I think it would be fair to share about my project since I wasn't in class last week.
My target community/users are breast cancer survivors who went through mastectomy.
The goal is to address their needs, both physical and mental, through garment design. Removal of breast(s) has taken away a huge part of "femininity"and can severely impact women's self-esteem. Thus breast cancer survivors' readjustment to their new body images is often difficult.
From the research I did, I found that some women who had mastectomy surgery refuse to have breasts implantation because after all they had gone through they don't want anymore surgeries.
Silicone breast forms/prosthesis, post-mastectomy bras are some of the products in the market that targets this group of people yet there still aren't much well-designed clothing for them.
Some of the physical needs/pain points include not being able the move or raise arms above shoulders (from immediately after surgery up to a couple weeks later), pockets for the drainage (due to the removal of lymph nodes, drainage is used to avoid the accumulation of lymph fluid) etc. Some other changes on appearance besides the breasts are the falling of hair, eyebrows, eyelashes etc. through chemotherapy.
"I never was someone who define myself by my breasts. I'm way more emotionally attached to my brain and my ability to do the things that I love to do, but even having said that, it's not easy to make the decision, to take both of your breasts off." - Marla
"You know intellectually that you are going to lose your hair, but when it actually starts to fall out, it's absolutely devastating. Women in our society, we define ourselves by certain things…" -Karen
4 comments:
Great Caryn.
Hey - I'd like you to include notes of having actually talked to real people who are breast cancer survivors. Not just internet research, ok? There are many many organizations in the area who attend to this subject. Give yourself time so you can reach these people.
Also look up Tania Katan (writer, located in Arizona). She is a queer writer who's had a double mascetomy and a friend of mine. Email her some questions and let me know what she says. But do meet at least 1 - 2 women in person. It will change your life and greatly influence your design. An important step ....
best, Dr. T.
and Caryn - great quotes so far. A reminder: who *else* might choose to have masectomies? (hint: transgender) Just a thought for you to keep in mind. see you soon
I already have planned local organization visits and ethnographic research will be the main part of the gathering my project insight. I do realize that some FTM would want to have mastectomies but that would be more at will or voluntarily as oppose to the cancer cause. I understand that there are some overlapping on the two and perhaps my design would be applicable to both. :)
sounds xclent, caryn. for sure: just focus on the community that most interests you for this project. I just wanted to make sure you knew about FTMs etc. ...
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