too long in this place: Give Me Strength

I wasn't going to say anything, I was just going to sit this one out, there was only a few days to go, it's nearly the end of the month & I'm working on a few other ideas but...

For the last couple of weeks I've been assaulted by ads for Breast Cancer Awareness Month on the radio. Each time I have dutifully said "Knickers' aloud & either switched off or changed the channel. I don't normally listen to the radio, but when I'm in the warehouse at work, I enjoy the odd good tune. Today, however it all just got too much - for I found out that far from being over, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, what they've actually been doing is advertising for next month - it seems October has been dedicated to the gods or goddesses of breast cancer - Give me strength!

I've written about my views previously in http://toolonginthisplace.blogspot.com/2008/02/knickers-to-cancer.html
and was heartened by some hearty responses. As in my previous article I will use the appellation 'knickers' for the rest of this article & as as explained previously this is not out of disrespect for my fellow human beings, but an attempt to dislodge, even if only a little, the vice like grip that knickers seems to hold in the collective programming of our race.

So I was thinking today, no actually I was fuming about the marketing of knickers. Somewhere, in a couple of places & quite some time ago I came across some mention of breasts as having great significance - far beyond feeding babies. Something earthy & spiritual - I can't remember where & when I search the internet it seems the word breast is now firmly manacled to knickers - it seems you can't have one without the other.

Knickers groups have hijacked two universal symbols (& a whole bloody month) - please tell me who decides that a disease can have 'dabs' on the flower that is the herald of Spring & on a colour that has been programmed into our very being as the symbol of love & femininity (especially young girls). Taking another look at that - we can very easily link daffodils & baby girls - both eternal symbols of new life & regeneration. It rather brings to mind the Roman Catholic version of original sin -roll up, roll up, get your programming early while it's fresh.

You know how embarrassing families can be? Well sometimes... it goes for countries too. If you scrolled down quickly you might be forgiven for thinking my site had turned pornographic. I have to own up to this next image as coming from my own home town of Auckland.

Here's the official version
"On Monday, October 1 2007, SKYCITY will lead the world in marking October as international Breast Cancer Awareness Month by turning the Sky Tower hot pink as part of the Global Illumination Campaign." Not so keen on those last three words myself.

I've been pondering today about how the rise in the feminist movement seems to correspond with the rise in breast knickers. Breasts are a universal symbol of the female sex, so it's interesting that the apparent rise in women's liberation has run concurrently with the multi million dollar industries of breast mutilation, err sorry I mean surgery and more recently with the huge increase (pun not intended) in breast augmentation. For the last 50 odd years breasts have been the subject of a hell of a lot of interest & intrusion. It's gotten to the stage where one doesn't feel quite safe owning a pair - so why is that? We've all accepted that it's the modern way of life, stress, our diet, toxic environment etc... - just the normal day to day trifles we accept, but I'm in a sceptical mood & I don't feel like buying.

To borrow a phrase from Michael at Hidden Agendas, I have a wild theory that our bodies are highly sensitive & capable of understanding vast amounts that our programmed brains can not. I feel this is why they are so relentlessly targeted. Ed from Mercury's Garden (see side links) pointed out again today the hazards of vaccinations & his belief that the mercury in them caused his son's autism. Not so long ago in NZ all the 'under 20's' were targeted for a meningitis vaccination - three jabs were necessary but it was all free of charge courtesy of a caring government. Just prior to the onslaught of the vaccination there was a highly publicised case which I believe led to the unquestioning acceptance of a vaccine that I have read was rejected elsewhere - sorry I've gone looking & can't find it now - but any readers who find their way here will have the nous to find that kind of info themselves.

Every avenue of physical health destruction seems to be being explored & exploited, no effort or expense spared. My feeling is that our bodies may be our best friends if we could but learn their language. Some time back I read a book called Meaning-full Disease by NZ'er Brian Bloom, & as I read I felt as if I was being put back together - this marvellous man weaves the human being together so wondrously that there are no seams in mind or body, no separation, & in doing so helps people to hear & understand the stories that their bodies are telling them. In one case a daughter had taken on her mother's mental anguish in physical form - his message that there are no divisions -just experience translated in different forms.

So I return to the, dare I say frontal assault on breasts by the endless marketed knickers. The fear of it alone leads god knows how many women to subject delicate breast tissue to yearly x-rays. I just can't see men falling for that & having their scrotum crushed & photographed- the knicker industry had to be a little more cunning there, but top marks to them, the prostate seems to be proving a very popular destination. Sorry back to breasts, it seems to me that they were the launch pad for the modern knicker business, the kind of 'Coco Chanel of knickers' - market launching it upon the world. There have been celebrity cases & deaths like Linda McCartney & Jill Ireland to maintain it's status & a host of trendy survivors like Kylie Minogue to make it more appealing to the younger generation.

In the book The Cancer Conspiracy by NZ Doctor Toni Jeffries, she states that we still don't even know what knickers is. Maybe not medically, but financially it's one hell of an earner. It's also one hell of a way to make us fear our bodies when we need to learn the language they speak & one things for sure they don't speak pharmaceuticalish .

A few marketing ideas - franchise anyone?

Cancerella?