#ManBoobs4Boobs Video Expertly Gets Around Social Media’s Nipple Censorship
Encouraging breast self-examinations for early cancer detection is a tough sell. Some women are hesitant to check themselves because they are afraid of what they may find. Others simply don’t know what they’re looking for and archaic rules on social media that ban breast images are not helping anyone out.
The Breast Cancer Help Movement in Argentina launched a social media campaign that is encouraging sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, to free the nipple. Since social media has banned women from showing their breasts, even for educational purposes, the group decided to defy nipple censorship by using a set of man boobs to teach women how to conduct a self-exam.
“Women’s boobs, particularly their nipples, are censored on certain social networks even when showing how to perform breast examinations to detect early breast cancer,” the video’s narrator explains. “But we’ve found boobs that aren’t censored: Henry’s.”
One out of every eight women will develop breast cancer at some point in her lifetime. The number of women under the age of 50 who survive breast cancer has increased significantly in the past 25 years thanks to treatment advances like early detection via screening.
According to Johns Hopkins Medical Center, around 40 percent of breast cancer diagnoses occur after women feel a lump on their breast. In addition to recommending self-exams, the video also suggests women schedule appointments with their doctors for regular checkups and yearly mammograms after they turn 50.