#ManBoobs4Boobs Nails the Serious Problem With Breast Censorship on Social Media
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Women's bodies are censored online in a way that might surprise you: Breast cancer education. It can be difficult to show women how to perform at-home self-exams if a key component of that body part, the female nipple, is censored content. Luckily, Movimiento Ayuda Cáncer de Mama (MACMA)'s new campaign has a clever answer, a video that artfully gets around Facebook and Instagram's policies by using the only breasts that are safe for internet consumption — man boobs.
YouTube/MACMA - youtube.com
It's a sad reality, but videos featuring women teaching other women how to perform breast exams on themselves are often taken down on social media because they're viewed as inappropriate displays of nudity.
Instead of risking censorship rules, this video offers a brilliant alternative.
YouTube/MACMA - youtube.com
Described as a "campaign to raise awareness for early detection of breast cancer that defies censorship in Social Media," MACMA confronts the double standard head-on, explaining how videos that attempt to teach women ways to perform breast self-exams are often taken down on social media because they're deemed inappropriate displays of nudity. By starting a conversation with humor that attempts to normalize breasts, the Argentinean group hopes that women will be more likely to check their bodies for signs of breast cancer if breasts aren't treated as such a taboo body part.
The video starts with a woman disrobing, only to have her nipples censored by well-placed Instagram and Facebook logos. Then, something truly brilliant happens.
YouTube/MACMA - youtube.com
A heavyset, shirtless male model dominates the screen and a woman proceeds to perform a basic breast cancer screening on his body while explaining the proper technique for self-exams. Suddenly, the title of the video seems hilariously appropriate: #ManBoobs4Boobs.
"Women's boobs — particularly their nipples — are censored in certain social networks, even when showing how to perform breast self-examinations to detect early breast cancer," the voiceover tells us. "But we found boobs that aren't censored: Henry's."
Humor aside, the importance of early detection for breast cancer is serious.
While the five-year survival rate of stage zero and stage one breast cancer is 100 percent, the percentage of people that live five years after diagnosis from stage four breast cancer is much lower; less than one-in-four people survive breast cancer if the diagnosis is made too late, underscoring the necessity of regular self breast exams.
"All women should be familiar with how their breasts normally look and feel and report any changes to a health care provider right away," writes the American Cancer Society.
But it's not just women who are at risk of breast cancer either. Men can get breast cancer as well, a subtle message that MACMA's video also drives home.
Combating internet censorship, providing potentially live-saving information, and battling the stigma of male breast cancer, too? This video is a must-watch, and you can view it in its full glory below:
