin and svelte and
model-perfect. Pretty good, for an HBO Movie on breasts that could easily
have been such trash.
Jenn
--
{jenn mottram} [Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ]
{generally poetry} [ultimately a custard pie... A dirty joke is... ]
{athena(at)geocities.com} [ a sort of mental revolution. ]
{http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2464} [ George Orwell ]
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