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
Excellently written as always! Time to hunker down for the shit storm this is about to stir up though.
ReplyDeleteI think people see this argument and immediately want to jump to thinking that you are against the cause. As a woman who has a tumor in her breast (thankfully benign, but I still have to get it checked every 6 months), I fully encourage everyone to check themselves and go to the doctor for a yearly physical!
It frustrates me to see women hiding behind such a necessary cause to get attention. I'm an attention whore exhibitionist, but I've never tried to hide that fact. I hope that those who read this can put aside jumping to the defensive and instead take an objective look.
In the end, to each her own.
I couldn't agree more. Once upon a time, I had boobs and cleavage popping up all over the place in my twitter feed and it took a lot of convincing to realize this was supposed to be in support of breast cancer (as opposed to, say, showing cleavage for the sake of being able to do so.)
ReplyDeleteI'm all for supporting a good cause, but a hashtag and a cleavage shot do not a reputable campaign make.
I am humbled and sufficiently smacked on the hand. Very well stated. My thoughts mirror those of TAP and Pauline. Thank you for your perspective.
ReplyDeleteBring on the shit storm!
Hello PW!
ReplyDeleteI am (I think( one of the women you spoke of that had that discussion about #boobiewed last year. I used to avoid twitter on Wednesdays because of all of the pictures of the women participating. I even deleted my twitter account once if you remember I told you because of it all. Seeing healthy women's tits out and watching them get all this glory and compliments hurt me. I cried over it. I lost my left breast only 3 years before the whole #boobiewed thing started and it was still too close for me to deal with. Breast cancer survivors didn't ask for this to have people flashing followers once a week. You are really right when you say that they are shoving the fact that they have two healthy breasts in our faces, it still hurts to see that. I ask that people who read your blog try to take into consideration how others feel.
We are not an excuse to show off your damn tits!
Thank you again for putting this up (a year late! +smacks+) and for trying to do something about it :)
I must say you make a VERY convincing case, and I am inclined to agree. In a roundabout way, this post reminds me of something I read recently on a sports blog or message board about how it's absurd that the NFL gives a full month to breast cancer awareness, but one weekend to recognize our troops. But God forbid that anyone speaks out about it for fear of being though of as being insensitive to breast cancer patients. Nor am I saying that one group is more important than another. But it seems to me that proper perspective is greatly lacking.
ReplyDeleteOk i just read your blog, and considering i started #BoobieWed and i have breast cancer, and am currently undergoing radiation for it, the one thing i dont think it is, is insenitive to women with breast cancer. I learned through the years of doing this that by not putting off my mammogram i saved my life and gave others a reason to self exam and are showing them along my journey that theres nothing wrong with our message.oh and you want to see a cancerous breast and one going through radiation here you go. Its my journey. Breast cancer doesnt have to be visible or a lump to still be cancer. http://bit.ly/q6NEDC #BoobieWed You dont have to like how we educate others, including men and their breast cancer risks, But we are not going to stop. Im proud of Boobie Wednesday, and everytime i hear someone say because of us they caught a lump or had a mammogram, it just strenghtens our goal.
ReplyDeleteI must be an ignorant soul. I never even knew about #boobiewed. Yet I did promote the Pink Twibbon for a bit, and still have a Ribbon my FB in support of friends.
ReplyDeleteI am an adult star, I do at times flaunt my goods on Tues, but to take over a day that would IS as important as Breast Cancer Awareness, is shameful, inconsiderate and just plain disrespectful.
I am glad that you call people on things and stand up for those who may not have the voice to do so for themselves. Kudos as always.
This is a great post. I commend you on writing it. It is well written and gets the point across very well. You have said what I am sure many have thought but are not brave enough to say it themselve.
ReplyDeleteI have to be honest and admit that I have posted pictures on Wednesdays myself (not completely bare). However, it finally hit me one day...all I could think of was the women who have suffered this terrible disease. Its like dangling meat in front of a lion and not letting him have it. It isnt fair.
This past October on Wednesdays I did exactly what you have suggested. I posted pictures of women and men checking their breasts, pink ribbons, etc. I even found a beautiful picture of a woman who had her breasts removed and instead of having them reconstructed she had a beautiful tattoo put in their place.
There are still days I need/want the attention and post pics. However, those days are not necessarily on Wednesday and I do NOT do it anymore for Breast Cancer Awareness.
Thank you for your post.
that was fucking brilliant!! since my mom has had cancer 5 times & my sister british puke of a husband left her whilst she was undergoing tests for lumps in her left breast, i am a full advocate for breast cancer awareness.
ReplyDeletefor a long long time, on #boobiewed i put up a pink ribbon .. its what its all about. many many women on twitter who have no "close calls, it runs in the family issues" are simply putting up their, usually, fake racks.
i get checked yearly, and thank god every time my results are clear.
and i still wont post my real boobs on twitter, ever. because really what it comes down to is a cry for attention. and to those women who have lost a breast or died & left family behind, my heart cries out for them.
i apprecaite your views, your always spot on. keep it up. a twitter follower.