My Boob Job, Myself

Although I had been talking about it since getting shortchanged by puberty some years ago, only a few people knew I was taking the plunge and getting my boobs done.

It was difficult to contain, and hide, my excitement. Through scheduling the consultation, securing financing, and marking the date (the day after I took the LSATs, which was, admittedly, ill-planned), all I wanted to do was bombard my Facebook friends with “big boobie day” countdowns and updates.

But I didn’t.

I didn’t publicly share any bit of my pre-operation plastic surgery journey because, hailing from a women’s studies background, I assumed I would be lambasted. I can take heat, but I have heard all of the arguments a million times before and didn’t want to be crucified as just another bimbo who gave in and set us all back. “Patriarchy 1, Kristin 0,” I could imagine the comments reading. In fact, I had planned to keep the whole thing concealed forever until I was just overcome, by my experiences and excitement over my new body, a week later. I posted a picture of my engorged (I wish they’d stayed that big and swollen) breasts in a blue tank top, complete with a goofy-faced smile, on my Facebook page, and to my surprise, the feedback was genuinely supportive.

I had underestimated that, while I come from a women’s studies background, I count among my friends and acquaintances a number of people who identify as LGBT or queer and are well-versed in queer theory. The LGBT(Q) community understands how integral image is to identity (think of our icons such as the muscle daddy or lipstick lesbian), and I had to justify my decision to no one.

“The choice to have plastic surgery is a very personal one,” says Dr. Paul C. Zwiebel of the Zwiebel Center for Plastic Surgery located in Highlands Ranch. “But generally, what I think most people have in common is the desire to feel better about how they look. We often talk about self image versus body image, being how we see ourselves and how we might actually look. People want to look more like they feel.”

This is particularly important to LGBT patients, who might use plastic surgery to align their physical appearance with their inner gender identity and experience, or those who may be trying to recapture the youth they lost to time wasted in the closet. Both of those experiences are something Dr. Zwiebel sees often.

“I’ve been fortunate to have a number of LGBT patients in my practice,” he says. “And what is interesting is that this is a community with its own special characteristics and unique needs, but it boils down to what everybody is like. People all have personal needs and one of those needs is an environment where they feel comfortable expressing their desires and goals.”

And Dr. Zwiebel strives to create that comfortable environment for all of his LGBT patients, whether they’re a transgender woman or man seeking facial feminization or masculinization, or a gay man seeking fillers to create the more youthful face he feels he has on the inside. On the subject of that gay man, Dr. Zwiebel stresses that the stigma of men getting cosmetic procedures is lessening, and men should give themselves permission to feel good about appearance.

“I think that as our culture changes, what some people perceive to be the differences between men and women and concern for appearance is changing, as well,” he asserts. “I am seeing men come in increasingly frequently for a number of procedures. The most popular would probably be body contouring, like liposuction, around the trunk and the chest.”

Of course, when we talk about the LGBT community and plastic surgery, we often ignore the “L” and the “B” ladies. Cosmetic surgery — if the decision is yours and yours alone — can be an infinitely rewarding experience for anyone. I, a queer-identified woman, had my breasts lifted and augmented because looking busty, blonde, flamboyant, and caricaturely feminine is just congruent with my authentic self. And to live authentically is everything.