*Disclaimer! This post was very difficult for me to write, for many reasons. It is hard to write a post with moderate emotions when you feel targeted, disrespected, and judged. This post will probably anger some people as well. I can understand that. I am enforcing a strict no snark rule for the comments! I reserve the right to remove or not post any comment left on this post!
Tis the season of SIAB. The full bust social media circles are abuzz with all things SIAB. There are just a few days left, so if you are going to enter you may want to hurry up! I love the concept. It is a great thing to see, a brand with their customers as models. These women are women that would not normally be a model, but here they are, representing a brand they love and chosen by the brand’s customers.
Curvy Kate’s media blitz states “We want your curves!” And they do, kind of. Women of any body shape or size are encouraged to submit their photos. But many women run into a problem, size or fit. One of last years top ladies was Brittany from Thin and Curvy, who is sized out of the brand by needing a smaller bandsize. I have read countless times from women how they would love to enter, but CK doesn’t fit them well or doesn’t make their bra or panty size. SIAB is for D+ women, but sub 28 bands, women above a K cup, or women who need panties over a size 22 feel like they should not enter because of their size. I have not seen anything but encouragement from the company for women who fall into these categories, so I hope that these women will consider joining.
But there is one group of D+ women who are left out, those who have had breast surgery. Because my breast surgery is breast implants, I asked about it on twitter. Last year there was a huge issue on the CK Facebook page, culminating in insult and judgement against women with implants. I wanted to know ahead of time if the rules had been changed. They hadn’t.
Last year it was unclear if it was just women with breast implants or if it was any breast surgery. The SIAB contest rules use the word “enhancements.” Really, CK means any breast surgery. Including reductions, lifts, lump removal, reconstruction, and breast implants. This one rule prevents an incredibly large number of women from entering. From the American Society of Plastic Surgeon’s 2012 Plastic Surgery Procedural Statistics, last year alone 286,274 women had a breast augmentation (up 35% from 2000), 89,067 women had a breast lift (up 69% from 2000), 42,022 women had a cosmetic breast reduction (trend statistic unavailable), 68, 416 women had reconstructive breast reduction, & 91,655 women had breast reconstruction. Lump removal is not a plastic surgery statistic, so that data is not included. So not including women who have had a surgery to remove a lump in their breast, that is 559,433 women from ONE YEAR that would not be eligible to enter in SIAB (assuming they wore a D cup bra). OVER HALF A MILLION WOMEN!!! And that is just the US numbers, not Canada which is also included in the North American SIAB.
Really, how will they know? What gives them the right to know my private medical information? Does HIPPA apply here? (It doesn’t.) There is actually no legal precedent in place that protects a woman’s right to not disclose this information as part of the contest. Then the next question would be if they have the right to exclude so many women based on this information. Again, no legal precedent. Please note, I do not have a legal background. If someone who does can provide more information I’d love to include it.
And this from a post on their Facebook page, “Cosmetically altered breasts were considered an unfair advantage by our fans and customers as they may show the fit of our bras differently. It may also be an unfair advantage to other women you would come up against in the competition.” I was a CK customer and do not recall ever seeing anything asking what I thought about this. Maybe the before the original SIAB in the UK, but the US and North America is a highly different market. This makes me wonder how much (if any) research was done on the US and North American markets.
So the rules are in place to show how their bras fit and support the natural bust? Do they not realize that breast implants need support too? Or that there are women who have a significant amount of breast tissue over their implant, so no one would ever know that they have implants? There are women with gorgeous augmented breasts that have no one in their lives that know they have implants, and no one would ever guess. The Showgirl line is actually ideal for women who have a wider breast base, usually a moderate or moderate plus implant. Their regular line is ideal for a more narrow breast base, usually a high profile implant. Because they have attractive designs and colors women with breast implants are very attracted to this brand. Why? Because these women have worked hard to feel comfortable in their skin again, they want beautiful lingerie to reflect that. And I’m not even going into women who have had a reconstruction. I don’t feel qualified to discuss anything about reductions are lump removal, but I am sure there is a similar feeling about wanting to feel beautiful too.
Continuing from the linked post, “You have raised an interesting point, one of which we are torn by as it is really difficult for us to know where to draw the line regarding surgery, as there are so many different cases. Each competition we hope to find a solution but, unfortunately, we have found no way around this rule to date and so have to have one rule across the board xxx”
So far nothing has changed from previous competitions. Still waiting for the support of diversity here. I’d actually love to know what has been considered for a solution.
And the image above. A great way to show the stereotype women with implants are up against. The original commenter was unfairly judged by the second woman, someone she doesn’t even know. The comment was never addressed by the page, but I’m sure that the commenter will find that this negative attitude will reflect her chances of being considered. Comments like these are part of why this blog exists.
While we are on the subject, I’d like to suggest an edit to the about section of their Facebook page. It says, “We continue to champion curves through our annual Star in a Bra modeling competition, which searches for the new Face and body of the brand. The competition celebrates healthy curves, diversity and is open to anyone who can wear our bras.”
I suggest the following, changes in bold, which I feel would be a more accurate description of SIAB.
“We continue to champion curves through our annual Star in a Bra modeling competition, which searches for the new Face and body of the brand. The competition celebrates natural curves, (remove word diversity) and is open to any woman who can wear our bras.”
*Special thanks goes to another blogger who helped me do some legal research on this subject. She knows who she is. 
