October Breast Cancer Fest

Hoorah! It’s breast cancer awareness month!

Let’s all have a party. Let’s go running and buy pink merchandise. Let’s go shopping to cure a cancer we all care about. After all, what is a woman without breasts? We all like to look at breasts, surely. Well, straight men do anyways. Women don’t feel themselves without them. They are an essential part of a woman’s anatomy. The breasts as well as the men I suppose.

In the tradition of the October cancer fests many companies have colored a lot of their products pink and invented a few new ones in the process. We are all expected to buy those this month and throw them away the next. It is the best free advertisement any company could wish for. Even the Holland-America Line, to keep things slightly maritime related, has jumped on the bandwagon. They have breast cancer walks around the decks, breast cancer cakes and breast cancer donation parties.

Others, such as cosmetic companies sell such items as breast cancer lipstick. Yes, in case you were wondering, that sick pun was fully intended. Many cosmetics items contain chemicals that actually cause cancer, but what the heck. We’ll buy them so that when we get sick, they will throw consumer parties in our honor too.

Back to the breasts and specifically women’s breasts, even though men also get breast cancer, we really should be talking about breasts. Or were we doing that already? What is this fascination that the western world has with breasts and breast cancer? But perhaps these two terms are interchangeable.

And furthermore, what is it with the color pink? It makes the whole breast cancer funds raising fests even more of a charade. Besides the fact that many company don’t even donate half their proceeds to research and treatment, it makes the whole event, or string of events, seem like a gigantic children’s tea-party. The overall silliness of it all is dripping from images like a disgusting, pink goo.

And what about the money these companies raise? They keep most of it in their own pockets and are otherwise not inclined to be very transparent about where the rest of it goes. You never hear anyone at these fundraising events talk about success or breakthrough that the money may have contributed to. And what about the women who can’t afford to pay for treatment? Do they see any of the billions that get pumped into these events?

Is breast cancer awareness fest helping or hurting people, or both? Where do corporations get off making money of sick women? How come they are celebrating suffering? Or is it their ode to the demur sick little female creature they can actually like, because she is currently not as she would otherwise have been?

Update:

I saw that Jezebel had also done a post on breast cancer and it is much better than mine, so go check it out. It links to a website that shows the reality of dealing with breast cancer.