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- September 15, 2007
HMAS Boob Job
The News Limited press has been working itself up into a lather the last few days over a couple of stories. First, the Maddison Gabriel thing about child models. Now, they are breathlessly reporting that the Australian Navy has paid for breast augmentation surgery for at least 2 female officers.
Darling Point plastic surgeon Kourosh Tavakoli told The Sunday Telegraph the navy had paid for two officers, aged 25 and 32, to have breast-augmentation surgery at his private clinic. Dr Tavakoli said the women had not been injured but claimed to suffer “psychological” problems. A Defence spokesman admitted cosmetic surgery occurred at “public expense” when there were “compelling psychological/psychiatric reasons”, but refused to say how many such cases were taxpayer-funded.
According to a Defence spokesman:
“Cosmetic procedures undertaken solely for the purpose of preserving or improving a person’s subjective appearance will be considered only if the underlying (psychological) problem is causing difficulties that adversely impact on the member’s ability to do their job.”
Australian Defence Association spokesman Neil James defended the practice of taxpayers funding medical procedures such as breast enhancement surgery for psychological reasons (could anyone ever doubt that his organisation would ever knock anything Defence gives to servicemen and women …after all their role in life is to be cheerleaders for the services?). He said:
“Just as there are in civilian life, there are some females who feel their breasts are too small and if their breasts were bigger, they might be more of a ‘normal’ woman,” Mr James said.
“If they were lacking in self-confidence, this might provide the measure of self-confidence that would help them tackle their wider job.”
Now I think that the Navy paying for boob jobs shows a distinct lack of judgement on the part of Navy people. First, I’m really struggling to see that it is wise use of the Navy’s budget (but thats hardly surprising, I know people who work in Defence and the money they (the Department, not them personally) waste is just staggering). Looking at it from the point of view of “is this a wise use of the department/company’s money?” I can’t see how someone could have sensibly said, ‘yeah, thats fine” and agreed to pay. (Would be interesting to know the relationship between the approvers of the expenses and the women who had the breast enlargements?) But more importantly, isn’t the Navy putting these women in extra danger by making them bigger targets if ever they get into combat and get shot at???
As an aside, in researching this topic (extensively), I found this site for Sydney Cosmetic Clinic - love the url …www. affordablebreasts.com.au, but even better is their motto …
What Makes Us Stand Out?
4 Responses to “HMAS Boob Job”
I can almost understand the navy paying for breast reduction surgery, but augmentation surgery?
By Andrew on Sep 16, 2007
Great blog! Thanks. I recently had breast augmentation surgery and by accident I stumbled upon http://www.thepatientsadvantage.com. I used them when looking for a surgeon.
What I liked the most was that my profile remained anynomyous until I was ready to decide what to do. I received replies from four surgeons that met all the things I was looking for. I liked having that complete control without the sales pressure that some of these places can be known for.
If you are going to go down the cosmetic surgery road…better to be safe than sorry. Check them out.
By The Patients Advantage on Sep 17, 2007
The best advantage a patient can have is to stay away fom all these surgeons. I work in the medical industry and I think the booming plastic and cosmetic surgery side is basically immoral. I have the advantage of seeing ‘behind the scenes’,of understanding the tricky ( and very well refined patter) and even physical design of the environment that you are seen in ( before you agree and the bloody stuff starts, much less fun than looking through the brochure with the kind man guiding your decisions. Do yourself a favour, have a think about why the doctor is so keen to ‘help’ you. Its a mercantile industry that feeds on personal unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Stay as you are !!
By Anonymous on Sep 18, 2007
That the navy could actually try and justify this cost is ludicrous. Firstly, why do their feelings of inadequacy justify their workplace paying for the surgery, and secondly, if the navy wants to address their esteem issues, pay for the therapy for them to accept themselves as normal women no matter what their breast size - don’t reinforce the idea that they need to have a certain kind of breasts to be a woman!
By chosha on Sep 26, 2007