Silicone survivors

by Susan M. Zimmermann

Susan Zimmermann talked with forty women about one of the most sensitive issues of body image and health - their breasts, the chief attribute of femininity. In the aftermath of the early 1990s controversy over the use of silicone breast implants, how do women decide to undergo surgery to enhance or reconstruct their bodies? How does surgery alter a woman's self-image? How do they face the possibility of debilitating autoimmune disease from rupturing or leaking implants? Now, having faced years of medical and personal uncertainty, many have coped by reassessing their lives and their relationships, by sharing information and support with other women with implants, outreach that becomes a means for self-empowerment.