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Trivializing Breast Cancer for the Transgender Agenda
In December 2020, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and in February 2021, I had a single mastectomy. It was a stunning diagnosis, because I had been in great health, had regular mammograms (which would not have detected this lump) and had no history of breast cancer in my family. Prior to the surgery, a team was organized for my treatment. I was also encouraged by my surgeon to speak to a doctor who could do reconstructive surgery, but when I went to schedule an appointment, I decided against it. My husband and I agreed that the less surgery I had, the better. When my surgeon asked me if I had talked to the plastic surgeon, I said no, and that was the end of the discussion. The cancer team, including the surgeon and the oncologist, were compassionate and were devoted to my care and to answering my questions. The chemotherapy nurses in particular were beyond kind and considerate.
So when I learned recently about how the transgender movement is essentially trying to coopt breast cancer detection and treatment, I was angry. That movement has already disrupted the health and well-being of girls and women, boys and men, to such a degree that I was baffled that they were trying to corrupt breast cancer treatment. How was that possible?
For nearly four decades, the country has recognized October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Sadly, this year we must draw attention to how activists and even some medical professionals are exploiting the complex disease. Breast cancer treatment is the latest medical field to be ‘queered.’
Apparently, there are men and women who feel that it’s a travesty to identify certain types of cancers with certain genders. For example, even though breast cancer appears primarily in women who are born women, it is now discriminatory to say so. A Canadian site, queercancer.ca, provides further explanation, but here is a description of one former cancer patient:
Through the site, LGBT cancer patients can access the personal medical histories of their peers, such as that of British breast cancer survivor Angie Beckles, who identifies as being ‘queer, autistic, disabled, non-binary, mixed race, demisexual, asexual/graysexual [and] romantic.’ Beckles feels breast cancer is ‘one of those really gendered cancers’ and is ‘very, very cisnormative, not to say cissexist’ as it forces sufferers to think about their breasts ‘constantly when you’d largely managed to ignore their existence’ for years. These ‘annoying, large lumps’ had suddenly ‘sprouted” on her at age 11, “without my consent,’ only to later ‘horribly betray her’ by becoming cancerous.
To perceive one’s breasts in this way is a tragic distortion and misunderstanding of a woman’s breasts, and a denial that women were provided with breasts that served, at one time and even today, an important function, as well as a beauty that artists have portrayed for centuries. Some transgenders who contract cancer actually believe that the disease is one way to identify the body’s rejection of breasts.
Some women feel they have been unduly pressured to have reconstructive surgery. The recommendation to at least explore this option is depicted as an effort by surgeons (who are primarily male) for women to return their bodies to a kind of normalcy. Now there are “flat advocates” who feel this pressure exists and insist that women who decide on this option, do so under pressure from their surgeons. Here is the explanation by one “flat advocate”:
‘For me, becoming an advocate was less of a choice and more of an awakening to the deep roots of misogyny in breast cancer care. Everything about breast cancer care orients to the assumption that a woman without breasts is a travesty. As soon as I started seeing how the male gaze shapes breast cancer care, I couldn’t see anything else. As a women’s health journalist, it was (and is) my responsibility to shine a light on it.’
Transgender patients who have chosen to have their breasts removed are also angry that they have been asked to postpone their surgeries, which require pre-surgery mastectomies, for cancer patient mastectomies to be treated first:
Trans patients were called last week and informed their long-awaited top surgery [i.e. taxpayer-funded breast removals] had been cancelled to let more cancer mastectomies happen. It’s not their [i.e., transsexuals’] responsibility. Our surgery is not cosmetic. Transgender wait times are fatal and #IWon’tDieWaiting.
Finally, hormone treatment for both men and women can increase the risk of breast cancer. It’s not clear if people who receive hormone treatment are being educated about this risk.
* * * *
It is mindboggling to see the many ways that the transgender folks will take actions that serve their own agenda and distort our modern understanding of the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. We have come so far in our treatment of breast cancer; it is no longer a death sentence and the science, including surgery and post-surgical treatment, whether it’s radiation or chemotherapy, continues to progress. Transgender people have now used breast cancer as another avenue to attack men, and to portray themselves as attacked and minimized. To watch transgender people adopt cancer into their own twisted and self-serving agenda is a travesty to those who have contracted and been treated for breast cancer.
They have invented just one more way to trivialize the human condition.
Published in Healthcare
All of this is powerful and spot on, She. I’m with you! I remember many years ago that the Dalai Lama commented that he couldn’t figure out why Westerners were so miserable, compared to the rest of the world. Even he couldn’t figure it out.
I wonder if, in a sick way, we get to be “special” through our misery and maladies. I’ll have to think about that.
Don’t you think it’s unfair that some women are immune to ovarian cancer just because they have testicles instead of ovaries? Should there even be a branch of medicine called “gynecology” given its underlying cis-normative presumptions? And should I stop referring to women with what I thought was the more correct term “gyno-Americans” for similar reasons?
This what you get with government healthcare. But if you are going to have rationing, it makes sense to prioritize cancer patients over people who just don’t want their breasts anymore. Threatening suicide should move you to the front of the line for psychiatric care, but not for breast surgery.
Horrific.
PLEASE die waiting if you think your insanity beats out no-kidding cancer. ‘Tranny wait times are fatal” is just hostage-taking. Go ahead, hold your breath.
It isn’t the growing of breasts but the trip to purchase the first bra and then having to get used to wearing them that is the adjustment. Then begins the lifelong pursuit of the right size cup, color, comfortable bra, and best style for the outfit you are wearing or for the level of physical activity you are engaging in. The bigger the breasts, the harder it is to get it right. They aren’t cheap and sizes aren’t consistent between brands. Growing breasts was no big deal. It is what comes later that is a harassment… and I haven’t even gotten to mammograms, yet.
When one needs to work sunup to sundown to survive they don’t have time on their hands to fret over silly things. We have a soft, silly culture now…. Also a self-centered, selfish one.
Hard times -> virtuous people -> easy times -> slack people -> hard times &c
Oh, so true. My granddaughter’s first reaction to bra-buying and first-wearing was, “I’m not doing this, this is just awful and really uncomfortable….” I often recall my mother’s wise advice (she had plenty of it, even though much of it was unconventional) that “the best thing about wearing a bra is that you can take it off and have a good scratch.” She was also fond of saying, “the only thing to do with good advice is ‘pass it on.'” So I have.
“I am”, I said
To no one there
And no one heard at all
Not even the chair.
“I am”… I cried “I am”… said I
And I am lost, and I can’t even say why
Leavin’ me lonely still
Leftism itself is a cancer . . .
It’s all about the science until it isn’t about the science on the desperate road to flee reality.
Actually, I think being the “same as” and feeling a connection is what these sad people are seeking. Their ridiculous “identities” make them instant members of a kind of club – a club that has the added benefit of having victim status, which has a powerful and useful cachet. These people are sheep – very lost sheep, but sheep. If the current fashion was not gender-bending, but something else – say, walking around on hands and knees because of the imperialism of being bipedal, these people would be walking around on their hands and knees and demanding that the rest of us accommodate them.
Like!
You are so right! Especially if you are an odd shape (I’m not going there). But I had a similar experience. And they did seem to just show up.
I guess you’ll just have to suffer through it, OB . . .
Sure. But still, cutting body parts off? In recognizable numbers? And fostered and enforced by the AMA, corporate commercials, public schools? There’s something crazier than someone deciding to be a unique character in society and all space-time and permanently marking and piercing their bodies.
And yet, what is to be done?
Yes, you, or someone, should write a post on this. It takes me ten minutes to shower shampoo and dress to leave the house. It takes my wife exactly an hour. I can’t imagine what it’s like to not leave the house without putting an colored ointment on my lips. I carry a comb, and try to keep my hair short enough that I never have to use it.
And do women wear make-up for themselves, other women, or for men?
And bras, they don’t just lift and separate, they shape and reform breasts. Bullet bras were a big thing once. What do men wear? Bullet underpants? (I won’t even get into zucchinis.)
For some reason, for men, breasts are a big thing.
No pun intended?
What about utero-Americans?
(wait for it…)
I have lipstick somewhere but rarely use it, partly because no shade of red goes with my red hair. Also, I like to use cloth napkins and don’t want lipstick stains on them and it seems messy. Face makeup seems messy to me, too. Rub your eyes and you get a black eye. I have some mascara but rarely use it. It is hot and humid here. I like having a clean face and can wipe it off frequently to feel clean if I don’t wear makeup. Also, my skin is fair so I use SPF lotions instead. I don’t know why women wear it. My husband doesn’t ask me to wear it.
As to men and breasts… I would rather men look at them than have them.
We need to encourage this silliness to go away as quickly as possible.
I know what could be done that would fix everything, but it won’t happen. The president, Harris, and a roomful of white coats, need to appear in every medium for a month or two, barking out that transgender surgeries are wrong and bad, and sick. And they should tell people to hold their heads up and seek to produce necessary things to sell to their neighbors and to society — because not doing so is the greatest threat to the world.
Three months would turn everybody around. They’re sheep.
But if you get people doing that, they might start thinking they deserve better government, too! Which would doom the Dims.
:) No, I went out of my way to do that.
This must be very freeing. I try not to stare at young women who wear foundation. There aren’t many left, I don’t think. I cannot help but stare at women with facial tattoos.
“The Bro.”
Best comment of the thread!
One of the more memorable exchanges from Buffy:
What I don’t get is all the fine gradations. Homosexual / bisexual I can get. Fetishes I can get – the wires are crossed so something non-sexual is sexual. Asexual (uninterested in sex) and aromantic (not attracted to people) makes sense – it just means low sex drive. Trans or non-binary I can wrap my head around to some extent even though it is a mental condition.
Demisexual? Graysexual? You are only attracted to some people in a category? Welcome to all humanity. People are different and usually have a “type”. All of these weird identifications are out there. What the heck is two-spirit as opposed to non-binary? I recall one person identifying as an ornate building. It’s like playing pretend taken to a new level.