Friday, September 01, 2006

I saw the most fascinating programme on BBC Three the other night. Called My Small Breasts and I it followed the story of 3 women who had a real issue with their size and showed the impact it had on their lives. As I often find with this sort of programme your sympathies vary with each person they follow.

One person, Sharon, followed a 12 week course of applying suction pumps to her breasts - which she slept in/with every night. She also took a huge quantity of herbal pills - designed to somehow prompt breast growth. Needless to say you can't pop pills in such quantities without some ill effect - and she became moody - mind you I'd be moody if I slept every night with two great suction pumps on my chest.

The second, Laura, was a lovely young girl who was going to have plastic surgery, paid for - wait for it - by random men, who agree to pay on the understanding that she posted some pictures of herself on a website. The way it seemed to work was you post your picture - say what you want and how much and men start making donations. How bizarre is that!! In the end she decided not to go through with it. Thankfully. I could not believe that she was genuinely thinking of doing this. I did try to find the site (purely in the interest of research you understand) but luckily I couldn't!

The third woman, Kate, had a really low opinion of her image - to the degree that she was virtually house-bound. She went to New York and had Photo-therapy.This was really interesting - a technique used by a NY based photographer (forget her name) to basically help people who have image problems - manifesting in anorexia, bulimia, agrophobia, or resulting from abuse - to see a different side to their image. It seemed to be a mixture of counselling and brilliant photography to get the person to see themselves in a new light. She built up Kate's confidence, to let her see what a beautiful woman she was. Programme finished with her taking her two young children swimming - something she said she could never have done before.

All together it made fascinating watching. One of those programmes where you go through a range of emotions - from shock and disbelief to real sympathy. Have to say Kate's story was really touching and uplifting. (no pun intended)

2 comments:

Sue said...

"mind you I'd be moody if I slept every night with two great suction pumps on my chest." - LOL, brought back memories of breast feeding!

No 3: Sounded a bit like a programme on TV at the moment called How to look good Naked - or something like that. Makes a woman who feels very bad about her body, come to appreciate what she has, all without cosmetic surgery. Very "feel good" - (no pun intended!)

Mof2 said...

Sue: I agree with the breast feeding analogy - well remember the joys of 'expressing'. Still wake up in a cold sweat thinking about a particulary tricky electric pump encounter...