Breast cancer campaign slammed for asking women to post boobs online

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WELLINGTON - A breast cancer campaign that asked woman to post topless photos online has been slammed as being an offensive and gratuitous way for a website to gain traffic.ifestyle site NZgirl launched the “I’ve got a lovely pair” fundraiser, saying it would donate 1000 dollars for every 50 pictures of breasts uploaded.

“We want to celebrate all of the lovely pairs of New Zealand and create ‘Our favourite breasts’ - a montage of nzgirls’ breasts,” Stuff.co.nz quoted the site as saying.

It says breasts “matter to everyone” and breast health is important, yet despite all of this breasts are still taboo.

“So what are you waiting for? It’s time to get your tits out for the girls,” it stated.

But the campaign was immediately slammed, with Twitter users saying it sexualised cancer and was nothing but an attention-seeking marketing ploy.

Feminist writer BoganetteNZ dedicated a blog to the topic, saying it was offensive to use a slogan like “get your tits out for the girls” in the context of breast cancer.

“Don’t you think it is offensive to the many women who have had mastectomies and have to cope with the stigma of not having ‘perfect’, ’socially acceptable’ breasts to flash a bunch of pert, young, cancer-free breasts in their face and call it awareness?” Boganette said.

“The controversy is about breast cancer and breast cancer once again being sexualised. You don’t see ’show us your ovaries’ for ovarian cancer or ’show us your naked bodies’ for skin cancer.

“Could they not donate [the money] anyway? Or donate it at the end of their campaign instead of making it an incentive for women to put photos of their breasts on a website to increase traffic?” she added.

NZgirl editor and general manager Tee Twyford said the campaign wasn’t about driving traffic to their site, but about raising awareness.

“The reason for it was twofold. There was a desire to have readers feel really good about their breasts and we wanted to align it with a breast cancer cause to get greater awareness and funding,” Twyford explained.

“It’s about a celebration of breasts and breast health. If we can get even get one person to be more aware of their breasts and know how to check them then we’ll save lives,” she added.

New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation chief executive Evangelia Henderson said it did not comment on other people’s fundraising practices.

“Our focus is on the health and wellness of breasts so a lovely pair of breasts to us is a healthy pair. We do need to celebrate by being breast aware,” Henderson stated. (ANI)