I'm the co-founder of MyFreeImplants.com, which is a website where women wanting breast implants create profiles and generous benefactors donate money toward their enhancement goals. I handle all the marketing, PR and other functions, such as finance and business development. Ironically, while our site is devoted to breasts, I'm a leg man because they are more functional than breasts. That being said, nice breasts are a great bonus...just not essential to me. However, some men and women see nice breasts as essential, and that's where we step in.
The idea came about in early 2005 when a bunch of friends were attending a bachelor party in Las Vegas. A conversation started up about how one of the ladies had the most perfect set of breasts. She told us how she had just recently "gotten them done." Her friend mentioned that she wanted to get hers done, but could not yet afford the $6,000 price tag.
One of us yelled out, "I got $5 on it" and then someone else offered $10, and then $20, and then $50. By the time we got around the suite, there was a verbal commitment amongst all the guys in the room to pay for 25 per cent of her implants. The concept developed from there.
The fact MyFreeImplants.com exists is a matter of economics. The market determines the need for any business, and the amount of women who want breast implants but cannot afford them is enormous. Our site makes this otherwise impossible luxury a reality for many.
Our site is proof that many women are dissatisfied with their breasts. I'm not a woman (obviously), but I would guess the media and other women contribute to this. MTV and magazines such as ELLE, VOGUE and Seventeen hit up girls at a young age and show them an unrealistic image of what a woman should look like. Then they feel the need to compete with models or celebrities who've had plastic surgery, and thus aren't happy in there natural state.
We serve all kinds of women who want to boost their confidence - Everything from housewives, college students, single mothers, models, and strippers. Currently we have members in over 30 countries, so several languages besides English are in use.
The men who use the site are all across the board as well - From young college, military and established, middle-aged men, to retired men looking to help some younger ladies out.
One frequently asked question is, "What would motivate a man to donate money for a stranger's breast implants. People are motivated to part with their money all the time. Why do guys spend hundreds of dollars buying strangers drinks in a club? Usually it's to get to know random women.
The website is the same concept, except the money goes to a good cause, you get to know the women better and the results are "measurable." Also, at MyFreeImplants.com, guys are the ones who are pursued, whereas in a bar/club it's the men chasing the women. It feels good to have dozens of attractive women contacting you all day. You pick and choose who you want to help out.
Women who want free boobs should read the help guides and FAQs [2] so they know how the site works. The news and blogs are good to read up on as well. If you just create an account and post a picture thinking someone is going to buy you boobs, you won't be successful. It takes hard work and a strategy. Advertising off the site is key as well for finding new members.
The women who are generally more successful are between 18-45, outgoing, intelligent and attractive. They usually spend several hours per day on the site. Since the communication is all online, the women who are better writers often are more successful as well.
As far as the relationship between members and benefactors, the relationship is strictly online. We're extremely careful about restricting members giving out personal info. The only thing that's known is the country and time zone of the members. If anything else is displayed in messages or profiles, we do our best to remove it or remove the member.
Although cyber-begging has been around for quite some time, MyFreeImplants.com is the first website to do it on such a large scale. It's controversial because it sounds new and crazy. Women social networking on the web to earn free boob jobs? WTF? This is just the beginning though. The business model will be applicable to other things besides breasts as long as there is a need for something and an incentive for others to pay for it.
On a more obvious note, the site is controversial because it's about plastic surgery and contains some nudity. A lot of people already don't like plastic surgery, and that's been well-documented. When you bring nudity into the equation, you get a whole new group of critics, especially in the United States. Europe has been very receptive and positive about the concept. The BBC did a documentary on the website over a year and a half ago, even filming a surgery. This country is just starting to wake up and smell the silicone.
The nature of controversy also depends on who's criticizing the site. A fun group is the feminists (of which my mother is a member). They see themselves as the defenders of the women here, who are assumed to be mindless idiots who joined involuntarily and are being "exploited" by men. What an odd kind of exploitation it is where money flows away from those doing the exploiting.
The most dearly-held feminist slogan (in the U.S., at least) is "my body, my choice," but in the case of cosmetic surgery, these proponents of "choice" suddenly sing a different tune and become "anti-choice." The "my body, my choice, except for breasts" contradiction is rationalized by denying that a woman who chooses breast implants is really choosing, or even capable of choosing. Women's options are supposedly manipulated by a gang of ever-handy scapegoats: Men.
So if a woman chooses a breast augmentation, she is to be dismissed as a idiot who lacks self-determination. You're not capable of exercising "choice" over your own body. In short: Blaming men for breast implants is as dumb as blaming women for toupi©es. And that's pretty damned funny.
Of course, breasts aren't the only things that make women feel beautiful, but at this point, MyFreeImplants.com will be solely a breast site, because that's what the members want to pay for. Other surgeries are wanted by women, but we're not seeing enough people willing to pay for them.
What's in it for me? Not a whole lot. Fame and maybe some day fortune. The website makes less than 10% off the top after credit card fees. That leaves enough to run the site and do marketing and promotional activities. Both founders work full time at "real jobs" and have taken zero salaries. So in some ways, we are benefactors, too. Spending all our non-sleeping time working so women can enjoy large breasts!
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Orato citizen correspondent Trina Ricketts weighs in on myfreeimplants.com in: