The 5^thof February is the day of St Agatha , patron saint of breast cancer patients, bell founders and even the eruptions of Mount Etna, anything breast shaped really.

The Sicilian Saint ( c.231-251 AD) lost her breasts at the hands of Quintianus, an alpha male Roman prefect, who had them cut off with large pinchers after Agatha repeatedly refused his marriage proposals.

Throughout the centuries artists have portrayed the defiant Agatha presenting her breasts on a plate.

I love this modern interpretation of Agatha from Digital Art Reddit ( does anyone know who the artist is?)

Bakers all over Italy will make ‘Minni di Sant Agatha’, breast shaped cakes, on the 5^th February to feed the celebrating crowds.

What is your tale of Celebration or Mourning ?

Please share with us on hello@bbookproject.com

Protective shield, religious artefact, status symbol, fashion garment, memento, souvenir…

Since ancient times the Breastplate has been a warriorsmainstay to protect from injury. Initially made of leather, bronze or iron, these solid plates were replaced with chainmail by European knights but later on gained popularity again. Apart from protection the plate could be a status symbol, embellished for display and delight.

In classical mythology, Zeus, king of the gods, wore a leather breastplate (Aegis) thought to possess supernatural power. Like the warrior’s breast plates, the Aegis was a protective device.

More contemporary versions of mythological and fantasy creatures are often seen wearing breast plates mirroring the shapes of their torso, expressing beauty, strength or status.

Breastplates are also found within the religious realm. According to the book of Exodus, the high priest of the Israelites wore a sacred square breastplate with 12 jewels, each representative of a specific tribe. These plates were largely ceremonial in purpose “for glory and for beauty” rather than utility (Exodus 28:2).And whilst this was about beauty for the glory of a God,in the 19^thCentury the breastplate started to appear in the secular realm of fashion, celebrating the beauty of the human physique mirrored in these moulded shapes, emphasizing the architectural silhouette of the body rather than decorating it.

In 1875, a female version of the ‘cuirasse bodice’ appeared in fashion magazines and remained en vogue throughout the 1880’s. It had “the appearance of a piece of armour,” notes historian Penelope Byrde in her book, Nineteenth-Century Fashion.

Although Tom Fords snazzy pink breast plates ( SS20 runway collection) are currently all over social media, many designers before him appropriated the plate including Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueenand most notable Sinead O’Dwyer . The only female designer on the list, O’Dwyer is exploring how we perceive our bodies versus the reality of what our bodies actually look like. Instead of  forcing your body to fit into a garment she creates pieces that fit the body.

Protective shield, religious artefact, status symbol and fashion garment, for me the breastplate became a memento, a souvenir. Just before my mastectomy we did  a plaster mould of my chest from which a bronze breastplate was made, a reminder of what was and no longer would be…

Anna Versteeg

I’ve been looking into some research on how mobile phone radiation might be a human carcinogenic.

In her lecture “The truth about mobile phone and wireless radiation”, Dr Devra Davis (Youtube 2 Dec 2015) presents scientific evidence showing how breast cancers have developed in women who wear their mobile phone in their bra or breast pocket.

Unusual multi focal tumours developed right under the skin surface directly under mobile phone antennas, without significant histology in deeper ductal and lobular units (where cancers normally develop).

Her precautionary advice is ;

1 Avoid carrying your mobile phone on your body. 2 Use mobile phone away from your head on loudspeaker or with headset. 3 Put mobile phone on ‘flightmode’ when not in use. 4 Keep mobile phones out of the bedroom when asleep.

A sensible New Years resolution …?

Photo ; iBoobies iPhone cover

Cleopatra’s Breast

According to popular historical accounts, Cleopatra, the last active pharaoh of ancient Egypt, committed suicide by holding an Asp (Egyptian Cobra) to her breast and allowing it to bite her, killing her with its poisonous venom.

After several power struggles within her own family, Cleopatra began to court the rulers of the Roman Empire. She first became Julius Caesar’s lover and bore him a son. After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, she aligned with Mark Antony (father to three of her children), who ruled Rome in the power vacuum following Caesar’s death, and was in opposition to Caesar’s legal heir, Octavian.  After losing the Battle of Actium to Octavian’s forces, Mark Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra followed suit, apparently to avoid the humiliation of being paraded as a prisoner in a Roman triumph celebrating the military victories of Octavian.

Octavian then made Egypt a Roman province and became its first emperor, changing his name to Augustus.

This historical account has inspired countless works of art throughout the centuries. I encountered this bronze statue in Hampton Court Palace this week.

‘False Breasts, Mwinya’, collected by Cambridge anthropologist Gregory Bateson (1932) and exhibited in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge.

They belonged to the Iatmul people, a large ethnic group of about 10,000 people inhabiting some two-dozen politically autonomous villages along the middle Sepik River in Papua New Guinea

These two gourds are carved and painted to resemble female breasts. They were worn by men who assume female attributes during a naven ritual, when gender roles are temporarily reversed.

Bates developed the concept of schismogenesis, ‘creation of division’, in the 1930s, to account for certain forms of social behavior between groups among the Iatmul people.

He observed how people interacted through competitive relationships (rivalry) and through dominance and submission (men & women). Men would act dominant, leading women to act submissive, to which men responded with more dominance, and so forth.

Bateson realised that when left unchecked, schismogensis would cause Iatmul society simply to break apart. Some social or cultural mechanism was needed by society to maintain social integration. That mechanism among the Iatmul was the naven rite.

During these naven rituals, groups of women and groups of men seemingly inverted their everyday, gendered-norms for dress, behavior, and emotional expression. These temporary role reversals served to correct schismogenesis, enabling the society to endure.

The ‘Diversity of the Breast Catwalk Show’ yesterday at club Vout O Reenees was a great success. Rachel of Buttress and Snatch organised this unique event, with young, mature, full breasted, small breasted, one breasted bodies doing the catwalk in a range of imaginative lingerie. A hugely inspiring event, with an artificially breasted DJ who kept us dancing all night long…

The Unobra, developed for single breasted women was modelled during the show as well and managed to go viral on social media as soon as the first picture was posted, check it out on www.unibra.co.uk

This was a truly important event, celebrating diversity, empowering all involved and inspiring all supporters and visitors.

An impressive £ 700 was raised for Breast Cancer Haven !

Breast-feeding Screens  I was at Ikea this week with my 18year old son, who will be flying the nest to move into his student flat. Whilst sampling some of Ikea’s finest gravlax and cinnamon buns, I spotted this curved screen at the end of the restaurant sporting a snazzy logo ‘nursing area’.

I imagined myself 17 years back, breastfeeding this same son who now towers over me;  Would I want to remove myself from the table and hide myself behind a screen to feed him? NO, I would want to sit at that table and talk to my friends whilst nursing. I was shocked to realise that nursing mothers are still asked to remove themselves from the social, public context and make themselves invisible.

It made we think of Black Breastfeeding Week , celebrated for the first time in the UK last month (25th – 31st August) and a post I read on @theunsungheroines about the history of breastfeeding trauma which has passed down through generations. The terror, oppression and gendered dehumanization of black slave women in the past may still be hindering breastfeeding in the black community ;

A lot of slave babies died during slavery because they weren’t breast-fed. Mothers were forced to breast-feed their white oppressors baby’s whilst their own babies were fed on concoctions of dirty water and cows milk. The system of slavery functioned by removing all agency from black bodies.

When will our breasts finally be liberated from oppression and convention?

Anna Versteeg

On Monday this week I was invited to join the wonderful Claire Collison (artist, poet, writer) in conversation, recorded at BBC Cambridgeshire by the brilliant Kerry Devine as part of the Listening Project by BBC Radio4 & the British Library.

Two single breasted women talking about asymmetry, shifting norms, friendship and all things breast…

Claire contacted me at bbookproject  earlier this year as she felt we were kindred spirits. We first met at 5th Feb, which we later realised is the Day of St Agatha , the patron saint of breastcancer patients, who lost her breasts as a torture punishment for refusing to marry this Roman prefect.

Claire and I  haven’t stopped talking since.  Our recorded conversation will  be broadcast early 2020, as Claire noted, a very symmetrical year.

Anna Versteeg