Facebook tells me today has been designated National No Bra Day, #NoBraDay. It is supposed to raise breast cancer awareness. Life is short and my life is even shorter and I’m not going to bother enumerating the many and varied ways that is manipulative, ethically compromised, morally bankrupt, and personally insulting to me and the thousands of women like me for whom every day is No Bra Day because breast cancer took our breasts.
Listen, I think raising awareness around breast cancer is fantastic. It is in my own vital personal interest that we all become more sensitive to breast cancer, its causes, its treatment and its effects. This isn’t the way to do it.
If what the public needs is awareness, I think it is going to have to be me and women like me, who do it. And maybe the best way to do that is to let people in, to open up about what goes down after a diagnosis. I’ve written about it before, talked about it in oblique terms. Maybe it is time to get real.
I am going to start my own hashtag, my own campaign. How about #MastectomyAwareness or #ScarPride or #ShowUsYourNubs or #NoBreastsDay or #NoBreastSelfie?
And with the hashtag, here’s my selfie.
I’ve been silent for awhile, now. That silence ends today.