[image from Wikipedia]
Congratulations to WJLA TV in Washington DC for its decision to show fully exposed female breasts in an upcoming series on detection and treatment of breast cancer. Whatever the reason for the decision, even if it's for ratings, it's a step forward in de-sexualizing women's breasts, and open defiance of the FCC's insane indecency standards.
The station's first report features a 28-year-old woman from Northern Virginia, Lauren Albright, who volunteered to be led through an on-camera self-exam by an oncologist. She is shown examining her bare torso in a mirror and on an examination table, in both close-up and medium shots. Reporter Gail Pennybacker says in a voice-over that Albright took the "extraordinary step of baring herself" to teach women how to do the exam.
3 comments:
I think it's about time American tv takes its head out of the sand and starts showing body parts like the stations in other parts of the world, especially Europe. My congratulations to the station in our nation's capital!
There's a comment on TERA. WJLA made this as falsely sensational as it could outside the segment itself, and ABC's own Good Morning America's report on it followed with equally stupid language and then destroyed the WJA excerpts by censoring them.
Unless the WJLA item is followed by open challenges to and defeat of the FCC's unwarranted repression, American officialdom will have learned nothing.
There's a lot to undo.
Paul,
I have a particular distaste for local TV news, but in this instance they seem to have done a real public service. I agree that the promotion of the piece was exploitative, but at least it's a start.
ABC's decision to blur the WJLA footage is reprehensible. Hopefully some other stations will carry the segments uncensored.
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