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“Cancer charities which work with less glamorous cancers, bowel, lung, pancreatic for example, let alone charities working with distinctly unfashionable diseases…mental health charities and Alzheimers… envy the ease with which consumers spend on pink products, though some cancer charities may welcome the ‘trickle down’ effect.” –comment to The New York Times article Pink Ribbon Fatigue What is it . . . → Read More: Unfashionable Diseases and Less Glamorous Cancers Writing to you from the Texas Book Festival in Austin. The post on the Birth of the Perpetual Fundraising Industry prompted Anna, diagnosed with breast cancer at age 33, to ask a vital question. She writes: “The vested interests in my continuing decline in health are staggering and frightening. But if we’re talking about this from . . . → Read More: Economic Interests On the first day of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (2010) GoComics published the comic strip Non Sequiter by Wiley Miller. It explains the “Birth of the Perpetual Fundraising Industry.” When approached by a dragonslayer, the dragon offers a rational explanation as to why sparing its life would be a win-win proposition. The dragon says: “Look. You’re dead . . . → Read More: Birth of the Perpetual Fundraising Industry Sharon Blynn is beautiful. And, she’s bald. Diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the age of 28, Blynn lost her hair to chemotherapy. What was initially an emotionally devastating experience turned into a mission to expand notions of beauty to include bald women. After completing her treatment she started Bald is Beautiful to “flip the script” and show that women could . . . → Read More: Featuring Sharon Blynn and JaneRA An Excerpt from Pink Ribbon Blues— In the early 1990s, it seemed as though society was ready to confront breast cancer. Breast cancer activism was starting to gain momentum in extending public outreach, increasing research funding, and gaining a seat at the public policy table. In August 1993, the New York Times Magazine published a story about the achievements of . . . → Read More: Remembrance Talking about gender, says Sociologist Judith Lorber, is for most people the equivalent of fish talking about water. It is so common, routine, pervasive, and normal– that “questioning its taken-for-granted assumptions…is like wondering whether the sun will come up.” It seems natural and predictable. The same is true for pink. Pink ribbons are so commonplace that we’ve just gotten used . . . → Read More: Swimming In A Sea of Pink During National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM, which is co-sponsored by the American Cancer Society and pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca), pink ribbons and products abound. Supermarkets, shopping malls, television shows, billboards, and workplaces brim with products and inspirational stories from pink ribbon culture. The media-friendly interplay of femininity and cancer culture provides a light, entertaining depiction of breast cancer that obscures . . . → Read More: Pink Kitsch, Brought To You By NBCAM |
"women urged to get screened because it might save their lives. But that’s only 1 possible outcome, and it’s the least likely one" @cragcrest cutt.ly/jei8WJr 
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