A mural of Angelina Jolie with her
mastectomy scars appeared in a Milan square Wednesday to mark
world day against breast cancer.
The new piece of street art in the central Piazza San Babila is
titled Love Yourself and is the work of aleXsandro Palombo, an
artist who recently put up a mural of Marge Simpson cutting her
hair in front of the Iranian consulate in Milan to protest the
death of a 22-year-old woman accused of breaking the hijab dress
code while in morality police custody in the Asian country.
Palombo already illustrated the breast cancer theme in 2015 with
a series of works titled Survivor showing Disney princesses like
Snow White, Jasmine, Cinderella, Ariel, Aurora and Tiana with
mastectomy scars.
After Iranian officials had the Marge Simpson haircut mural
cancelled, Palombo put up another one of the cartoon character
showing her middle finger to the consulate as part of the
continuing wave of bloodily repressed protests against Mahsa
Amini's death.
Jolie, 47, had a preventive double mastectomy in 2013 after she
tested positive for a gene linked to breast cancer, which had
killed her mother, the actress Marcheline Bertrand, who had
Jolie with her former husband and actor Jon Voight.
"My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56,"
she told the New York Time on May 14, 2013.
"She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren
and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never
have the chance to know her and experience how loving and
gracious she was.
"We often speak of "Mommy's mommy," and I find myself trying to
explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked
if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to
worry, but the truth is I carry a "faulty" gene, BRCA1, which
sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and
ovarian cancer.
"My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast
cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the
risk is different in the case of each woman.
"I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to
have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy
that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped
from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that
they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer."
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
