Glorifying double mastectomies - museum exhibition

[BristolW0man]

Artwork on prominent display that glorifies double mastectomies - part of 'Gender Stories' exhibition. This in Bristol's free of charge museum, popular with families and school trips. All funded with the public purse via National Lottery and Arts Council England.

I don't think this should be on display for all to see (different if it's a separate area, but this is in the main hall of the museum) and I certainly don't think public money should be paying for it. AIBU?

https://x.com/JamesEsses/status/1928346229181739240

I am absolutely disgusted 🤬 The idea of parading mastectomy scars as a lifestyle choice, as something for young women to aspire to!

If it was about cancer and dealt with in a sympathetic way, I would feel very differently about this, but I am appalled at the casual way in which Bristol Museum are treating this subject. Unnecessary, irreparable and permanently damaging surgery being endorsed by a council and it’s the public paying for it.

Shameful, absolutely shameful.😢

Just think, it's funded by Arts Council as well

I think it’s dangerous to start policing any kind of art. Yes, some people will have an issue with it but that is the case with most art, it’s subjective. Reminds me of that episode in The Simpsons about the Michaelangelo’s David outrage.

So you think it's acceptable to celebrate women having their breasts removed?
Because it's Art

If we are not going to police art, perhaps we can keep images that harm girls away from children. There is a mastectomy image in the atrium.

Art simply depicts things to garner a reaction - it doesn’t celebrate or glorify, that’s your reaction. It’s doing what it’s supposed to.
It is not an advertisement or promotion.

Art of war, for instance, depicts war and can generate feelings of anguish, pain or disgust, but it’s not glorifying war.

You think all girls and children are going to come to harm and run and cut off their own breasts after seeing this? Children should know what a mastectomy is, many women and men have to go through this procedure to save their lives. What about art that depicts the naked body? Is that harming children? Or war or religion?
The beautiful David btw.

You're being deliberately obtuse.
This is a celebration of young women following a weird ideology and having their breasts removed.
If you genuinely believe there is a parallel between this and michaelangelo's David you must be pretty dense.

Art simply depicts things to garner a reaction - it doesn’t celebrate or glorify, that’s your reaction.
If this is the case , why the need for the script next to it?

It's disgraceful.

Is it just women's mutilated bodies they are displaying in this 'art display' or are they also glorifying orchiectomy and penis removal?

This is not art it's propaganda.

You’re being deliberately ignorant and bigoted. You may think it’s a weird ideology, but your opinion is not fact. You can’t seem to comprehend that art is subjective my dear. You might not like it or agree with it but you’re playing right into the artist’s hands by having such a strong reaction. Not everything is glorified. You must be pretty dense not to get that.

What I think is that young girls are going to think it’s a normal thing to cut off your healthy breasts if you “feel like a boy”, and more than that, people will tell you “you are loved”. Perhaps people who don’t really love them.

Amputating healthy body parts, (especially those that may have otherwise one day been used to feed their own child) as a “treatment” for whatever it is these girls and women feel is not a healthy way to go about resolving their feelings.

Detransitioner stories may help you understand what’s going on here.

So it's art? It looks like propaganda to me.
And you really don't understand that it's a celebration of women having healthy breasts amputated?

If you don't want children to be exposed to 'shocking' bodies/images then don't take them to a museum.

Whether you like it or not there are trans men out there who have gone through this procedure and yes, they are loved. Maybe they're all wrong and you're right, and they shouldn't have done it. But they do exist, they're all adults, as children can't have this surgery, and at least among the 3 people that I know personally who have done it, they are now much happier in their skin. Good for them.

'You are loved'. What a statement to get upset about.

Well you can’t generalise all young girls, can you? Do you have data/percentage of girls that think this is normal? You can think that about anything? Not all young boys think Andrew Tate is great model. All Americans think Trump is amazing? Policing anything will only make people look elsewhere for it. Same thing is happening in America with banning abortions.

I am not against children seeing ‘shocking’ bodies or images per se (though I am in favour of eg the Holocaust section at Imperial War Museum having a recommended minimum age rating).

What I am against is trans ideology being celebrated, especially in this environment where children are visiting. ‘Trans’ is part of a contested belief system that has no basis in science, instead appealing to outdated stereotypes. It harms women and children especially.

Well I wonder if I can find that exhibition on FGM with plasticine mutilated female genitals. Art? For some of the people on this thread maybe.

I find it troubling and upsetting. I think a lot of women who have had a mastectomy or have lost a mother or sister to breast cancer may also feel upset by it.

I mean. I might make an exhibition about bleeding dicks, and call it art, however people should be allowed to know what they are walking into before they actually do.
the fact that some posters are so keen on defending this says a lot about the fact that their reasons might not be entirely ‘artistic’. Funny how it’s never about trans vaginas but female bodies can be consumed in all their forms, and the consumption is paid for by government-related bodies.

Speaking as someone who is very close to a non-binary young adult who chose to have a double mastectomy at the age of 19 following nearly a decade of physical and emotional pain binding themselves and hating the skin they lived in, I can agree that we have never seen it as art. We have only ever seen it as a medical necessity that stopped them from taking their own life.

I’m very sorry to hear of the pain your family member/friend has been through, however the narrative you are pushing has been criticised by Professor Louis Appleby, the British psychiatrist who leads the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England.

I’m sorry that this person you are close to hated her body so much from such a young age. Typically this would indicate some sort of trauma/abuse/neglect, was that the case for her?

Well op admitted they are against trans ideology so this isn’t about art is it?

It’s about art promoting/normalising a harmful ideology.

How many young girls do you think are actually going to art galleries? Not many.

It’s not an art gallery, it’s a museum that is very popular with families - has a play area etc.

Please read the OP.