Joana Ashley

“For me, my scars are an honorable reminder that I may be a casualty in the cosmic war against radiation, animal fat, air pollution, McDonald’s hamburgers and Red Dye No. 2, but the fight is still going on, and I am still a part of it. I refuse to have my scars hidden or trivialized behind lambswool or silicone gel. I refuse to be reduced in my own eyes or in the eyes of others from warrior to mere victim, simply because it might render me a fraction more acceptable or less dangerous to the still complacent, those who believe if you cover up a problem it ceases to exist. I refuse to hide my body simply because it might make a woman-phobic world more comfortable.”
― Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals

“This emphasis upon the cosmetic after surgery reinforces this society’s stereotype of women, that we are only what we look or appear, so this is the only aspect of our existence we need to address. Any woman who has had a breast removed because of cancer knows she does not feel the same. But we are allowed no psychic time or space to examine what our true feelings are, to make them our own. With quick cosmetic reassurance, we are told that our feelings are not important, our appearance is all, the sum total of self.”
― Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals

“I treasured each new epiphany like a jewel in my palm, something shiny and glittering to be admired and examined from every angle and then stored away with the others. Some jewels were more like polished stones. Some were semiprecious. Others were emeralds. At times I felt as though I was unearthing something that was better left buried. But I couldn’t help myself.”
― Lang Leav, Others Were Emeralds

“And there it was. A story that was never meant to be told any other way.”
― Lang Leav, Others Were Emeralds