power vs prosthesis

In Lorde’s article “Power vs. Prosthesis,” she brings up the very valuable idea of mastectomy as a cosmetic surgeries rather than a life or death surgery. Many women refuse the surgery because they don’t want t lose their “femininity” or “womanhood” because they, themselves, connect such ideas to their breasts. Others feel pressured by society or even their loved ones to refuse the surgery because society encourages such thinking. I had two personal experiences with this. My mother’s late boss lost a daughter to breast cancer because her husband didn’t want her to have a mastectomy. He didn’t want her to lose her woman-hood and her beauty. I also have an aunt right now hasn’t had herself checked for breast cancer in years and has had a painful lump (with other unpleasant and abnormal symptoms) for almost the same amount of time. She was afraid doctors might want to cut off her breast because of a little lump, and as a result, she might very well be dying from breast cancer.
In the video in class, a nurse said “What we are aiming for is to allow women to look decent in clothes…. The aim is for the patient to look normal and natural when she has clothes on her body.” WOW. Normal and natural according to who??? And even if you do look normal and natural with clothes on, what are you supposed to look like (and feel about how you look) when you take them off. This mindset encourages these courageous women feel ashamed even though they survived this life threatening disease. This goes back to what I said before about women’s issues having to be a private battle. Guy with eye patch, vs her with no prosthesis. Idea of invisibility and silence… is it a lie (to yourself) to wear prosthesis?
This is a good example of what Showalter called managing women’s minds. Although she is referring to how women with mental illness are treated, the same amount of control is put on women who are “sane.” Because the women in Showalter’s article were “deviant” (sexually open and honest, had children out of wedlock, didn’t have a Victorian zip on their lip) they were deemed crazy and thrown in an asylum. The breast cancer survivors are treated similarly when they disclose that they do not want prosthesis. Although these women are not thrown in an asylum, doctors and nurses eye them with apprehension and wonder if they are crazy. They are stigmatized, mistreated and pressured into getting one. The class issue is also similar here to. If a lower class woman were to go without prosthesis, she would be deemed ignorant and strange/crazy (not literally… or is it?). If an upper class woman were to go without a prosthesis, she would be more likely to be called courageous although they would still think her strange (and maybe crazy too).
In issues as sensitive as breast cancer, however, doctors should be extra sensitive to the patient's wishes. They should ask patients what they want and support it. Doctors are supposed to be liaisons and partners not commanders . As Alice Walker calls it, it should be seen as a warrior mark, not a deformity.