Episode one: we talk to Jay Walker, a mastectomy awareness campaigner who is challenging nipple censorship
"I find it frustrating that in this day and age, we are still hung up on the female nipple," laughs Jaime Walker, a little exasperated. "I would like to tell Facebook that nipples are not dangerous and have only hurt the person who's wearing them."
For Walker, 'freeing the nipple' goes beyond pure exhibitionism. After more than three years of planning and genetic consultations, the Yorkshire-native underwent a preventative double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction at The Nightingale Centre at Wythenshawe hospital. This process began in 2013, when Angelina Jolie revealed her own plans for a double mastectomy and helped to ignite a necessary conversation surrounding the hereditary faulty BRCA gene (read the full article with Tori Attwood here).
“I can't say for definite if it was the fear of cancer or simply the waiting for the operation and feeling in limbo that affected me emotionally the three to four years prior, but after the surgery - and even the day I went in for the surgery - I felt relieved."
Following her surgery, Walker set up a closed Facebook page for women who have also had the procedure, yet Facebook banned her due to her sharing post-surgery photographs.
"It feeds back to the [idea that] female nipples are somehow offensive."
To help further reduce the stigma surrounding mastectomies and fight censorship, Jamie joined eleven other women in a lingerie calendar for the National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline.
"It was the most liberating, most empowering thing I've ever done."
Watch the first episode of Body Talk with Jay Walker
To connect with Jamie Walker and the Mastectomy Network, please see here. The Journal featuring Jamie’s story along with that of twelve other women can be bought from Eloise.co.uk (£9.99).
Photos and footage by Emma Golpys. Film by L'Oréal Blackett
