The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde

 

“ With quick cosmetic reassurance, we are told

that our feelings are not important, our

appearance is all, the sun total of self.”

“Women have been programmed to view our

bodies only in terms of how they look and feel to

others, rather than how they feel to ourselves, and

how we wish to use them. We are surrounded by

media images portraying women as essentially

decorative machines of consumer function,

constantly doing battle with rampant decay.” 

" Every woman there their either had a breast removed, might have to have a breast removed, or was afraid of having to have a breast removed. And every woman there could have used a reminder that having one breast did not mean her life was over, nor that she was less a woman, nor that she was condemned to the use of a placebo in order to feel good about herself and the way she looked."

 

Some women do feel insecure with their body after doing the

 

mastectomy because they feel less of women. They feel

 

pressure to wear the prosthesis or have breast construction. 

 

 For example, Angeline Jolie did the mastectomy on both of

 

her breast so, she can prevent breast cancer. I admired her

 

for that because that took a lot to make that decision.

 

However, she does not feel less feminine, she actually really

 

happy with her decision. She still feels secure about her body.

 

I believe the women that are having struggles with their

 

mastectomy they should look up to Jolie. Jolie is a successful,

 

talented, and beautiful woman with or without breast. 

“Women with breast cancer are warriors; also I have been to war, and still am. So has every woman who had had one or both breast amputated because of the cancer that is becoming the primary physical scourge of our time. “

 

This quote reminds me about Sontag though 

 

of how using illness in metaphor. Lorde describes her cancer

 

as a battle because she is still fighting it.  Sontag did not like

 

illness being compared to the war. So if Lorde and Sontag

 

would have met in person they would have disagreed with

 

each other perhaps not become friends.