It's October again.
This is the month that pink ribbons get into full swing, the NFL pinkwashes and promotes misinformation, along with countless other corporations. It's absolute madness.
And believe me, I once bought into it, too. I did the Race for the Cure and wore the pink ribbon. I did the Race for Marilyn, my friend who I lost to breast cancer, and for Jessie's mom.
But then, I started digging.
Here's the bottom line: the same number of people will die this year from breast cancer that died from it in 1987, pre-Pink. The numbers have not changed in nearly thirty years.
Awareness campaigns these days are simply overkill -- and mammograms don't help prevent metastasis. 30% of people who get an earlier stage breast cancer, despite any and all treatment options, including yearly mammograms, will metastasize and die from this disease -- that number, too, has not changed in decades.
So Races for the Cure are really just Races to Fund More Races with Pink Balloons.
Pink ribbons on your purchases do.not.help.find.a.cure.
Stop thinking they do, please. If you just like pink stuff, fine. But do not be deceived that your dollars on that stuff are going anywhere to help find a cure for this disease.
It's not happening.
Instead, each year, we get more and more insane pinkwashing from corporations who like to tout how much they are doing for women with breast cancer.
Seriously?? You cannot make this stuff up. Baker Hughes' drilling is fracking. Fracking has 25 known carcinogens involved. But, hey, that pink drill bit is doing so much "for a cure"! Absolute madness.
Komen in particular will sell its soul to any corporation, no matter how unhealthy it might be, to make a buck. Junk foods, alcohol, cosmetics, all with cancer-causing agents, get to pinkwash themselves in the Komen fountain. And those bucks are ploughed right back into the same things that do nothing to fund real research for a cure.
You can see more Hall of Shame entries here. Over and over, breast cancer is winked at and/or sexualized, corporations go on a money grab, and the real victims of the disease shout as loudly as they can without really being heard, "STOP THIS MADNESS!"
Slowly, so slowly that another 40,000 women will die each year for the foreseeable future, their voices are cutting through the pink nightmare.
The Washington Post actually published this over the weekend, and it seems to be getting some visibility, which is a start.
I Survived Breast Cancer but I Hate Breast Cancer Awareness Month
This is the month that pink ribbons get into full swing, the NFL pinkwashes and promotes misinformation, along with countless other corporations. It's absolute madness.
And believe me, I once bought into it, too. I did the Race for the Cure and wore the pink ribbon. I did the Race for Marilyn, my friend who I lost to breast cancer, and for Jessie's mom.
But then, I started digging.
Here's the bottom line: the same number of people will die this year from breast cancer that died from it in 1987, pre-Pink. The numbers have not changed in nearly thirty years.
All that pink crap you're buying isn't doing crap for a cure!
Awareness campaigns these days are simply overkill -- and mammograms don't help prevent metastasis. 30% of people who get an earlier stage breast cancer, despite any and all treatment options, including yearly mammograms, will metastasize and die from this disease -- that number, too, has not changed in decades.
So Races for the Cure are really just Races to Fund More Races with Pink Balloons.
Pink ribbons on your purchases do.not.help.find.a.cure.
Stop thinking they do, please. If you just like pink stuff, fine. But do not be deceived that your dollars on that stuff are going anywhere to help find a cure for this disease.
It's not happening.
Instead, each year, we get more and more insane pinkwashing from corporations who like to tout how much they are doing for women with breast cancer.
Seriously?? You cannot make this stuff up. Baker Hughes' drilling is fracking. Fracking has 25 known carcinogens involved. But, hey, that pink drill bit is doing so much "for a cure"! Absolute madness.
Komen in particular will sell its soul to any corporation, no matter how unhealthy it might be, to make a buck. Junk foods, alcohol, cosmetics, all with cancer-causing agents, get to pinkwash themselves in the Komen fountain. And those bucks are ploughed right back into the same things that do nothing to fund real research for a cure.
You can see more Hall of Shame entries here. Over and over, breast cancer is winked at and/or sexualized, corporations go on a money grab, and the real victims of the disease shout as loudly as they can without really being heard, "STOP THIS MADNESS!"
Slowly, so slowly that another 40,000 women will die each year for the foreseeable future, their voices are cutting through the pink nightmare.
The Washington Post actually published this over the weekend, and it seems to be getting some visibility, which is a start.
I Survived Breast Cancer but I Hate Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Please, if you want to donate money to finding a cure, do it responsibly, with your eyes wide open.
Do your research. Consider funding Metavivor instead of buying that pink cocktail at the bar.
Don't be hoodwinked another year by the pinkwashing. Do it for your loved ones who might still be here if those billions had actually been put into real metastatic research for all these years. Do it for those who are hanging on with hope that someone might discover something very soon, if only there were grants to fund the discoveries. Do it for your daughters and nieces who might stand a chance with their own diagnoses in the coming years. Don't be pinkwashed another minute.
Photo credit: http://wellnessachiever.net/breast-cancer-awareness-causes-breast-cancer/
For more info, please visit the Metavivor Site here.
And the Breast Cancer Action "Think Before You Pink" site here.
And the Breast Cancer Action "Think Before You Pink" site here.
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