Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
Yes! Thank god they actually mentioned men in breast cancer awareness. It may be less likely but a lot of men die because they don’t think they can get it.
Whenever I see breast cancer awareness campaigns that sexualize breasts/place the importance of breasts over the person suffering from breast cancer I remember this story I read on a cancer forum of a woman who had a double mastectomy and how a little after she got dropped off by her husband at the clinic for a checkup and he never came to pick her up, and how she eventually took a cab home and he had taken all his things and just LEFT
and multiple stories from other women who had mastectomies and how their husbands either left them, cheated on them, or were no longer attracted to them because they didn’t have a breast/breasts anymore. And that shit makes me so mad. You can argue all you want that they’re isolated cases but this is what happens when you put the importance on the sexualization of breasts over the well being of the survivor. The person suffering from cancer is ALWAYS, ALWAYS going to be more important. Treatment for cancer is so fucking difficult, it’s both physically and psychologically torturous and the fact that these people survived these ordeals only to deal with this misogynistic dehumanizing shit makes me want to fucking fight everyone. It makes me so goddamn mad.
It’s breast cancer awareness month so I’m bringing this back. Fuck your “save the tata’s” shirt; save, support, and love the people fighting this awful disease. They are so beautiful and so, so important and deserving with or without breasts.
Not only is it true, it gets worse. The Susan G Komen For The Cure Foundation has actually successfully sued “competing” charities, because (paraphrasing) their “message or branding was infringing.”
You read that correctly: they took money that people had donated to cure cancer, and hired attorneys with it, to sue ANOTHER group of people trying to find a cure for cancer, who, in turn, had to us their donated money to hire their own legal counsel to defend themselves.
It’s that time of year again, please remember Komen is the actual worst
Komen For The Cure is pretty much awful.
My mother died in 1996 from breast cancer. Most cancer charities are scams, in that people throw fancy parties and get rich off them and very little money goes into research or support for patients. Here are some vetted cancer charities that get good scores on Charity Navigator and pay medical expenses or fund research:
Breast cancer check suggestions always confuse me “check for any lumps” now “check for any dimples”.
Like, my tits seem to be made exclusively of lumps and dimples so the fuck am I meant to do??
SAME I’m in a constant state of anxiety regarding my boobs because they’re not “ideal” and therefor a lot of the most common self-check conditions are my norm.
The main thing is to know your boobs, I guess. If anything is off - if you notice new lumps, or dimples, or unusual tenderness or rashes or discharge etc etc - that’s the main thing. And doing regular self-checks gets you super familiar with your own body, so it’s easier to notice when/if something unusual happens.
Regular doctor visits and annual exams are good, too. For folks who can do that, of course.
Boob lumps are normal, self-check is to get to know your boobage so that if you do get an abnormality, you’ll hopefully notices. A lot of lumps are either fatty tissue deposits or parts of milk glands called lobules and you should get to know how they feel in your boob.
The most common places for breast cancer are the tail of the breast and the armpit, then behind the nipple.
It’s changes to the boob that you need to worry about:
Lumps that feel hard like a pebble and do not hurt or feel tender when you squish them.
Dimpling that looks like orange peel.
Sudden change in size in one or both breasts, unrelated to menstrual cycle
Discharge, esp. if it’s bloody, from either or both nipples.
Nipple rash
Sudden nipple inversion
Not all breast lumps/abnormalities are cancerous, but you should always get them checked out by a doctor anyway.
OKAY LISTEN UP BECAUSE THERE IS SOMETHING SUPER IMPORTANT ABOUT THIS CAMPAIGN AND MOST OF YOU PROBABLY DON’T KNOW
It’s the inclusion of Storm. (Storm? Pretty sure that’s Storm.) And in a way where, yes, representation saves lives.
See, here’s a weird medical fact: black women are more likely to get breast cancer and nobody knows why. It’s a medical mystery. Now, I want you to do a fun exercise: tell me the last time you saw a breast cancer awareness campaign that included black women. Go on, I’ll wait. Speaking as someone active with the cause whose aunt is even more active with the cause, here’s my answer: In eight years of working for awareness across four states, I have never seen a single black woman in any breast cancer campaign. Ever.
Black women are also more likely to die of breast cancer because they’re less likely to catch it early. That’s not genetics, that’s math. The sooner you begin treatment, the better your prognosis. Black women are less likely to know how to do self-exams and because of the socioeconomic divide, less likely to see an OB/GYN annually. And they’re ignored by awareness campaigns.
Tell your black friends. And spread this like wildfire. Because they are more at risk than you are.
This is honestly the best poster I have found in a while supporting breast cancer awareness. I am honestly so sick of seeing, “set the tatas free” and “save the boobies”. There is no reason in hell a life threatening, life ruining disease should be sexualized. “Don’t wear a bra day,” go fuck yourselves. You’re not saving a pair of tits, you’re saving the entire package: mind, body, and soul included. Women are not just a pair of breasts.
ALT
