October, with its endless midterms, interminable stress and great parties, has finally ended. With it came the end of another source of angst: Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Now, let me begin by saying that the idea of dedicating an entire month to the sufferers and survivors of this terrible illness is a noble one. I have nothing but respect for the people who actively work to try to cure cancer, to support survivors or try to raise awareness in a useful way. But every year I dread the arrival of October because, overall, the ways in which the theme of “breast cancer awareness” manifests are much more problematic and offensive than they are positive or helpful. Those who actually have a desire to combat this disease should not participate in the gimmicks of the month.
The worst part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is the inevitable “pink-washing” of literally everything. Suddenly companies are selling pink t-shirts, pink sports jerseys, pink bracelets, pink notebooks, pink housewares—the list goes on. This is offensive for two reasons. Firstly, it feminizes breast cancer and makes it pretty. Pink is lovely, bright, optimistic and girly. Having breast cancer is none of these things. Breast cancer is not a tool you can use to market a line of products. Breast cancer does not feel pink or beautiful at all, and wearing pink does nothing to help those who are suffering. Wearing pink sends an empty, nonspecific message. It would be better to actively promote women getting screened and knowing warning signs of cancer than to own a dyed NFL jersey.
Secondly, many well-intended people will buy these products because they truly believe it is a helpful gesture; they are misled into thinking that the profits will be donated to the American Cancer Society or to research. The assumption that the money will be donated is largely untrue. As an example, the NFL donates only about 11 percent of the profits from its pink merchandise to the American Cancer Society. Rather than effectively helping to fund research, it seems more likely that they are using breast cancer as a cause to boost their own bottom line (at minimum about 13 percent of the profit goes back to the NFL, often more). This is despicable.
Here’s another problem I have with Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the movement in general: The Keep a Breast Foundation. Although you may be unfamiliar with the name of the organization itself, you are surely familiar with its most popular product, the “I Love Boobies” wristbands. The absolute baseness of this campaign is unbelievable. Many will think I’m being oversensitive, but I challenge you to consider the message that this campaign is effectively sending. The message is this: “You should care about fighting breast cancer because boobs are great! In fact, you should value the boobs over the woman that they belong to! Women are worth saving because if they die from this disease, we can no longer objectify them or enjoy looking at their breasts!” The foundation is called “Keep a Breast.” They couldn’t be any more explicit about what they are valuing. And how terrible is it for women—strong, determined, impressive women who are fighting to beat a disease that is destroying their body and their will—to hear that they are only worth keeping around because of their body parts? Semantics aside, the Keep A Breast Foundation has an equally terrible track record when it comes to actually and effectively serving the cause and assisting in the fight against breast cancer.
I looked up Keep a Breast’s financial statement on their website. While the company made $2.9 million in 2011, they only donated about $140,000 to research endeavors, which is a little less than 5 percent of their profits. Additionally, the money that they kept for themselves is vaguely allocated for “programs” that “educate” and “bring awareness,” but even after browsing their website for a good while it was unclear to me what exactly Keep a Breast does to raise awareness, other than spreading around more pink merchandise that make people think about breast cancer.
While it may have been unfair to only mention the NFL and Keep a Breast in my tirade against Breast Cancer Awareness month, know that my overall point is larger. They are not the only two organizations that participate in the problematic madness of October, but they demonstrate the type of disappointing behavior that you can expect out of many breast cancer awareness campaigns. For those who are genuinely concerned about combating breast cancer and serious about furthering the cause, I would encourage to donate money directly to the American Cancer Society, which is a truly wonderful organization which uses over seventy percent of its revenue to fund research and programs for cancer victims. Don’t use a pink-washed middle man. Go directly to the source. Donate to the ACS or research funds.
Ashley Spinks is an Opinion Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. Her columns usually run on Mondays.
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