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Deputy Green Party Leader admits to performing hypnotherapy to 'enlarge' women's breasts in the past (www.lbc.co.uk)

submitted 5 months ago by Emperor to c/andfinally

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LBC's Tom Swarbrick asked Mr Polanski about the practice after an article by The Sun from 2013 resurfaced about him performing the practice at a hypnotherapy clinic on Harley Street.

In the 90-minute sessions allegedly costing £222, women were told to visualise themselves with bigger breasts.

On Wednesday, Mr Polanski apologised for his past actions and said he never believed them.

"It does not represent my work, it does not represent me."

Mr Polanski added he never charged for the service.

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[–] blindsight@beehaw.org 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't have a horse in this race (I'm Canadian), but this reads to me like a bad joke, not a serious attempt at breast-enlargement hypnotism.

It was always terrible to make sexist jokes like this, but we've come a long way since #MeToo in 2017 to start challenging some of the systems of the patriarchy. In 2013, I'm pretty sure people would have agreed the joke was in bad taste, but I don't think anyone would have been cancelled for it.

If we start retroactively cancelling people for things they said decades ago, then that'll basically include all comedians and likely most people with lots of video footage of them in general. (Have you tried watching any fiction shows from the 90s or even early 00s lately? They all have intolerable sexism, to me anyway.) Isn't it a good thing that people are changing with the times, and becoming more aware?

(Note: I have no idea who this is, so maybe I'm missing some important context.)

[–] Emperor 8 points 5 months ago

this reads to me like a bad joke, not a serious attempt at breast-enlargement hypnotism.

He was working out of a Harley Street clinic (the most prestigious location for private health care in the country) and charging for the service, which he freely admits. I'd assume they offered the standard range of treatments for phobias, addictions, etc too. There's no reason to suggest i's a joke.

If we start retroactively cancelling people for things they said decades ago

Nobody is suggesting they cancel him. It's more that everyone is having a laugh at his expense for peddling pseudoscience (also it involves boobs, which makes it funnier) and then we'll move on, with this just being a colourful footnote in his Wikipedia entry.