This Underwear Company Used Breast Cancer Survivors As Models To Challenge Our Beauty Ideals

Play Out wants to redefine femininity.

For its latest campaign, Play Out underwear, which bills itself as the first gender-neutral underwear, wanted to highlight the beauty of three breast cancer survivors.

Nomi Ellensen

Their aim? Challenge normative assumptions of gender presentation, femininity, and what it means to be “sexy.”

Nomi Ellensen

According to a study from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, around 58% of all breast cancer survivors opt not to have breast reconstruction surgery.

The first series of shots paired androgynous model Rain Dove with breast cancer survivor Melanie Testa.

Nomi Ellenson

The second shoot pairs survivors Jodi Jaecks and Emily Jensen.

Candace Doyle

The series was created in collaboration with FlatTopper Pride, a new breast cancer support community dedicated to unilaterally and bilaterally flat LGBTQ individuals, founded by Emily Jensen.

Candace Doyle

The site is a place where "gender expression and cancer intersect in a meaningful, productive and supportive space."

"These scars are a testament to what I have been through, but more importantly, of what I intend to do with those experiences," writes Jensen on her site.

Candace Doyle

"I felt lost as a patient and a statistic throughout two years of treatment. Now that I have regained agency I want to use my voice and my story to spread information about this very important and all-too-common experience because they are the most powerful tools I have."

For these survivors, showing their scars can be an important part of healing.

Nomi Ellenson

"I refuse to hide my scars away as though I am ashamed of them or of my body," writes Jensen.

Nomi Ellenson

"This is a body that I refuse to keep hidden."