I am a feminist. I believe that, although our patriarchal society does place an extraordinary amount of pressure on women to look a certain way, there is nothing inherently oppressing or wrong about having plastic surgery, whatever your gender. Plastic surgery can be liberating, assuming that the person undergoing the procedure can be sure that they are doing it for their own reasons and not because they feel as though they have to, just to fit in, in a society that favours the white, cisgendered* norm.
Of course, some would argue that particular surgeries, such as breast implants, are the result of a male-dominated, sexualized society that sees women as nothing more than objects created for men’s sexual pleasure. However, is this really all that there is to the debate? Even with procedures such as this, and the ever-controversial labiaplasty, is it not extremely presumptuous to assume that liberation cannot be found as a result?
