A mural of Angelina Jolie with her mastectomy scars appeared in a Milan square Wednesday to mark International breast cancer day.
The mural of Jolie appeared in the central Piazza San Babila is titled Love Yourself and is the work of aleXsandro Palombo. He 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.
After Iranian officials had the Marge Simpson haircut mural removed, Palombo put up another one of the cartoon character showing her middle finger to the consulate. This came as part of the continuing wave of bloodily repressed protests against Mahsa Amini’s death.
Jolie and breast cancer
Palombo 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.
Jolie, 47, had a preventive double mastectomy in 2013. She had tested positive for a gene linked to breast cancer, which had killed her mother, the actress Marcheline Bertrand.
“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% risk of breast cancer and a 50% 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%to under 5%. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.”
