BBC News Would Like You To Worry About Your Manboobs

BBC News is trying to convince us today that there is an epidemic of men getting breast reduction surgery. “The latest figures from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (Baaps) seem to bear out this obsession. Surgeons carried out 323 male breast reduction procedures in 2008, up a staggering 44% from 2007.” Staggering? Really? 323 people in all of Great Britain? Well, okay, we’ll play along.

A lot more men are getting breast reduction surgery than a year ago. We supposed it’s because there’s also an obesity epidemic. Not so, says some plastic surgeon they consulted. Only 1/3 of these men are getting the surgery because of obesity. Some of them have medical conditions and their medications cause increased breast size and some of them just have the moob gene. Even if they are thin, they have excess meat in the mammaries. And now that men are being scrutinized as harshly as women by the “media,” they’re just as sensitive about their looks as their female counterparts. This story, of course, doesn’t count as “the media” picking on men’s looks even though they posted a picture of Simon Cowell high beaming it through his t-shirt, as if to say, “Hey Simon, why don’t you get those girly things chopped off?” Thanks, BBC News, for your investigative journalism.
Just what is it about moobs? [BBC]