Well, since this is my pulpit.... it is high time for this sermon.
Soon after I joined twitter about 2 1/2 years ago, I noticed Wednesdays were a day for an odd event. I saw breasts all over in my stream unabashedly posted in avatars. Being a hot-blooded American heterosexual male I surely enjoyed the free "peek". Many are not even covered with clothes and just letting it all hang out.
If you have read anything I have written or follow me on twitter I stoically stand for the empowerment of women. I believe that women are oppressed not so much by the external world (the media, business environments, men at large) but also by internalizing the zeitgeist of our modern society. True the external subjugations exist, but at base level you can choose not to buy into it all. As with anything else, you choose your own beliefs and your own fate in life.
The problem is that what may have began as a helpful way of promoting disease awareness has become a selfish act of narcissistic flagellation by others. I have to wonder if the women participating in this event have stopped to think how insensitive it truly is to those who have suffered from breast cancer. In essence you are taking your healthy set of knockers and displaying them for adulation in the name of a awareness despite the fact that women are losing these same breasts by the moment. The women who are participating might as well wait outside a cancer clinic and motorboat the souls that are leaving.
Let me be clear: I am NOT AGAINST Breast Cancer Awareness. It saves lives when people are aware and go and have mammograms done! However, why not instead put up an avatar of a mammogram? Or perhaps a pink ribbon?
Why not a picture of a cancerous breast? Oh that would be distasteful right? As is promoting yourself using the survivors of a terminal disease. Showing your goods off in that event to garner attention for yourself is not only condemnable but disgusting. It is unacceptable.
When I brought this up originally as a subject of discussion, amongst the people that disagreed with me, there were two who happened to agree. I cite these two bold and courageous women (whom I will not name here) because they were Breast Cancer survivors. Both these women had issues with it prior and thought they were being too sensitive on the subject. Imagine that will you? A Breast Cancer survivor keeping SILENT because they disagree and are fearful that there may be something wrong with them. They both felt it an affront that healthy women would shove their tits in their faces, and the faces of other survivors. Essentially flaunting the fact that they haven't been stricken. That they still have both of their breasts.
This, of course, made me angry. My anger fell on deaf ears and #boobiewed in it's current form continues to this day. have no issue with the person or persons who are the original promoters as they themselves do not participate for their own personal reasons. I take issue with those who use it as an EXCUSE to post their breasts for admiration and attention.
If you want to show off and have exhibitionist tendencies, become an adult film star! They are more respectable as they do not pretend it is anything other than it is. Using a disease, a potentially fatal disease that destroys lives and causes emotional duress for your own personal gain is fucking reprehensible. Often, I do not even SEE mention of a mammogram, or anything to infer that it is due to #boobiewed other than a pair of tits in an avatar. I rarely see, but on occasion, a reference or link to the American Cancer Society.
If you want to show your tits, you do not need such a translucent excuse. Just show your tits and be proud of them! Revel in the fact that people enjoy your body and let it empower you. Do it honestly and on any day of the week. To use #boobiewed to do so just broadcasts your insecurities to the world. Especially to men, yes darlings we see right through that and are automatically thinking "daddy issues" or "she only does this once a week, shes reserved and not comfortable with her body enough to do it for funs sake".
Lastly, there are plenty of links you can put up during the day, ribbons you can wear or attach to your avatar, or stories to find of survivors to promote Breast Cancer Awareness with the hashtag added #boobiewed in your stream or on your blog. There are a million ways to encourage people and inform people. Showing off your yams and pretending you are helping a good cause should not be one of them. If it is, then you truly need to sit down with a therapist and discuss your inferiority complex.
For more information and people who are truly fighting for the cause and a cure please visit the following:
The Breast Cancer Society
http://www.breastcancersociety.org/
The National Breast Cancer Foundation
http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/
Susan G. Komen for the Cure
http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/
*Note: you will not find scantily clad women or pictures of full frontal nude breasts on those sites anywhere..... I wonder why?
~PW
