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

How do you know it is propaganda? Have you seen it?

That’s utterly ridiculous. My mum had a mastectomy when I was 4 and still having baths with her. There is a whole big wide world out there full of scary things, it’s our job to teach our children as much as we can in a safe environment where they can ask questions. Sheltering them from everything doesn’t stop them learning of them, it just takes the context in which they do out of your control

There's an enormous difference between children understanding masectomies as a result of disease, and teaching them that it's an acceptable response to mental illness.

I think it’s arty people saying bore off boring women.
Huge numbers of women battling cancer is not as glamorous and cool.

I don’t ever want to have to “explain” to a child that some women are treated for their self-loathing by having healthy body parts sliced off, and that anyone thinks this is a good idea.

This

Do you not think they’ll ever work it out by themselves? Who would you prefer they hear it from?

Small children don’t need to know this at all. Older children can learn it from their parents (though a society where this needs to be explained to children ever is a failed society). No one needs to have this normalised, celebrated or glorified. It’s extreme self harm.

Would you think anorexia being turned into art and displayed in this manner acceptable?

What strikes me is that many girls have a tough time going through puberty and accepting changes in their bodies.

By the age of 12 I had quite big breasts and was pretty horrified by them throughout my teens. If someone had told me at the time that my horror could be a signal that I was 'really a boy' and I could fix it all by getting rid of them, I might have believed that. But what I was struggling with was the process of growing up and becoming sexually desirable to men before I knew how to deal with that.

So I worry about this as a motivator. Removing healthy body parts is an extraordinary response to mental distress. I feel there should be much more scrutiny of what's going on here.

But the exhibition is aimed at 14+, so you would imagine any responsible parent would be having conversations with their children about all sorts of things, including this by then. If not, their children would definitely be aware by this age anyway from social media and peers. Anorexia, self harm, war, murder, dv, all sorts of things are turned into art. And they are all things i have talked to my kids about. Art is a useful tool for opening up conversations about topics. You don’t have to agree with the artists point of view to discuss it

Would you think anorexia being turned into art and displayed in this manner acceptable?

Honestly, I wouldn't put it past certain sections of society to do this.

Silver the issue with the mural is that it is not within the separate exhibition, which you say is marked 14+ and people can choose whether or not to visit. I don't have any problem with that (although there are questions about which political art is publicly funded and which isn't). It is in the main atrium, a well-loved child-friendly place for generations of Bristolians. There is no other way into the museum. Many people bring their kids just to hang out in this area, and there are primary and secondary school class visits every schoolday. I am very disappointed that the museum gave this so little thought.

Some of these images are in the main part of the gallery so not restricted to those attending the exhibition. The fact that a decision was made to put these images up for all to see tells me this is a move on the part of activists to normalise this extreme self harm.

No, me neither, but that doesn’t seem to have happened.

As per usual, when trans walks in through the door every other consideration flies out of the window.

The images in that part of the building are abstract enough that a younger child with no awareness of mastectomies would either not notice, or you could simply say you’re not sure what they are about if you didn’t want to discuss it with them. Children old enough to understand are old enough to have that discussion with

They’re not that abstract. But I’m not not sneaking this into public places on the basis of “children won’t know what it’s they’re looking at” is a position I’d be prepared to back.

It is absolutely normalising this - FFS this kind of imagery appears in picture books for pre-schoolers!

I’d be interested to hear how you would discuss this with a 10 year old.

I have discussed it with my ten year old. I can’t remember and won’t bore you with every word that was spoken but yes, we have talked about how some people feel they are born in the wrong bodies and have operations to change them. We went to the IWM last week and had lots of conversations about war - I think that’s a much more terrifying concept as it’s out of one’s control. But it happens, as does body modification, and I want my children to be prepared for the world they will inhabit when I’m not by their side to guide them through their every day

we have talked about how some people feel they are born in the wrong bodies and have operations to change them

If my mother had had that conversation with me aged 10, I can completely see how I would have interpreted the changes of puberty through that lens and been been queuing up for an operation to rid me of my breasts later in my teens.

And that would have been a disastrous take, because I was struggling with normal bodily change. I was not 'born in the wrong body' and surgery would not have been the answer.

Im not sure when you were a teen, but teens now are definitely aware of this whether their parents talk about it or not. At least if they can talk to their parents about it, their parents can explain the potential impact of doing so. If you don’t like the narratives being presented through social media etc, it’s even more important to have these discussions with your kids

I'm not saying the narrative isn't out there. I'm saying the narrative is extremely dangerous for vulnerable, impressionable young girls, going through distressing bodily change. And things like this exhibition are totally complicit in amplifying that narrative.

I don't have girls (and I'm thankful for that) but if I did, they main thing I'd be trying to convey at this age is that removing healthy body parts to treat mental health problems is an extraordinary and unprecedented thing to do.

Ok. But whether you agree with this narrative or not, you acknowledge it is out there. And you acknowledge that whether young people see this exhibition or not, it’s in their world. So why not take it as a starting point for offering a different perspective? I don’t agree with a lot of what politicians say, I don’t turn off the news when they’re talking, I talk about what they’re saying and why I think it’s wrong

I've just explained what I would be saying to my child on this topic.

What makes you think the art is celebratory?

No @Shellianotwheels what is dangerous is normalising chopping bits off your body for any other than self-gratification