Boobie-Thon 2006

From October 1-7, bloggers from across the globe can submit pictures of their bare and covered breasts to raise money for breast cancer causes at Boobie-Thon .

The “sampler” menu can be seen here. Full access to the “pay-per-boobie” content can be purchased for $50, whose proceeds are to be donated to a number of breast cancer related charities.

I’m not a prude, but this fund-raising campaign bothers me because I think it trivializes breast cancer and I’m not sure whether sexualizing this really empowers either women or breast cancer survivors.

I saw reference to this on the delightful Feministing blog, a blog about as far politically from me as you can get, but whose author is both clever and witty enough to keep me coming back.

I don’t like the implication that certain parts of women’s bodies are “worth saving” because they’re sexy. Boobiethon is sending a message that breast cancer should be stopped because it claims beautiful breasts as its victims– not because it’s a horrible disease that’s killing women. I’d almost prefer a website that featured women naked from the belly button up, and showed their faces. Because at least then you can see that this disease affects real women, not just disembodied breasts.

From the comments section on Feministing for her blog post which hits the absurdity of this on the head(despite the campaigns good intentions):

“On, come on. If they were raising money to fight testicular cancer, would they be approaching male bloggers for ball-shots?”

Dr. Rob Oliver
Oliver Plastic Surgery
www.oliverplasticsurgery.com

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