I Don't Get It?
Recently, on a Community Board I read, someone posted a link to a site that displayed photographs of women in various stages of breast cancer. This site was showing the photographs submitted for a photography contest to draw attention to the fact that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (personally I am aware of it every month!)! Now don't get me wrong the photographs are very tastefully done, artistic, beautiful and thought provoking. I just don't get it?
Since I was diagnosed with this disease, yes I said it, breast cancer is a disease, I have done nothing but mentally and physically tried to kill it and the more successful I am at that the happier I am. It seems to me that Breast Cancer is glorified in ways. I can't tell you how many magazines, calendars and other publicly displayed photographs I have seen of scars on a womans chests where her breasts used to be, a woman posing with a bald head, even reconstructed breasts get their fair share of the attention. You know what none of that is attractive! You can't say a person looks at one of those pictures and says "Wow she's beautiful, I wish I was her"! If you are going to go this way with breast cancer, why not with others diseases/maladies? What month is National Amputee Month, honestly, would you buy a calendar with 12 months of photos of people with missing appendages? I doubt it. Exactly when is Colon Cancer going to get it's dues? Photos of people showing their abdominal scar, holding a length of diseased bowel that was resected from their gut and to top it off their new colostomy stoma! Not nearly as glamorous???
Yes, make people, especially those with breasts aware of the great importance of self examination, mamograms and regular doctor visits. Those things are the only way to prevent breast cancer, which is what every woman wants to do! Don't make the disease out to be some fantastical journey that makes a woman stronger and more powerful. I can list a million things I would have had happen to me to make me stronger, trust me breast cancer didn't even make the list! People think a woman can pose for a photo like that because she is so strong from her journey, the fact of the matter is the only reason she can pose like that is because she is used to seeing herself that way and once you get used to it you adjust, as you would if you lost an arm or a leg. I feel many of these companies Este Lauder, Proctor and Gamble and Johnson and Johnson to name a few, glorify this disease to ultimately turn a profit. I know, I know my cynicism is showing but I can't help it. Yes, stress the importance of prevention, even more so donate money to help develop a cure for the damn disease but please don't make it out to be some kind of gift that a woman gets that magically seems to make her strong and powerful because nothing could be further from the truth. The first thing every woman diagnosed with breast cancer becomes is scared and just because she gets used to all the things that happen to her in the process that fact never goes away.
Here is a link to the site that set this rant in motion. In no way do I slight any of the artists or models involved, they do what they do to ultimately draw attention to the disease to educate people, again I just don't get the glorification surrounding it!
http://www.pinkribbonaward.nl/2006/?page_id=139
Stand back and watch me shine!
Since I was diagnosed with this disease, yes I said it, breast cancer is a disease, I have done nothing but mentally and physically tried to kill it and the more successful I am at that the happier I am. It seems to me that Breast Cancer is glorified in ways. I can't tell you how many magazines, calendars and other publicly displayed photographs I have seen of scars on a womans chests where her breasts used to be, a woman posing with a bald head, even reconstructed breasts get their fair share of the attention. You know what none of that is attractive! You can't say a person looks at one of those pictures and says "Wow she's beautiful, I wish I was her"! If you are going to go this way with breast cancer, why not with others diseases/maladies? What month is National Amputee Month, honestly, would you buy a calendar with 12 months of photos of people with missing appendages? I doubt it. Exactly when is Colon Cancer going to get it's dues? Photos of people showing their abdominal scar, holding a length of diseased bowel that was resected from their gut and to top it off their new colostomy stoma! Not nearly as glamorous???
Yes, make people, especially those with breasts aware of the great importance of self examination, mamograms and regular doctor visits. Those things are the only way to prevent breast cancer, which is what every woman wants to do! Don't make the disease out to be some fantastical journey that makes a woman stronger and more powerful. I can list a million things I would have had happen to me to make me stronger, trust me breast cancer didn't even make the list! People think a woman can pose for a photo like that because she is so strong from her journey, the fact of the matter is the only reason she can pose like that is because she is used to seeing herself that way and once you get used to it you adjust, as you would if you lost an arm or a leg. I feel many of these companies Este Lauder, Proctor and Gamble and Johnson and Johnson to name a few, glorify this disease to ultimately turn a profit. I know, I know my cynicism is showing but I can't help it. Yes, stress the importance of prevention, even more so donate money to help develop a cure for the damn disease but please don't make it out to be some kind of gift that a woman gets that magically seems to make her strong and powerful because nothing could be further from the truth. The first thing every woman diagnosed with breast cancer becomes is scared and just because she gets used to all the things that happen to her in the process that fact never goes away.
Here is a link to the site that set this rant in motion. In no way do I slight any of the artists or models involved, they do what they do to ultimately draw attention to the disease to educate people, again I just don't get the glorification surrounding it!
http://www.pinkribbonaward.nl/2006/?page_id=139
Stand back and watch me shine!
posted by Meg at 1:39 PM
6 Comments:
I don't think I'd ever thought of it before ( probably like many fortunate people so far I've never had to), but reading your blog I see your sense. I know I would NEVER put any disease/disablement on a list of things to make me a stronger person! Just living your life with all it's twists and turns will do that. Sadly the big companies are there to make themselves big money, even though they do provide us with some great products. All women have their own inherant beauty and strength, scars or no scars. So yes, I agree with you, raise awareness and funds and try to be positive or do whatever it takes but don't lets believe it's glamorous in any way.
Oh I forgot to say.........
keep on shining!
jill
I don't like it. It's kinda sad and....awful.
Hi Meg,
I respect your opinion about the Pink Ribbon campaign and the photography competiton organized by the Dutch division. Just a little additional background information about my photo. The title is "The Graces", and it's a 2006-version of this classic, Greek mythological theme. The Greek Graces were supposed to be the three daughters of the supreme god Zeus. They displayed the charachteristics beauty, mirth and good cheer. But originally, during the pre-Greek era, they were fertility goddesses (!). Now what I wanted to show is that beauty etc. is not a matter of physical perfection but an inner expression. Whether that is derived from going through harsh experiences or from other sources is of less importance. Besides, fertility was and often still is associated with breasts. So this phot is meant to be a confrontation for the viewer: 1) beauty comes from within 2) todays Graces might miss that primal element of the fertility godesses. Participants of the competition were required to give a substantial motivation for their submission. I also explained this to my three models and because they were enthousiastic about my idea i.e. could identify with it, they decided to participate. They are all very of proud of the result, the photo as well as selection of it for the exhibition. One of the told me "You know, I considered whether I should pose for the photo. But I decided to do so because I've got nothing to hide. This is how I am today. My relatives, colleagues, friends etc. know about my disease, have seen me go through it, have seen me bald". An other one (who misses both breasts) wrote me literally in an email:"For me, participating (in the photoshoot-GvB) was again another step in my acceptation of my
mutilated body and also a confirmation that my own femininity for me is not in my breasts." Recently a benefit magazine called "Pink Ribbon" was published, proceeds of sale go to research and preventive projects, showing models and wellknown Dutch women in beautiful designer dresses, designed for this occasion, and publishing other bright-side-of-life entertainment. It raised a lot of criticism by women who had or are still having breastcancer, because the appraoch of the editors hurt them. At the same time most feedback about the photo exhibition, from the same group of women, is that they appreciate the "honest" pictures most, also because these will be most effective in raising awareness, especially among young women who still believe that breastcancer is an "old women's disease". In the case of my photo I heard various comments that viewers are first attracted by the eyes and faces i.e. teh expression of my "models" and only later, lowering their view, discover that something is missing...oh....their breasts... Again, everybody can have her/his own opinion about the photo competition. My intention to participate was personal experience (my stepmother had breastcancer, and I was suspected haveing it in 1999- I'v been under medical monitoring for two years), my feeling that raising awareness is required plus the motivation behind most of my photography projects: change people's perception about issues. I hope it will work !
Regards, wish you all the best, and hope to see you again soon on some Who-occasion !
Gitta van Buuren
Meg,
Hello! As everyone who visits you, I feel genuinely informed. I'm grateful too for feedback from the otherwise voiceless images. I understand your side but from my prospective. I'm a little immediately skewed by the Lauder name--so associated with outer beauty. But people respond to images and I believe, once I get past my limited perspective--limited in that I haven't been diagnosed so far and limited by my bias in the face of 'Lauder'--I can see the reaches to convey inner wholeness, a joy for living.
I agree other images such as those of amputees are not being shown on calendars, but they could be given the soldiering number of them of late.
Sometimes we need to see to feel informed: we can survive the disease, we can feel or appear whole, we can receive the embrace of life, especially when awareness for the need for further research, acquired through dollars (private donations are by and far the primary dollar source for breast cancer research) and only through dollars (or euros or whichever; hard cash), continues.
Shocking for me to believe is that paps are not covered by graduate student health insurance policies. FYI. Seems another bias, as is federal funding for breast cancer research.
Women have come far to support the cause through awareness. Without we would be without.
I guess that's what I'm saying, and with that I only want you to shine.
as ever,
ginab
Really good points you have here. Certianly advertising and PR gets carried away. So often the results are transparent, I wonder if they really think as a public are so gullable... then again maybe we are for the most part. I'm not sure about that sometimes.
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