When Michelle Audoin asked to see post-mastectomy reconstruction images, the medical system’s silence spoke louder than any diagnosis. That silence reveals everything about who gets seen in cancer care and who gets left behind. While my doctors didn’t have pictures to show me, it was easy to search on the Internet and find plenty for women who look like me.
Michelle’s framework for changing systemic invisibility rests on three revolutionary principles that challenge how we think about representation, advocacy, and what it means to heal.
Principle 1: Your Healing Pattern Is Medical Information, Not Aesthetic Preference
The medical team’s dismissive response, ”don’t worry, it always looks better on Black women”, was medically inadequate. Michelle had experienced keloid scarring since age 14, when a benign tumor removal left her with a raised, painful scar that created decades of shame.
“I really wanted to see. If I am having this surgery, what is it gonna look like? How am I going to heal? Because I did not want to go through that trauma again,” Michelle explained. This wasn’t vanity speaking.
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