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

Well you’re being pedantic. Art gallery and museum. Similar things. But yes I doubt many young girls are going to them either.

we started tattoos on breasts made it more easier to deal with many gorgous tats
the man that did the ones i didnot have to do he married her and started business doing this if too poor do it for free also other tattoos,lip cancer built a new lip. built nipples illusions but they work well.illusions any scars coverups
one friend is on my couch she is one of those ladies she had a doulb freaked for a month till i showed what we could do

What a bore. Museums have families in them all the time. Go to the British, the natural history, the Tate modern, the Manchester museum (the ones I frequent most often) it’s impossible to not see children/young people. It’s hilarious that you now are an expert on how many girls experience art.

The exhibition has a recommended age of 14+ so the museum is not aiming it at young girls. If a parent is taking their child to the exhibition then their home environment is likely to be pro-trans anyway, unless you're suggesting someonemight be confused about the content of an exhibition called Gender Stories. Parents can make their own choices. Teens who are in the museum alone can make their own choices.

It’s a depiction, not a celebration.

Do you think Van Gogh’s self portrait with his ear bandaged is a celebration of self-harm? Or do you think it’s simply a picture of a thing that happened?

I live in the area - I haven't seen the exhibition yet, but am familiar with the space. It is in the public area of a museum/art gallery which is frequently visited by families - who might just be coming in to see non-art stuff, or to use the loos and the cafe. If it was in a specific gallery area then that would be absolutely fine - that's the way it used to work, with content flagged up on the door. People could then decide whether to enter/bring their children in.

Yes, it has a decent cafe, and you walk past that vile picture to reach it.

Fair challenge, but as others have said, where are the depictions of male groins with their penises chopped off?

Where are the depictions of the pain of regret felt by detransitioners?

Where are the depictions of the money being made by private clinics performing these (often poorly performed IMO ) unnecessary operations?

@ThisCraftyHelper I’ve always taken my DD to museums and art galleries. She’s good at art at school and interested in history. It’s something lots of families do, and most museums have lots of family and child-oriented activities. I haven’t been to a museum in decades that doesn’t?

I fear you have just succumbed to Godwin’s law. That’s embarrassing.

Are you equally careful to make sure young girls aren’t exposed to images of women who have had an elective breast augmentation, I.e. cutting open their breasts and putting potentially harmful silicone in to appear extra appealing to men? Shall we ban all bus posters etc of the Kardashians?

14 year old girls are young girls?

Plus they are the prime age for social contagions and anxieties about their bodies, eating disorders, etc.

I agree OP that it’s tastelessly glorifying something that for many women with breast cancer is a traumatic medical necessity, and celebrating a highly contentious ideology is a form of propagandist art.

Would all the “art is meant to be shocking” posters on this thread feel the same about, say, a museum having a celebratory exhibition about anti-vax ideology? Complete with quotes and material from Andrew Wakefield and Robert Kennedy about how being antivax is a progressive anti-establishment political movement? And if you wouldn’t find that okay, why not? And why is the ideology of body mutilation for girls any different to that?

I’m not embarrassed at all. I stand by what I said. It’s embarrassing to try and police content what you don’t agree with or believe in under the guise of “but what about the children” and unfortunately for you the UK is not a dictatorship.

Maybe you should go. Sounds like you might learn something to open your mind about this issue.
Thanks for letting us know though, I'm tempted, sounds great

How on earth would you make anti Vax art? 🙄

Well if you research there’s quite a lot. But there you go

I’ve seen plenty of exhibitions about ideological art, history of medicine, social history etc. Why do you think you couldn’t have an anti-vax exhibition?

How do you make “mastectomy art”?

I wouldn't call political cartoons art any more than I would Tracy Emin throwing dirty knickers on an unmade bed to be honest.

The galleries and museums near me are rammed full of families children, young teens with their friends.

This is normalising extreme self harm.

Would you be fine with naked bodies covered in other self harm scars on display like this!

(Ive seen a number of photos of very young women who’ve have their breasts sliced off and it’s not uncommon to be able to see all the other self harm scars they’re covered in.)

These young women are being utterly failed.

I’m going to stick me neck and and say that anyone who is fine with this is amoral at the very least if not outright evil.

Well you have kind of proved point that art is subjective haven’t you.

So don’t bring your kids there. 🤷‍♀️ Not everything is about you.

What?

Well I’ve seen self harm scars on people in real life, so no I wouldn’t be alarmed. Some people think tattoos, piercings and body modifications are self harm. So what’s the difference?