I want someone to give me..............

absent that was my point - no-one jokes about physical illness, so why should they think it is alright to joke about mental illness.
bags I think it is the intention, rather than the interpretation, that is important.

Here is a cancer-related charity trying to use humour. What do you make of this? I found it ... interesting.
I have been deliberating quietly for the last few days. Head in hands with despair or - if that's what it takes.
My thoughts are affected by my recent read of Dr Margaret M's book The Patient Paradox in which she discusses whether all this "awareness raising" does actually save lives.

www.coppafeel.org

I think that if a logo is promoted by an awareness raising organisation /charity it will have most likely researched the impact of the logo with people with the disease /illness etc. If the bi-polar t-shirt is one of those it is different to a t-shirt on sale for purely commercial benefit.

What were here conclusions, Jess?

I saw this young woman being interviewed recently. She's an amazing young person. It's not actually trying for 'humour' more a light-hearted touch ( if you'll excuse the pun). She went to her own doctor several times and was told she was too young to have breast cancer . Patently incorrect. I might be wrong but i think her prognosis is poor.

The advert she explained is aimed at the young generation, getting them to check for lumps.

jingle actually said she found it funny. I don't, and obviously neither do several other people. I think jingle enjoys her reputation as being rather mischievous and I am sure she is not so naive that she thought nobody would be offended by her post.
I am a bit uneasy about the Coppafeel slogan - it seems to be a bit vulgar and sleazy to me, but I suppose they wanted to reach as many young women as possible, so as long as it works..........

I think the design is rather clever and amusing but of course it depends how it's put to use.

I remember being taken aback a few years' ago when applying to do the Moonwalk in London upon discovering that participants were expected to wear fancy, decorated, outlandish bras on public display and walk at night!

It seemed a strange way of collecting money for breast cancer. Somehow perverse.

But of course the charity is a huge success - so successful that I've never yet been able to officially participate due to demand.

I rather enjoy jo"s posts .

livens things up a bit .

{Christmas smile]

There's a film out soon called Silver Linings Playbook which deals with the subject of a man's rehabilitation after a bout of mental illness. Stars my favourite actress Jennifer Lawrence so I was going to see it anyway [although her performance supposedly rather lets the film down]. Has had very good reviews so will be interesting to see how the subject matter is dealt with.

Dr MM argues that a lot of the messages about cancer awareness promotion and screening are not proved to be useful or effective. She is very concerned about the over diagnosis of BC and prostate cancer. If you over diagnose and over treat, and then look at the outcomes, you might end up killing more people by the over treatment than if you are saving.
An interesting read.
I do feel uneasy about the Coppafeel charity. BC is extremely rare in young women and I too was dismissed when presenting with a lump in my mid 30s - which fortunately grew very slowly and was diagnosed as cancerous in my 40s.
However...
On Twitter i follow "everydaysexism" - young women post about the sexual harrassment they experience in everyday life e.g. strangers groping them in pubs, clubs, trains etc. This message of this charity seems to normalise that behaviour with pictures of celebs with their groping hands all ready.
Also they are busy raising funds to raise awareness of BC in a group in which the incidence is actually vanishingly small. (I will look it up later, tea nearly cooked). Maybe the money might be better spent funding important research ?

I have been fortunate enough to do the moonwalk twice Riverwalk and my first reaction, like yours was that it seemed very odd to be walking through London in a bra. However it is very humbling to realise that many of the women are wearing mastectomy bras and to see quite a few men also wearing bras (it's compulsory). Most touching of all was the young lad of about 14 with a woman who I thought was his grandmother, his bra was decorated in a camouflage theme and the slogan written on his back was 'for mum'. Still brings a lump to my throat.

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/types/breast/mortality/uk-breast-cancer-mortality-statistics#age

Only 10 deaths a year from BC in under 30s in the UK. There are several other cancers that are much more common in this age group e.g. Hodgkins - but all cancers rare in the young.
If you want to see the numbers there is a downloadable xls file under the graph.

www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/types/breast/mortality/uk-breast-cancer-mortality-statistics#age

sorry

On the way to DD's riding lesson and our archery practice, I described the logo to DH – colon, opening bracket, colon, and underneath the word 'bipolar' – and asked him what he thought of it.

"That sounds like an effective logo."

Then I told him that some people thought it offensive. He was surprised by that.

I'm wondering now if the initial presentation had not been in the form of "light blue touch paper and stand back" (as someone described the OP), and if humour had not been mentioned, whether that would have made a difference to people's attitude towards the logo. I guess we'll never know now. At least, not on gransnet, though I suppose a experiment could be devised to find out among the uninitiated.

The thing is, I'm sure there have been jokes about mental health on the jokes thread and no-one has said they found them offensive. I am genuinely trying to understand why this was different.

I feel the same, nightowl. I actually don't think the logo is a joke. I simply think it's a neat way to make bipolar disorder visible and 'normal' in the sense of an illness that we need to be aware of as severely affecting people's lives.

That's what I thought as well Bags. Obviously if people who are affected say they find it offensive we need to take notice but I am struggling with it myself, that's all.

Tee shirt okay in context of raising money, raising awareness of bi polar disorder etc but perhaps not as just an amusing Christmas present.

Has anyone else looked at the other tee shirts available at www.badideatshirts.com to see this particular one in context?

Ah!

Not meant as a consciousness raising item then.

I see there's another bi polar one further down and plenty of others in bad taste.

Or funny!

Some very funny! Some sick.

jessm I'm a little perplexed. Any deaths from breast cancer in the under 30s is a tragedy. When i was a young mother my best friend died of breast cancer, leaving a 13-month old baby girl motherless. She was only 27.
Please tell me I have misunderstood you. You seem to be saying this is very rare and therefore acceptable. I know you cannot mean that so am confused as to why the statistic is being used.
Any campaign to raise public awareness is to be applauded, and I'm very suspicious of authors who say otherwise and go against plain common sense.
Vulgar and sleazy? A bit crude to our generation perhaps greatnan but so what? If it saves even one life....then that life is very important to someone.

You see, it's bloody happened again !

I don't see it that way, phoenix. Just an exchange of views, not personal attacks.

Sorry Ana you have perhaps misunderstood me, I'll try to pm you.