But I have to get this off my chest. I'm kind of sick of the media blitz that Susan G. Komen For the Cure has created in its bid to end breast cancer. Granted, men can get breast cancer too and their work towards early detection is important, but it is not the only cancer that women can get. Maybe men keep their breast cancer diagnoses quiet, because breast cancer is seen more of a woman's illness.
Pink stuff is everywhere. Oriental Trading has pages of pink stuff. Pink kitchen appliances. Pink gloves and football cleats in the NFL. Hell, event he Pittsburgh Steelers have pink Terrible Towels for sale.
I guess if your cancer affects how you fill out a shirt, then it's more important than female cancers that can't be seen. If your rack is affected by cancer, is it more important because of the sexualized views Americans have about breasts? What about uterine cancer? Cervical cancer? Ovarian cancer? Fallopian tube cancer? God, it seems like testicular cancer gets more health coverage than those cancers, because Lance Armstrong has been the coverboy for it for years now.
I don't begrudge him his recovery. But still...what does uterine cancer get? My mom has had it for years, so it's more important to me than cancer of the ta-ta's. The color of the uterine cancer ribbon is peach. Peach? Seriously? Uterine cancer can't even have it's own color of ribbon and awareness? It gets a variation of pink and the damn Susan Komen group? It's unrelated!
I know I sound bitter, and I don't care anymore. I worked for a medical non-profit for seven years. Now I work for a home health agency. I see illness and death in a variety of ways and still, that pink ribbon and breast cancer awareness is more prevalent than all others. It kind of makes me sick, and it makes me wonder: is Susan G. Komen for the Cure the cancer monopoly, overriding all others, or do other female cancers just lack the same tenacity and loyalty to their causes that the Komen group has? My mom has said she's not trying to raise awareness of her cancer, nor is she trying to raise money for its study. All the studies on uterine cancer before she got it hasn't discovered a cure yet, she said. And I tend to agree with her.
So there, I got my whineys off my chest and I feel a little better.
They put the pink ribbon on those once a year but the pink terrible towel is a year round thing in Pittsburgh. You can also get pink jerseys. The Steelers are like the messiahs of football in Pittsburgh and they did it to cater to the ladies. Doesn't make it any less awful to look at though.
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree with you on the attention front. I don't know why breast cancer is so much more publicized than any other cancer. I guess maybe the John Smith Prostate 5K looks funny on a t-shirt.
Personally, I think a John Smith Prostate 5K shirt would rock. :)
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