If, like me, you caved in to the Changing Your Facebook Status Update Could Help Cure Breast Cancer pressure and put the colour of your bra up for all your fb friends to see, you will probably feel stink, like me, after reading this excellent post at The F Word.
A FB friend which a penchant for radical cross-stitching also pointed out to me that Breast Cancer Awareness Week was initiated by a major drug company. Shades of Herceptin Heroes.
It makes me sad.
7 comments:
I find the consumerism of the entire breast cancer awareness industry pretty horrific. I don't think it's anything like as bad here as in the US, but there are still shades of it. Barbara Ehrenreich's "Welcome to Cancerland" is an absolutely brilliant essay on the subject; http://bcaction.org/index.php?page=welcome-to-cancerland
The Breast Cancer Action website as a whole is worth a look too.
Yet another brilliant take on the bra colors;
http://toddlerplanet.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/in-the-name-of-awareness/
I recommend this as a good starting point for anyone wanting to learn more about these issues http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=War_on_Cancer
There's also a really nice bit about the effects of patent law on cancer research in the RiP: A Remix Manifesto doco. Totally worth a watch.
Cancer research is so so problematic but the emotional rhetoric around the issue is so strong it's easy for us not to question what's really going on.
I read the fword blog and it annoyed me, I did post my bra colour and so did many of my friends, I didnt do it childishly but because I have close friends and family who have been effected by cancer. I figured if something trivial could make someone think about breast cancer for even a minute that it was worth it.
I hadnt even thought about it as being sexist or using sex to promote a cause, I just thought it was a neat way to promote a cause without urging me to buy something pink
Azlemed, my problem is that while some are doing it out of support for family/friends, others with equally personal links are pained by the sight of these things. Point is, those sending the mails round didn't bother to ask who was who.
I posted my bra colour for the same reason why I take quizzes to see which Dr Who character I am. I'm bored and mucking around on facebook.
I don't care about people knowing what colour my bra is because quite frequently I wear clothing where some small portion of it is visible.
I did not once think of the women who were not wearing bras because they no longer had no need of them. I feel truly awful about playing my part in causing them pain.
Oh that's what it was about? I was quite confused by it all. I didn't realise it was a bra/breast cancer thing at all.
Damn I'm slow.
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