Come on Boris, you know it makes sense.
Showing posts with label 4th Plinth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 4th Plinth. Show all posts
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Beating Breast Cancer and the 4th Plinth
Come on Boris, you know it makes sense.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Show me your tits !!!!!
I am angry, really angry today. I feel like smashing my head as hard as I possibly can against the concrete wall in our kitchen. Why, you may ask? What has riled the normally placid and cheerful Rog T to such an extent?
Let me tell you what - The Vanessa Feltz show on BBC London this morning, thats what. Not the excellent Ms Feltz who is a superb radio talk show presenter, but the subject matter. You see they were discussing breast cancer and reconstructive surgery. I'm 47 years old and I doubt there's anyone my age who hasn't lost friends or family to this horrible disease.
Breast Cancer is always viewed as a "womens issue". Listening to the Feltz show, it did strike me that men are a big part of the problem. I doubt that any man would rather have a dead wife than a wife with a mastectomy. As such men should leave their loved ones in no doubt about this at all times. I think that this is one issue where women really don't understand how men think.
What really upsets me is the way we live in a society where women die because they are worried about their body image and so refuse to have surgery. I first became aware of this problem by accident. In 1981 as an 18 year old, I bowled into the culture centre in Stockholm. The entire length of a wall was covered in pictures of breasts. Some were perfectly formed, some were rather strange (to an 18 year old who's chief source of information about breasts was page 3 of the Sun). Some were horribly mutilated. This was my first day in Stockholm, and I naively thought that this was indicative of a Swedish obsession with all things sexual.
As I pondered this rather (to me) shocking display at Stockholms premier art venue, a rather attractive blond sidled up to me and said something completely unintelligable (in Swedish). I responded that I was English and couldn't understand. She replied "Oh, then you probably don't understand what this is all about then?". As I didn't I replied in the negative. My new found friend told me that it was part of a massive drive to raise awareness in women about breast cancer. She said that the pictures were all before and after shots of women who'd had reconstructive surgery following a mastectomy. The message was that there is no reason why women should fear the effects of the operation. As I was the first English teenager to see the installation, she was interested to canvass my views. I was shocked that women should refuse life saving surgery purely because they thought society may perceive them in any way as inferior. My own mother had a massive operation for cancer in 1970 and was very sensitive for a while about her scar. My Dad had told her that she looked better in a swimsuit than a bikini anyway and she should get on with her life.
Having spent a very interesting 45 minutes in conversation and being guided around the display, I realised that health education has huge importance. 28 Years later, in Great Britain, women are still more scared of being viewed as "odd" by society, than they are of dying a horrible and preventable death. As I contemplated the issue, I thought back to the Swedish display. I think the time has come to go on the offensive against this atrocious disease and get the message over that a mastectomy is not the end of anything for the vast majority of women that have one. It is just a ticket to a healthy life and the cosmetic issues can normally be addressed successfully.
What I'd like to do is recreate the exhibition I saw in Stockholm, but in a way that everyone would have to take notice. I'd like to plaster the 4th Plinth with pictures of successful cosmetic surgery following Mastectomies. I am completely serious in this suggestion. the British have been too prudish about too many things for too long and it has cost thousands of lives. Putting a display on the 4th Plinth would get huge publicity and might actually change a few peoples perception of the issue and save a few lives.If anyone knows Boris and how I get my display onto the plinth, please let me know.
It enrages me that we live in a society where page three is fine and dandy, but the results of life saving surgery are seen as grotesque and fearsome. This is a battle we really must win.
I think quite enough people have suffered, don't you?
Let me tell you what - The Vanessa Feltz show on BBC London this morning, thats what. Not the excellent Ms Feltz who is a superb radio talk show presenter, but the subject matter. You see they were discussing breast cancer and reconstructive surgery. I'm 47 years old and I doubt there's anyone my age who hasn't lost friends or family to this horrible disease.
Breast Cancer is always viewed as a "womens issue". Listening to the Feltz show, it did strike me that men are a big part of the problem. I doubt that any man would rather have a dead wife than a wife with a mastectomy. As such men should leave their loved ones in no doubt about this at all times. I think that this is one issue where women really don't understand how men think.
What really upsets me is the way we live in a society where women die because they are worried about their body image and so refuse to have surgery. I first became aware of this problem by accident. In 1981 as an 18 year old, I bowled into the culture centre in Stockholm. The entire length of a wall was covered in pictures of breasts. Some were perfectly formed, some were rather strange (to an 18 year old who's chief source of information about breasts was page 3 of the Sun). Some were horribly mutilated. This was my first day in Stockholm, and I naively thought that this was indicative of a Swedish obsession with all things sexual.
As I pondered this rather (to me) shocking display at Stockholms premier art venue, a rather attractive blond sidled up to me and said something completely unintelligable (in Swedish). I responded that I was English and couldn't understand. She replied "Oh, then you probably don't understand what this is all about then?". As I didn't I replied in the negative. My new found friend told me that it was part of a massive drive to raise awareness in women about breast cancer. She said that the pictures were all before and after shots of women who'd had reconstructive surgery following a mastectomy. The message was that there is no reason why women should fear the effects of the operation. As I was the first English teenager to see the installation, she was interested to canvass my views. I was shocked that women should refuse life saving surgery purely because they thought society may perceive them in any way as inferior. My own mother had a massive operation for cancer in 1970 and was very sensitive for a while about her scar. My Dad had told her that she looked better in a swimsuit than a bikini anyway and she should get on with her life.
Having spent a very interesting 45 minutes in conversation and being guided around the display, I realised that health education has huge importance. 28 Years later, in Great Britain, women are still more scared of being viewed as "odd" by society, than they are of dying a horrible and preventable death. As I contemplated the issue, I thought back to the Swedish display. I think the time has come to go on the offensive against this atrocious disease and get the message over that a mastectomy is not the end of anything for the vast majority of women that have one. It is just a ticket to a healthy life and the cosmetic issues can normally be addressed successfully.
What I'd like to do is recreate the exhibition I saw in Stockholm, but in a way that everyone would have to take notice. I'd like to plaster the 4th Plinth with pictures of successful cosmetic surgery following Mastectomies. I am completely serious in this suggestion. the British have been too prudish about too many things for too long and it has cost thousands of lives. Putting a display on the 4th Plinth would get huge publicity and might actually change a few peoples perception of the issue and save a few lives.If anyone knows Boris and how I get my display onto the plinth, please let me know.
It enrages me that we live in a society where page three is fine and dandy, but the results of life saving surgery are seen as grotesque and fearsome. This is a battle we really must win.
I think quite enough people have suffered, don't you?
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