Synopses & Reviews
For 30 years, silicone gel breast implants were marketed to and implanted in at least one million women in the U.S. alone, damaging the health of hundreds of thousands. To many women seeking to improve their appearance, these virtually untested implants were promoted as a safe, lifelong answer to their needs. In actuality, however, they have been the cause of devastating, often irreversible health problems, making the implantation of these bags of gel one of the worst health care debacles in recent memory. Lawsuits against the manufacturers and the resulting trials have made prominent headlines and are a matter of public records, but until the publication of
Silicone Spills: Breast Implants on Trial, there has never been a sophisticated and accurate presentation of the women who have had implants, why they have had them, and what has happened to them socially, medically, and legally as a result.
Silicone SpillS≪/i> portrays the breast implant business as a personal and social tragedy, as well as a complex legal and political controversy. Sociologist Mary White Stewart interviewed over 50 women at great length, examined questionnaires completed by 60 other women, observed pre-trial hearings and courtroom proceedings during the litigation against implant manufacturers, and read countless documents and press coverage about the cases. The fascinating and horrifying story she tells in this book, full of women's personal experiences, is a tale of corporate greed, of the commodification and medicalization of women's bodies, and of women's lack of personal and economic power. How can so many women have been damaged and failed by the very people and institutions that exist to protect them? Silicone SpillS≪/i> reveals that the complex answers to this question lie in our culture, in which women continue to be eager consumers of any procedures and products that seductively promise physical transformation into the desirable feminine ideal.
Review
This is a tragic story of big business, disinterested government, a powerful medical profession, and certainly less powerful female consumers.... Highly recommended for college and university libraries.Choice
Review
Four stars (very good).Today's Books
Review
This book should be read with interest by women who have had, or who contemplate having, breast implants, and by the people who love and care about them. For some women, this could be the most important book they read all year.NWSA Journal
Synopsis
The first broad-based presentation of the silicone breast implant medical debacle, examining the women who had implants, why they had them, and what has happened to them socially, medically, and legally as a result.
Synopsis
For the past 30 years, multinational corporations have manufactured and marketed untested and unsafe silicone gel breast implants for implantation in women's bodies. Recent highly publicized studies and books on silicone breast implants have diverted our attention from the approximately one million women in the United States alone with implants, at least 400,000 of whom suffer systemic and local effects of silicone gel bleed and rupture.
About the Author
MARY WHITE STEWART is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D Program in Social Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Breast Wishes
The Path of Destruction: Implant Development, Data Distortion, and the Ineffectiveness of the FDA
Oh, You Beautiful Doll: Transforming the Self in American Culture
A Nip, A Tuck, A Lift: Medicalizing Healthy Women
Women's Bodies, Women's Worth
The Aftermath and the Stigma Path
Medical Records: Negotiated Reality
The Medical-Legal Controversy and Its Impact on Litigation
Breast Implants in the Larger Context of Violence Against Women
Glossary
Bibliography
Index