The Cat Walk, Flattopper Pride and Play Out underwear

This week has been such a fantastic experience. Emily Jensen, of FlatTopper Pride, came to town to walk the cat walk wearing Play Out underwear. FlatTopper Pride is a supportive space where gender presentation and cancer intersect. If you are queer, or an ally of the queer community and you have had breast cancer and want to discuss your path in a supportive environment, this is the group for you. 

Since my diagnosis of breast cancer, I have been using the unique opportunities presented to me to open discussion on what it can mean to be a woman and be breastless without apology in a breast obsessed world. The show we walked in had a theme of Ken and Barbie, with the intention of using dolls or toys to speak to body ideals and body dysmorphia. So the stylists and make-up artists did their magic and turned us into dolls. 

Seeing the two of us looking all plastic-y, walking confidently down the runway in nothing more than Play Out underwear , revealing our scars, helps to narrow the divide between how we are ‘supposed to look’ and how we actually look. The breast cancer closet, where we are supposed to quietly resume our lives as if nothing has happened, while maintaining the breasted and ‘known’ female shape is being redefined. Body confidence is where it is at.

Being visually represented in the media is important to all people, it acts to bolster our sense of person and humanity. Body image, acceptance and love can be challenged after breast cancer treatment and I hope these images help other, newly diagnosed women see that flat reconstruction is one beautiful option among many, breastless bodies are beautiful and that breasts do not define us.

Please read the Hello Giggles article, written by Jackie Reeve, called: Meet two young breast cancer survivors who just revolutionized the runway.