So "Race for the Cure" "Relay for Life" and "walks" to help end cancer have never sat well with me.. I don't understand them, I don't get why you would go to it to "show your support" and I have NO IDEA where all of those millions of dollars that average citizens raise goes to! Why the ef has there not been a cure yet!? Even more troubling, why are multi-million dollar corporations like Yoplait, Avon, freaking KFC getting on the breast cancer "awareness" bandwagon?
I never vocalize my opinions on it much, because it's very mainstream- but my public health mind has always thought "we need to catch the problem before even the mammograms detect it"
-Why are poor women more affected?
-Why is the incidence and prevalence of breast cancer disproportionately on women of color? And if there's no "race gene" (as race is, in fact a social construct), why is this so?! There's obvious issues of class then, too!
I get really pissed that these numbers exist, that there are known risk factors and known populations that are more at risk than others and still nothing is being done to PREVENT IT FROM EVEN EXISTING!
I watched this awesome documentary on Netflix, I just happened to be looking through the available documentaries (I was in one of those moods) called "Pink Ribbons, Inc." I highly recommend everyone watch it. It answered a lot of the questions I had.
The claim is that the pink ribbons and all the campaigns from Komen to pharmaceutical companies to Avon, it's all an obvious and blatant exploitation of women and our "emotions" and "ethos".
I thought about it after, you don't see "Prostate Cancer walks"! The NFL isn't wearing blue ribbons to support prostate cancer "awareness"! I don't know, I'm very angry at this because I feel like I've sort of known this for awhile, because it's never sat well with me... And now that these experts- scientists, environmental and occupational health scientist, activists, women and men are exposing the truth behind Susan G Komen and Avon and all of them.. I feel so.. lied to? I don't know. Watch the documentary, it isn't that long and it is on Netflix. I'd like to know ya'lls thoughts on this...
Thanks for bringing this documentary to my attention, Amelia! Like you, I have always had an issue with all these "walks" and "runs" and pink ribbons for breast cancer. Another thing I can't stand: going into WalMart and seeing BIC pens for breast cancer, gum for breast cancer, and even Mike's Hard Lemonade for breast cancer! Seriously? Instead of just commercializing breast cancer and receiving a ton of money by doing so, we should be using this money to find a cure already, not to advertise it all the time...I don't remember what show it was on, but my mom was telling me how they were interviewing a breast cancer survivor, and she was legitimately irritated by all the breast cancer paraphernalia that's out there. Instead of awareness, I feel like companies are just using breast cancer as an advertising tool to get more money...I probably sound really negative about the movement, but I would love to hear other thoughts on the movement!
ReplyDeleteI also have issues with all these products and walks, which raise so much money but who knows what that goes to. It seems to me like companies are commodifying cancer for a profit and not actually focusing on ways that cancer patients can actually be helped.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I found most shocking from this documentary was the statistic that (I believe) only 20% of the chemicals used in beauty products are tested for their safety- the same products that we advertise to women with a pink stamp on it! The whole thing is fucked up. We need to have a more centralized research system, and a less commercialized (and therefore more effective) system of donations.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'm curious to get people's opinions on- I got into a debate with a friend about a month ago in which she argued that the pink ribbon stuff is, on the whole, a positive campaign, as it at least raises awareness. I of course combatted with some of the points brought up by above posters. What do you all think about this? Is there a way to keep awareness at a high without selling our souls to exploitative industries? Would more grassroots level awareness be better?
I have not seen the movie, but it sounds very interesting. As you all can maybe imagine, I have a lot of strong feelings towards this. Growing up my mom was always super adamant about not giving into the whole pink thing, even before she got breast cancer. She never talked about it, mostly because seeing the pink stuff was a huge source of anxiety for her (this was years before she was diagnosed). So from the beginning I was a little dubious, but for the most part, just uninterested in the whole thing...I never supported it one way or the other. But probably three years ago, my mom showed me something on facebook. It was two images side-by-side. One was all that pink shit; ribbons, waterbottles, t-shirts, plastered with butterflies and flowers and every image pink, "feminine" and "pretty". The other was a woman's body, cut up and bloody with surgery scars, pumps that collect nasty fluid after mastectomies, everything that was the opposite of the "pretty" and "girly" image they promote there with breast cancer awareness. Each photo was labeled, "This is not the face of breast cancer....this is". It was very eye-opening to me. I now see it as a kind of patronizing "help" where we don't even need the help, like the holding the door thing. The HELP should be coming in the form of research and education, not cashing in on the very real suffering of many families and people affected by breast cancer. To have my mom pass from breast cancer during breast cancer awareness month and have to be bombarded with all that fake pink patronizing bullshit "awareness" was incredibly insulting, honestly.
ReplyDeleteI hate it all. And not to mention, these annual prevention screenings that are so heavily pushed are actually giving you a dose of radiation every time... So if women are scared into getting these screenings every year, even if they have no genetic predisposition, they are building up all that radiation, which I'm not saying causes breast cancer, and I'm not in medicine, but it is widely known that radiation is not really a positive thing.