By: Chwayitisa Nandisa Futshane
The topic of women and their bodies has always been a contentious one. So a play about women's breasts was always going to gain some attention. Enter "Breasts are Beautiful". The title alone is a good indicator of the potential for controversy.
Actually the first time I saw the poster I thought it was artwork displaying women's breasts. As it turned out, it was a play about six women exploring the beauty of their bosoms as they shared stories about why they either loved or hated the body part. I won't dwell on the performance itself except to say that it had potential but they lost the plot somewhere between between the beginning and the unhooking of the bras.
The real issue I want to look at, is the idea that "breasts are beautiful". The question we need to ask is why women have a constant need to qualify their body parts. You don't ever have plays about "Perfect Packages", which would relate to the male sexual anatomy. So why is it that women's breasts are always the centre of attention? Yes, many men find them one of the more attractive parts of the female body, but as women, we seem to place even greater emphasis on them then is necessary. If you're discussing a subject as important as breast cancer then yes by all means belt out your views about breasts. But do we really need to create a platform for discussing 'boobs'? What makes breasts so special as opposed to "packages" or the nose? Our bodies all come in different shapes and sizes, so it is inevitable that women will have different kinds of 'tits'.
We have children living in starvation, millions of people dying of AIDS and an economy in crisis and yet you want to spend an hour of your time discussing boobs only to take your top off and compare sizes. You could have put a few brothers in a room, given them beer and you would have had a far more interesting take on the topic.
I said I wouldn't discuss the play but I realise that this piece centres around the stupidity of the content of the storyline.
I think I would have much rather preferred artwork displaying women's boobs than endured such a bad play!
Take these "breasts" away from here!
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