"Guys, gals, non-binary pals, you've got to FEEL YOURSELF and if in doubt get it checked out"

[NotTheOnePercent]

Guess which cancer this refers to.

Wrong answers only.

Prostrate?

Testicular?

Spoiler.

"Our fab breast cancer team" at my hospital had an information stand in the main entrance.
This is how our communication team announced it to the staff.
Guys and gals and non-binary pals.

FFS.

And before anyone pops in to say men get breast cancer too, the disease is about 100 times more common in women.

Do men get routinely invited for breast cancer screening? No. There's a reason for that.

The NHS is riddled with these idiots.

I just feel like I've had enough of them sometimes.
I've publicly called out a couple of issues on the hospital intranet before, do I have to spell this one out too?

Is guys and gals an acceptable phrase already?

Thought that was terminally tainted.

It is somewhat dated ApocalipstickNow
I think the "non-binary pals" is meant to make it modern and inclusive.

So tempted to post a snarky reply along the lines of "if this is meant to be educational maybe you should consider why the breast screening service is for women". But it's the public, staff intranet, and I've already done two terfy posts this week. I think that's my weekly ration.

If I bump into my favourite breast surgeon tomorrow I'm going to corner him and ask him to complain.

Ridiculous and yanbu,
And when I hear ‘guys and gals’ I immediately think of Jimmy Saville as that was his catch phrase,

I do wish they would get women to plan these marketing campaigns then we wouldn’t get this utter nonsense! Why can’t we have a simple campaign in plain language- Women please check your breasts for changes regularly.

This is as bad as the tampax “you’ve got to get it up there girls “ - although that was just bad taste , this poor advertising for breast checks is downright dangerous.

Does it really matter if it encourages people to check (yes, even though men get breast cancer at a tiny rate compared to women)?

Guys, gals, non-binary pals is just a silly little rhyme which pales into insignificance when compared with the reality of cancer.

Isn't that basically every other campaign? The posters at my GP are along the lines you've posted. As is the NHS guidance.

Because that silly little rhyme will most likely not be understood by women with learning difficulties , or women who English is not their first language.

Not to mention the fact it’s crass and distasteful- we don’t need silly little rhymes to talk about breast checks.

I don’t know if being a woman means you’re less likely to come out with this rubbish. Sadly a lot of women support this.

The guilty party is indeed a woman. 🙄

Tit people? Or is that rude and it's boob owners?

Totally agree with this. It's about trying to reach everyone in society, including non binary people and trans men who can absolutely suffer breast cancer in a way they can actually engage with the content and feel less daunted about going to get checked. I think that's more important than if you feel offended. I actually think this is pretty good as all bases including women are covered as in the past I've seen criticism of campaigns that were so neutral that they left women out completely. They have to provide a service open for everyone even those who don't have a gender critical viewpoint.

It's not even a helpful rhyme because I had no idea what they were talking about so I was none the wiser what I should be feeling, let alone who.

Now, if it were:

Take hold of your breast, give cancer a rest

Or

Don't be a noob, feel your own boob

Or

Check for a breast lump, don't be a big chump

Etc

^^this

Since it’s breast cancer I don’t really object to this, as it’s true that anyone can get it. But agree it’s pretty useless not to mention what it’s about in the slogan, and the savile-style use of “guys and gals” is ill-advised and could put loads of people off (especially the demographic mostly likely to get breast cancer).

It made me wonder though - if you are a male who takes feminising hormones and grows breast tissue, does that increase the risk of breast cancer? Or not because it’s not the same kind of tissue?

Yeh, I think most of us are just concerned with the cancer message bit.

The language, guys, gals whatever is really not worth getting angry or upset about I don't think.

I do think it's hard to please everyone though. I've seen a lot of campaigns aimed directly at women recently, very clear including images of how to check yourself. I've also seen the same but using 'chest' instead of breast and more gender neutral language and people on here were up in arms that women had been left out. Which I do understand but I think you need different approaches for different sections of society and a range of advertising. So in this particular advert the ideal scenario to me would be to talk about checking your chest or breast as a way to make the message more direct. But then I guess that could still trigger gender dysphoria if people felt that breast was being applied interchangeably when they feel it shouldn't be. It's a bit of a mine field really so I think they've tread carefully. In a way it kind of makes me think of checking all bits, even though it's breast cancer specific in this instance. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing if it encourages people to pay attention to their bodies as a whole.

Men get breast cancer in smaller numbers but are 10% more likely to die from it. I would imagine that is in no small part because the messaging to women has been so good in recent years, but remembering to check isn't on men's radars in the same way. This is an area where inclusive language could save lives.

@NotTheOnePercent I would point out the unsavoury Jimmy Saville catch phrase.

Me, too.

@Mummy08m crying at

Don't be a noob, feel your own boob

🤣