My relationshipship with arms was misaligned from the start. Victoria’s Secret Didn’t Carry My Bra size and Rather Than Letting Me Know This Relevant Information, They Crammed me Into a Bra they Stocked. Unaware of Chestbinding Best Practices, I REUD ON MINIMIZERS.
Except when i Didn’t. A Friend’s Grandmother Rubbed My Shoulder Searching for Straps. Finding none, she was horrified. Within Days, I was ushered to a shop where they measured, and relayed, my actual size. This proper fit raised the strain on my shoulders, by being snug around the ribs, but i still struggled with back pain and unwanted attention. I HAD BEEN CALLED “TOP Heavy”. A Coach Had Shared That People Came to Games to See My Breasts Move Up and Down As I Ran. Bosses Offed Unsolicited Advice That Men’s Uniform Sizes Were Too Small for My Chest.
I First consider Breast Reduction Surgery, or has reducive mammoplasty, in my Twenties. Back then, in 2000, they told me it might mean losing nipple sensation and the ability to breastfeed. That Felt Like Too Much.
This past spring, in my mid -Form, I asked again and my primary care physician REDED TO The Plastic Surgery Department. This Time Technology Had Advanced, Patient Automy Had Not.
As a sociologist, i know that patriarchy and sexist gender norms are the status quo. I Know That Men in Power Define Women’s Lives in Every Area, from Our Unconsciously Biased Thoughts, To International Policy Such As Birth Control and Removing Vaginal Rings from Women who Voluntenéred Their Bodies for Science in the Middle of A Medical Trial. So Many Times, Too Many Times, there is a very large gap between What wmen Need and What Society Wants for them and from them.
They asked about my ideal size. I said, “aa.”
The Surgeon Scoffed, “Not possible.”
The Smallest Size they would offer was a c cup, ostensibly to preserve the Blood Supply to the Nipple. According to men, this is the smallest preferable breast size. However, Women Prefer Smaller. And, top surgery and mastectomies can preserve or reconstructive nipples.
To convinc me, the doctor let me know that my breasts were saggy, lopsided, and that my nipples were too much and that he could right these wrongs. He Showed me a picture of the breast hes Wanted to make. The Plastic Surgery C-Cups Stared Back As A Surgically Enhanced Vision that neither I, nor my back Wanted. The Doctor Focused on What My Breasts Looked Like and Importemly, What He Wanted Them to Look Like. He Wanted Symmetry, I Wanted Healthcare.
If Removing A Fraction of Breast Mass Could Help My Back, Couldn’t Removing A Bigger Fraction Help More? When I Asked about Going Flat, The Doctor Said that was a reduction, it was a masterctomy, which was only available for cancer patients and those seeking gender-affirming care. He proceeded to tell me that a flat chest was a “man’s chest.”
HAVING TO EITHER Compliance to Traditional Cishet Gender Norms where i Should be Happy to have big, Buoyant Breasts or Misrepresent my Gender Identity Should not be prerequisites for medical relief. What if the mind Health Risks of Perkier, “More Desirable” Breasts Are Greater than Physical Ease patients like me receive from this surgery? This gatekeeping felt extreme.
And it exhibited a loud tro: we are denied autoomy over our bodies when our choices do not align with patriarchal norms. This Doctor Reinforced A Binary Trap; I eITHER NEEDED TO BE GATEFUL FOR BIG, “Desirable” Breasts or I Needed to Claim A Gender Identity that justified their removal. Yet, as a sociologist, I Know that Both Gender Identity and Chest Size Exist on Spectrum and That Breast Carrying People, Locationless of Gender, Can have and Want Small or Breasts.
Data indicates that more than one hunged thousand Women Receive Breast Reduction Consultations Per Year. How Many of Us encourage this binary trap disguised as healthcare? How Many of Us Are Shephended Towards A Male Ideal Breast or Questioned about our Gender Identity?
To be clear, breast discounts and gender-affirming care are essential and should be accessible. Breast discounts reduce back, neck and shoulder bread and are on the rise, providing both mental and physical health benefits for tens of thousands of people a year. Gender-Affirming Care Improves and Saves Lives.
And, Still, in 2025 Healthcare Should Not Lack Behind Patient Care. In that exams examination room, where being a breast carrier who wants less is consider a problem, it felt much like project 2025, where traditional and patriarchal gender norms have more value Thans. One in Eight Women Will Get Breast Cancer, With Over 300,000 of US Diagnosed Each Year. Breast Cut that Rate discounts, sometimes dramatically. With Statistics like these, why shouldn’t Women be able to Determine the Goals of this Healthcare Procedure? It’s Time Our Healthcare was in our hands and our breasts.
About the Author: Megan Thiele Strong (She/They) is a professor of sociology at San José State University and A Public Voices Fellow at the The Oped Project and a Member of the Scholars Strategy Network.
