Clare has a shape that could sweep many men off their feet. She also
dresses well. With her beautiful face and attention-grabbing figure,
it’s obvious she can get any man she wants. But in spite of all these
good things going for her, Clare, almost 40 years old, is not in any
serious relationship. Though she parties with her girlfriends and hangs
out with men who are always eager to be with her, she lives in agony.
Years ago, when she was still in the university, she had carried a
‘load’ that she can’t drop without turning herself into a laughing stock
among her friends. She had always admired ladies with big bosoms but
she was not so endowed. One day, she went into a lingerie shop and got
herself a well-padded bra. She was so happy with her new shape that
years after, she got herself a bum enhancer and was transformed into a
‘well-endowed lady.’
However, she is in a dilemma now. Men who want to have serious
relationship with her are always disappointed when they discover her
bosoms and bum are not real afterall. To make matter worse, she can’t
cope without her shape enhancers. They have become part of her life.
Push-up bras have long found their way into women’s fashion while bum
enhancers are getting popular more and more everyday. But the danger is
that both are moving beyond the wardrobes into the hearts of women.
Investigation by Saturday PUNCH shows that many women in Lagos have
become addicted to using push-up bras and bum enhancers. Meanwhile, the
downside of the trend, as explained by many of the women, is that they
lack confidence when they don’t have the body gears to rely on.
Basically, the push-up bra –as the name suggests – is padded in such a
way that it thrusts the bosoms forward and make them appear rounder and
fuller. Similarly, bum enhancers are padded gears worn like panties or
‘bum shorts’. They give a woman noticeable curves in the hip and bum
areas. And like the push-up bra, a bum enhancer will most times ensure
the wearer gets the attention of men, even if she is not that naturally
endowed.
For instance, a female banker, who identified herself as Kemi, said
she is the “number one fan of push-up bras”, saying she never steps out
of her home without having them on. However, Kemi feared that she had
gotten addicted to the use of the fashion gear.
She said, “The truth is that I don’t like how I (my bosoms) look
without the push-up bras. I’m addicted to them to the extent that I
don’t feel okay wearing the normal ones again. Even when I’m wearing a
camisole under a jacket, I don’t feel alright without a push-up bra.
“It makes me feel more confident and when I feel confident, I tend to
work better. I actually tried a few times to stop and go back to using
normal bras, but it’s been difficult because I don’t like the way I look
in them. It’s like I always get positive attention when I wear push-up
bras.”
Popularly called bum-bum or yodi at Lagos open markets, bum enhancer
is relatively new in the market when compared to the push-up bra.
Ms. Titi Babatunde, who sells women’s underwear at Oshodi Market, Lagos, said she sold at least 24 bum enhancers a week.
Babatunde explained that the N1,200 price tag on the Chinese-made bum
enhancers on display at her stall, was as a result of a drastic
reduction in its price a few years ago. It used to go for N3,000.
Investigation, however, shows that the more expensive European or
North-American designed bum enhancers cost N4,000 and above in stores
across Lagos.
She said, “Even when it was N3,000 women used to rush it. There is no
day I don’t sell yodi and push-up bra. I sell up to two dozens of yodi
and 10 dozens of push-up bras in a week. Both students and workers,
young and old patronise us.”
A buyer, who identified herself as Janet, said that she loved wearing
bum enhancers because they helped in making her more attractive.
Like Kemi, Janet’s confidence level seems to be tied to her use of bum enhancers.
She said, “The bum enhancers give me what I lack naturally. Honestly,
I used to feel bad that my friends were getting more attention from
guys. But now, I have a boyfriend too. But it’s not something women like
to announce to everyone. Most women like to keep it as a secret.”
Asked if her boyfriend is pleased with her real shape, she said, “I
wear jeans (jean trousers) most times and he hasn’t seen me in anything
else. I don’t know yet if he will notice later or not, but when we get
to that bridge, we will cross it.”
At Oke-Arin Market on the Lagos Island, Mr. Laide Adedeji, who also
sells women underwear, including push-up bras and bum enhancers, said
his female customers included women of 60 years and above. He blamed the
society, particularly men, for putting pressure on women to have
specific figures.
He said, “That is why you find women of 18 years and above coming to
buy all these push-up bras and bum enhancers to live up to the
expectations of the society. Some women have small bosoms, but they feel
bad because you hear men joking that there will be nothing to play
with.
“The same thing applies to bums too; those that don’t have hips or
bums that men like don’t feel good about it. I get customers as old as
60 years asking for push-up bras and bum enhancers. They say the
enhancers push their tummies inside and make Iro and buba (native
attire) fit them better.”
But it is not only fashion gears that are trendy among women aiming
at head-turning figures; the popularity of buttocks injection and other
cosmetic procedures to modify bosoms and bums is also fast increasing in
Lagos.
An Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery, Lagos State University
Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Dr. Idowu Fadeyibi, confirms that the hospital
sees many patients who require cosmetic procedures to modify their body
parts. He explained that Nigeria’s conservative culture was largely
responsible for patients wanting to keep such procedures secret.
He said bosom surgery is becoming more common among Nigerian women
who come more to reduce the size and modify the shape of their bosoms.
“We do reconstructive and aesthetic surgeries and people come for
both, although the ratio is about ten to one, because more people come
for reconstructive surgery. Sometimes, we remove from one part of the
body and add to another to make the other part more prominent or the
addition could be synthetic (artificial),” he said.
For instance, Fadeyibi said a procedure could involve removing fat
from the tummy and adding this to the bosoms and buttocks as
enhancement. Alternatively, he said the use of implants and expanders
are also employed, depending on the case.
Investigation shows that a significant number of men are suckers for
firm bosoms and round bums, but whether they like the use of fashion
gears by women to enhance body features is another issue entirely.
A cross section of men, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH on the issue,
questioned the social and moral justification of women wearing body
gears that create an illusion of a supposed finer figure.
They said they were tired of seeing women who appeared well endowed
and beautiful only for them to be disappointed at the end of the day
after finding out that the bosoms and the bums weren’t as big as they
had thought.
Mr. Femi Mohammed, a geo-scientist, described the use of fashion
gears like bum enhancer and the push-up bra by women as ‘unfair’.
“It is cheating because it is plain deception. Men don’t use fake
body parts to attract women, so women have no reason to resort to
deception to look beautiful. It may be true that men like women that
have good shapes, but what’s the use if the beautiful women are just
artificial?” he asked.
Mohammed added that he could never marry a woman addicted to such fashion gears.
Also, Mr. Muyiwa Babafemi recalled trying to get the attention of a
beautiful busty lady for three months before he finally succeeded.
Babafemi, however, said he felt disappointed when he saw a
‘completely different person’ during his first intimate moment with the
woman.
He said, “She went to the bathroom and when she came out, she did not
have the features I thought she had. Initially, I thought she had big
bosoms, but when she came out, everything had become flat. I was really
disappointed.
“I had to advise her to stop the deception; even if she would enhance
her looks, it doesn’t have to be so much that it will be so obvious.
Any man would be disappointed, especially, if he was attracted to the
lady in the first place because of her bosoms.”
But Babatunde, who claimed to be defending the rights of women to
“continue to look good,” said there was nothing wrong with women’s
over-reliance on bum enhancers and push-up bras. She said that since
women give birth, it then gives them a tenable excuse to improve their
appearance, artificially or not.
Babatunde, who also wears bum enhancers and push-up bras said, “Once a
woman gives birth, her body can never be the same. So women need secret
things like that to continue to look good, even when they are out of
shape. It’s called ‘packaging’.”
Also, Mrs. Mosunmola Awolola of Damscare Ventures, Ikeja, Lagos, who
sells female underwear, advised women to be cautious in their use of
fashion gears that create wrong impressions.
Awolola said she always warned her customers of the danger of getting addicted to these shape enhancers.
She said, “Although, they have advantages since they don’t have side
effects like drugs, there are disadvantages too. The major disadvantage
is that many women get addicted to using them.
“But still, I warn my customers that such things are not for everyday use or one will soon lack confidence in her real self.”
Awolola recalled a recent incident where a customer ‘tried’ a push-up
bra for the first time in her store and immediately fell in love with
it.
She said, “The first thing the lady said was that she would never
wear a normal bra again. This was a lady we spent so much time
convincing to, at least, try the push-up bra because we didn’t have what
she wanted. The lady eventually dumped her bra and wore the push-up bra
she bought home. She also promised to come back for more.”
A man may not easily know when a woman is wearing a push-up bra or a
bum enhancer but Awolola said getting to know this is not as difficult
as it seems. She said the fashion gears make the bosoms, bum and hips to
appear ‘too perfect’.
“Those of us selling them know when someone is using them. The trick
is that when the shape of a lady’s bum or bosoms appears too good to be
true,it has probably been enhanced,” she said.
Speaking on the risk involved in aesthetic surgical procedures, Fadeyibi described such surgeries as safe, if done properly.
In addition, Fadeyibi described the recent quest for aesthetic
surgery to enhance body parts such as bosoms and buttocks as
justifiable. Saturday PUNCH learnt that an average buttocks enhancement
job costs at least N3m. Implants for buttocks cost about N600,000,
excluding hospital charges and drugs.
A fitness instructor, Mr. Kola Lijoka, however, has different ideas
on how to achieve self confidence and body enhancement. According to
him, the application and use of surgical procedures and injections to
get bigger bums is “totally unnecessary.”
He said, “At the gym, your instructor will tell you what to do to
enhance your body shape through exercising. This is healthy and can be
achieved in three months, depending on what needs to be achieved.”
He added that ‘simple squatting’ can do a lot of good to the hips and
bum, and that other specific exercises are available to help the chest
area of both men and women.
A Consultant Psychiatrist with the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric
Hospital, Oshodi, Dr. Mashudat Bello-Mojeed, said the problem
confronting ladies that find it hard to do without body gears could be
described as “low self esteem”.
She said, “It has to do with the self fulfillment aspect of a human
being. For example, for somebody with a deformity or sagging bosoms, it
can be like a mark of shame. So, such things like push-up bras offer a
palliative solution. Of course, this is a false relief because the
problem persists and once the thing is not there, the person will not
have that self esteem she normally has when using it.”
Bello-Mojeed, however, advised those addicted to these body enhancers
to “identify the problem and seek the help of a psychologist.”
She said, “Some exercises will also help, although, they may not give
the same result as the artificial things, but they will help the
person’s confidence. But if the problem is severe, the person can also
go for surgery; it is allowed.”
- PUNCH
