Calendar Girl Blog: Breasts as Friends
One of the areas that I needed to get clear with myself early on in this breast calendar publishing game was where pornography fit into the picture. More precisely, was I publishing Breast of Canada as a form of protest of the massive pornography industry.
I'm a practical person on many fronts. A realist even. Clearly, I have established that I do bite off large chunks of challenge and chew my best. Just the same, I'm not stupid.
In early times, with my Women's Studies courses burning holes in my brain and igniting fury of hurricane proportions, I was known to haul around the occasional club and beat people...okay men....over the head with it. But that did not serve me well. People...men...did not take kindly to my sanctimonious attitude or abuse. Thankfully like cheese, wine and firewood, age changes the end result.
Best to use sugar if one wants to befriend a fly.
With that sweet thought in mind, fully aware of the massive influence of pornography on both men and women, but in no way deeming it 'the devil's work, my intention for creating the calendar became clear. I would be for breast health. I would favour the breast as a body part that requires our attention and care in the same way all of our body does. I would celebrate all breasts for their function and form.
I would make it joyfully obvious that accepting our breasts as friends was a sign of wisdom. Pornography makers and users had their own code to consider and live with.
I had nothing to do with them.
Calendar Girl is a tiny wee drop in the bucket of non-sexualized breast thoughts. Recently, one male customer offered Calendar Girl his critical analyses on the 2006 photos.
According to him, shots with babies were good. Obvious breast cancer survivor photos acceptable. Models without smiles or faces he liked. But any of the shots where the women were laughing and clearly having a very fun time, he rejected as uninteresting.
Calendar Girl reflected this back to her customer. He ended the dialogue.
Calendar Girl
Today's Breast Views Blog Headline: Lemonland
Tags: Calendar Girl Blog, Breast of Canada Calendar, pornography.
I'm a practical person on many fronts. A realist even. Clearly, I have established that I do bite off large chunks of challenge and chew my best. Just the same, I'm not stupid.
In early times, with my Women's Studies courses burning holes in my brain and igniting fury of hurricane proportions, I was known to haul around the occasional club and beat people...okay men....over the head with it. But that did not serve me well. People...men...did not take kindly to my sanctimonious attitude or abuse. Thankfully like cheese, wine and firewood, age changes the end result.
Best to use sugar if one wants to befriend a fly.
With that sweet thought in mind, fully aware of the massive influence of pornography on both men and women, but in no way deeming it 'the devil's work, my intention for creating the calendar became clear. I would be for breast health. I would favour the breast as a body part that requires our attention and care in the same way all of our body does. I would celebrate all breasts for their function and form.
I would make it joyfully obvious that accepting our breasts as friends was a sign of wisdom. Pornography makers and users had their own code to consider and live with.
I had nothing to do with them.
Calendar Girl is a tiny wee drop in the bucket of non-sexualized breast thoughts. Recently, one male customer offered Calendar Girl his critical analyses on the 2006 photos.
According to him, shots with babies were good. Obvious breast cancer survivor photos acceptable. Models without smiles or faces he liked. But any of the shots where the women were laughing and clearly having a very fun time, he rejected as uninteresting.
Calendar Girl reflected this back to her customer. He ended the dialogue.
Calendar Girl
Today's Breast Views Blog Headline: Lemonland
Tags: Calendar Girl Blog, Breast of Canada Calendar, pornography.
posted by Sue Richards at 12:44 PM
8 Comments:
Sue,
I say that customer needs a reality check. Maybe adding smiles and laughter 'humanize' the photo, so instead of a basically detached breast, he sees it in its natural context -- as part of a human being. But that's where they grow, and therefore belong.
You could send him to the Lemonland site. It's all about breasts, (and excellent by the way), but not a real breast in sight, with or without a smile attached. Just lemons.
This fellow would would have an awful time on the beaches of the Caribbean! There are exposed breasts everywhere, and they are all attached to human bodies.
Please don't allow that type of thinking to influence your work. I've passed several of your calendars on to friends, and business acquaintances. Not one has had a negative word to say. On the contrary, they all appreciate its valuable message and innovative approach.
Sue, I applaud your creativity. Is that offer to take me on a canoe trip still on the table? :-)
It's about our fantasy of control.
We men have this strange idea that we own breasts. We hand them out to women for our enjoyment. Women are allowed to keep them as long as they use them to please us. OK, they can use them for breast feeding to if they must, but only if they do it out of our sight.
They are certainly not allowed to enjoy the breasts we allow them to have for themselves. So while they are displaying their breasts, it must be solely for our benefit. They can't be seen to be enjoying themselves - unless the enjoyment is put on for our benefit.
Like all fantasies, it doesn't serve anyone very well.
regards
Chris
I think that part of the beauty of a breast is about its organic shape and texture. But part of the beauty is also sexual. It developes as part of sexual hormonal changes. breast feeding children is an outcome of the sex act itself. you can never totally subtract that. I i wouldn't want to. Admiting the sexuality of the breast does not make it man's.
I think the pictures with happy jumping, smiling women have more of an aire of sexuality about them than many of the others. I believe that this makes them interesting. it shows an important aspect of the woman with those breasts. Many Women and hopefully men realise that sexuality is not just about intercourse. And I would like to venture that the individual that found the breasts with vibrant lives uninteresting is really feeling uncomfortable, not disinterested. Uncomfortable that an image that should be about physical health has an aire of sexuality to it. Perhaps they find it hard to reconcile a message of healthy with sexuality without feeling that they are steeling the image of the breast for men. Does a man feel guilty when he sees sexuality where he thinks he shouldn't?
Anyway. I hope that this person thought about what they said and did some positive self-reflecting.
Phew....nice comment action people. Very good insights and reveals. Check out Chris Curnows link for even more, similar posts and further comments at his blog.
Trée: Canoeing in Canada in January is not advised. And yes I know that this does not answer your question.
Calendar Girl
Sue,
Unlike Chris, I don't feel I own breasts. But I do love 'em. And they are sexual, as Erin points out so eloquently. So is a soft shoulder, a trim calf, and a warm smile, and lots of other body parts. Sometimes I confuse sexual with feminine, but I like both, so I don't dwell on it too much.
The subject of pornography pops up in your blogs from time to time. The way I see it, pornography focuses exclusively on the mechanics (and sometimes acrobatics) of intercourse and other sex acts. No love, interpersonal warmth, or masculine or feminine attractiveness. It may be tittilating to some people, but there's too much missing for my taste. People who see pornography in the BoC calendar must have a very different definition than mine.
In response to Pierre, I want to point out that I didn't say I thought I owned breasts. I said men in general do. By that I meant that this is a common way men look at breasts.
It may even have been the way I viewed breasts in the past - at least subconsciously.
One of the reasons for my blog is to encourage men to relinquish this fantasy and unreservedly give women back their breasts.
There is a quote somewhere in one of the books I read on this topic (it may have been Meema Spadola's). The quote is something like "a recurring theme amongst the interviews was a passionate plea from women to be given back their bodies."
Chris,
Thank you for setting me straight. I will visit your site and, I'm sure, learn more about your views and those of others.
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