In the waiting room of the Bouches du Rhône medical offices, some people laughed yellow. In question, a poster plastered on the walls intended to promote breast cancer screening through a cartoon. Problem, the illustration goes badly: its detractors consider it in bad taste and criticize an “inappropriate sexualization”. What do we see in the drawing? A young woman is having a mammogramin pink mini-skirt and high heels, bra on the arm. She asks the doctor “Already finished doctor?” in a sensual pose, hands on hips. The poster dates from 2015 and comes from the Arcades association, a cancer screening collective in the Bouches-du-Rhône. This was reused for Pink October, breast cancer awareness month. The “poster” is intended to encourage screening for breast cancer, as “one in 8 women is affected by the disease”. But the message of prevention is not what has caught the attention of Internet users. Posted on social networks, the drawing, deemed sexist, caused an uproar. The @Voteznon Twitter account is the first to have relayed the poster calling out the Bouches du Rhône department: “Say @ departement13, do you think that we are being screened for a fatal disease or that we are trying to heat up our boyfriend? “
In response, the departmental council tweeted a message of appeasement valuing the content of the message on the form, since the poster talks about the importance of screening. “Although this is not one of our campaigns, we must admit that it does talk about #breast cancer screening, and that’s pretty positive @RubanRose! So thank you for relaying this great cause, and thank you to @Arcades for its #prevention action! “
Say @ departement13, do you think you’re getting screened for a fatal disease or trying to heat up your boyfriend? pic.twitter.com/eh7tcLE22f
– NO (@VoteNo) November 17, 2017
“Dramatize mammography”
On the side of the departmental association Arcades, we defended the choice of this poster. Brigitte Seradour, radiologist and president of Arcades, explained on France info: “We thought that this cartoon could help to play down the mammogram, often perceived as a long and painful examination”. Justifications that were not enough to extinguish the debate on social networks.
Although this is not one of our campaigns, it must be admitted that it does raise the issue of screening for #Cancer of #breast, and that is rather positive @RibanRose! So thank you for relaying this great cause to you, and thank you to @Arcades for his action of #prevention !
– Bouches-du-Rhône (@ departement13) November 17, 2017
I was informed that Mademoiselle Caroline had corrected her drawing, beware it is pure concentrate of bad faith pic.twitter.com/p2nQPqbkk6
– NO (@VoteNo) November 22, 2017
the breast canceris the most common cancer in women in France and is the main cause of death from cancer in women, recalls the National Cancer Institute. Mammography, an x-ray of the breasts, aims to detect possible cancerous lesions. Within the framework of organized breast cancer screening, the examination is recommended, every two years for women aged 50 to 74 without any risk factor other than their age.
Read also:
Mammography: more comfortable and more reliable
Breast cancer: increasingly discreet scars
