Library Journal, in its 133rd year of publication, is the oldest and most comprehensive publication in the library field and serves 100,000 library directors, administrators, and staff in public, academic, and special libraries. I’m very pleased that the journal has featured Pink Ribbon Blues in its 2010 breast cancer awareness month round-up. With the title Tough Questions, Hard Choices, Bette-Lee Fox writes this about Pink Ribbon Blues:
“Sulik…considers the pink ribbon more of a noose around women’s necks than its ubiquitous identification with self-awareness and empowerment, with branding and merchandising usurping the need for greater recognition of the breast cancer experience. ‘Pink ribbon culture is geared more toward encouraging people to feel good about the cause than to acknowledge the often difficult and un-pretty realities of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.’ Provocative, to say the least.”
My hope is that Pink Ribbon Blues will indeed provoke–not an us/them tug of war about whether or not to pink it up, but a thoughtful and introspective discussion of how far we’ve come in the war on breast cancer, where we want to go next, and what we might do to get there.
Though Pink Ribbon Blues thoroughly dissects the pink ribbon culture to show both its intended and unintended consequences, I join a long and reputable line of provocateurs in the call for meaningful action on the breast cancer front. Fran Visco, for instance, is the first president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, and member of its Board of Directors and Executive Committee. She has explained in the past that her own remarks about the limitations of the pink ribbon have often been misconstrued. After the NBCC launched a “Not Just Ribbons” campaign in 2002 to shift attention away from simple awareness messages and toward substantive policy issues, Visco commented in the NBCC’s Call to Action Newsletter:
“Not for one moment would I ask our members to throw away their ribbons. My concern is focused on those who simply wear one—without the concurrent commitment to do the heavy lifting. I believe they are deluding themselves if they believe a symbol is all it takes to eradicate this disease.”
And this is really the point. The pink ribbon has become a common symbol for breast cancer…so common in fact that the symbol blends in with the broader cultural landscape. Pretty. Hopeful. Innocent. Reassuring. Breast cancer, on the other hand, is none of these things. But because the ribbon fits seamlessly into the tableau of American popular culture and mainstream advocacy, the realities of breast cancer –along with the consequences of society’s actions to fight it– are overshadowed by a giant pink monolith.
Two decades or so ago, the pink ribbon worked to remove the stigma of breast cancer. Today, the ribbon hides the disease in plain sight. It’s time to take a closer look.
