Breast Cancer Survivor Berates Topfree Marchers

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell, a breast cancer survivor, minces no words in her column today when it comes to women actually showing their breasts.

I'm the last person in the world to criticize someone's body.

But if you were going to join a topless protest, and be photographed from the rear, wouldn't you want your back to look like you've done more than sit on your butt all winter?

The photograph of the young woman with the words: "Sexuality is what you make it!" scrawled on her fat back was enough to convince me America's not ready for topless.

The blatant insult of these women's bodies is particularly troubling, especially after making the statement that she would never criticize someone's body. Hypocrisy reigns supreme.

Mitchell then goes on to say other ridiculous things such as "gender equality always sounds great, but what's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander", and "there's probably not a woman left on the planet who does not know about Spanx."

Perhaps her most offensive and sexist comment is "if men didn't look, they just wouldn't be men."

And all of this from a breast cancer survivor. It's apparently OK to write columns about your breasts, Ms. Mitchell, but God forbid that anyone should actually see them, or anyone else's. But if a man did see them, it would be OK for him to ogle, because, after all, he's a man.

Tell that to poor schmuck state Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, who was caught yesterday on the Florida Senate floor looking at a photo of topless women, and has become a media laughing stock.

The same media which cannot get enough of nude PETA protests. Spencer Tunick shoots, naked Hollywood starlets, nipple slips and see-through gowns, now is shocked, completely outraged, that someone is actually looking at what they disseminate.

But, as Ms. Mitchell points out so deftly, after all, he's just a man, and women's breasts are there simply for ogling pleasure.

It is this sort of Philistine attitude which is the motivation for the women's topfreedom movement, to push back against the dumbing down of America and the objectification of women's bodies.

Mary Mitchell is dead wrong when she so casually accepts male sexism. Of all people she should know that the fact that she can write so openly about her own fight against breast cancer is due to the fact that women had to overcome vast cultural taboos. Nobody ever talked about breast cancer until First Lady Betty Ford underwent a mastectomy and opened up the national dialogue, which is manifested today in pink ribbons on everything from autos to athletes.

These brave women in Maine are marching against male ownership of their bodies, and it's people like Mary Mitchell who simply cannot see the forest for the trees. Instead of seeing the problem, she is part of the problem.