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

Transgender ideology has many of the markers of a cult, yes.

So, not saying that everyone who calls themselves ‘trans’ is in a cult but there are gender identity believers who do behave like cult members.

@Silverbelles self- gratification is the incorrect word but what is actually wrong is allowing people to mutilate themselves because they have mental health issues.

Explain how it's not when it a manmade concept, based on belief and requires followers to exist?
I don't believe gender exists.

Sure.

I don't believe gender exists

Good for you! That doesn't mean transgender people aren't real. I don't believe in God, that doesn't mean Christians aren't real.

Being transgender fails being a cult at the first hurdle. To be a cult a group must have a revered leader that is worshipped by all of the cults members who is in charge of the cult and everyone in it. It also must have a religious or spiritual belief system, usually invented by it's leader. That is literally the definition of a cult. It's honestly a silly argument.

They are real women and men, but define the trans part factually?

Do you have anything enlightening or even relevant to say about the exhibition from an artistic or cultural point of view or are you just sticking with the 'its a recruitment drive for a cult'' bullshit?

I'm not interested in having the same old debate with you that's been going round in circles for a decade here.

The main (only?) thing that goes round in circles is trans ideology definition of ‘woman’ and ‘man’.

Like every other believer you fail to define what ‘trans’ is in a way that is coherent.

Same debate as you do not have an answer.

I could you lot defending this are crazy. They could have done a picture depicting a skinny girl throwing up in a toilet and by your thinking you'd have been supporting it.

Going back to the picture - I'm curious to know what's going on with all the others depicted above, like, in the balcony. Does anyone know?

No answer from you either then.

I asked the question.

I've asked you several. You have answered none. It's like banging my head against a brick wall.

Ok, easy, no gender isn't real and people with dysphoria need mental health.
You answer mine. Define trans?

You're close to getting it. Trans people can exist without gender being real in the same way that Christians can exist without God being real.

Trans fits the description of a cult in every way except there being one overall leader. It is a belief system built around the central principle that everyone has a gender identity and that it is your gender identity rather than your sex that makes you a man/woman/other.

If you don't believe in gender identity then it is no more real than any other religious belief you do not share.

Where it crosses over from belief into cult is in the way that non-believers are treated.

I went this afternoon.
Yes, downstairs in the main foyer (which everyone goes through) the large image that we've all seen, mirrored on the opposite wall.
In the middle, an A4 size notice with some guff about the series of pictures in the upper gallery being about the artist's journey. They go all round the walls of the upper floor gallery.
I'm afraid that my impressions of the 'art' were coloured by the image on X, posted by the artist holding a baseball bat with 'terf toy'carved on to it. The caption 'You are loved' is obviously not inclusive.
Totally inexplicable to me, but then I'm an old bigot who just has to pay for this c**p.
No other interpretation, just a smug little notice at the entrance reminding viewers of the exhibition not to be rude to the staff about it.

What was all the other art/paintings of?

I'm interested what was actually in the exhibition and live too daraway.

Lol. No, that's the not one of the questions I asked and you failed to answer. These are the questions you are refusing to answer, to rejig your memory.

Do you have anything enlightening or even relevant to say about the exhibition from an artistic or cultural point of view or are you just sticking with the 'its a recruitment drive for a cult'' bullshit?

Being transgender fails being a cult at the first hurdle. To be a cult a group must have a revered leader that is worshipped by all of the cults members who is in charge of the cult and everyone in it. It also must have a religious or spiritual belief system, usually invented by it's leader. That is literally the definition of a cult. It's honestly a silly argument.

Technically the second is a statement but you aren't addressing it.

You aren't addressing any of the points that are counting your arguments, you're just throwing out stroppy one liners. It's hardly an equal debate.

You know what transgender is. It's identifying as the opposite sex to which you were born. You don't believe in it, fine, but don't pretend you don't know what it is. You know what it is, you just don't like it.

If it fits the bill in all ways but one it doesn't fit the bill does it. There's no leader. And it's not a religion due to there being no deity or higher power involved. Therefore not a cult.

Trying to call it a cult is intellectually disengeuous and trying to incite moral panic, as stated earlier.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult

According to this cults often have a charismatic leader but it doesn't seem to be a necessary criterion.

And cults can be formed around a philosophical belief, which is what this is. It doesn't have to be a deity.

The behaviour of trans believers is incredibly similar to the behaviour of a typical cult, in particular the way they indoctrinate children and try to isolate them from their loved ones, and the way they excommunicate and attempt to discredit former members who call them out on their manipulative bullshit. The chanting of meaningless mantras ("trans women are women", "trans rights are human rights") is pretty classic too.

There’s no set “definition” of a cult. Plenty of religious sects might be called cults without a leader as such. People who adhere to any fervent belief system with no evidence could be and are often likened to a cult.

There’s an awful lot of trying to ringfence this stuff off from other analogies that you’re doing, @Silverbelles; but the increasingly fervent attempt to do so, plus to ignore or dismiss similar issues, is actually less rather than more convincing. Celebratory pictures of mastectomies might very well be really very similar to, for example, the kinds of celebratory “thinspo” that pro-ana images represent. Yet you are SO determined to try to dismiss this, and any aspect of social contagion, that the parallels are even more evident!

It's glorification of dysphoria not being supported through mental health.
It's a cult.
What is identifying as the opposite sex?

Can you help explain if Eddie Izzzard, Jonathon Willoughby and Imane Khalif are in the group or not?
They are all men who know they are men, but they act differently in different circumstances and times of their lives - how can this be?

Do you have anything enlightening or even relevant to say about the exhibition from an artistic or cultural point of view
I'm dreadfully sorry but no.
That's it.
The smaller pictures on the upper gallery are variations on the big pictures. No explanation beyond the small notice on the ground floor.
I'm sure that some poster who meets your higher standards of reportage will be able to visit.

You still haven't actually justified or convinced many posters here that the pictures are "celebratory" or "glorifying mastectomies".

They are the I assume self portraits depicting the journey the artist has been on. It is a painting of a lived experience. Like the paintings of many other artists who have been through adversity.