I want to sue Susan G. Komen.
I want to sue Playtex gloves, Campbell’s Soup, Glad wrap, and every single corporation making money on the carnage of cancer. I want compensation for the last 7 Octobers shoved down my throat with pink ribbons and “awareness.”
How dare you. My physical rubble, my scars, my rib cage, my bones remember the day my breasts betrayed my body – I still had a baby at home to hold.
How dare you paint me pink. And to place your pink interpretation of my experience on mundane housewife products? Insult, meet injury. I hear some effed-up patriarchal focus group somewhere, dudes kicking back, women wearing men’s suits trying to live with the fact that they sold out. This is what they are saying to me with every pink ribbon: “See…I even own this; you are a woman and you mean nothing more than cleaning products—and if I can, I will whore you out to make money.”
I thought we’d come a long way, baby?
…baby?
Psyche, join hands with your old friend despair, as we walk through the aisles of life in October and are hammered by image after image of a pink ribbon and the plethora of pepto-bismol shaded products I am supposed to buy. Does a kitchen sponge really make a woman get a mammogram? Is the dog food manufacturer really giving money to breast cancer research? I want evidence. I deserve evidence. I want the lab report on the efficacy of the color pink to reduce incidence of breast cancer. I want evidence that demonstrates that just seeing a pink ribbon on a golf ball increases the chance a woman will do a self-examination.
My body was hijacked by a disease at 36 . Hacked up, hacked off. Nerves cut, nodes removed. Home in time to hold my baby and play with my toddler. Dead tissue, dead sexuality, dead eyes meet mine every time I look in the mirror. Each October, my “recovery” is held hostage by corporations who sell their products with pink ribbons on them. Another invasion. Another intrusion. More and more mocking and belittling by those in power. I have to fight to “survive” October.
Oh October, I am tired of surviving you, and the other traumas of invasion that make me qualified to use the word “Survivor”.
Susan G. Komen, Avon, Revlon–you take one good look at my daughter’s 7-year old face when she sees the wreckage of my body. See her naive disgust, confusion, and fear that it will be her fate as well. See her try to piece together why her mother has no breasts, no nipples, no evidence of being a woman. Look directly into her eyes when she asks if she will “get it,” and I dare you to hand her a pink ribbon.
Amen Sister!! I, too, am a breast cancer survivor. I was 32 and that was 14 years ago.
14 years ago, you rarely saw a pink ribbon anywhere. Since pink is my favorite color, I would get so excited if I found a t-shirt or a water bottle that was beribboned in pink.
Now I want to puke. I started getting irritated three years ago when I walked into my grocery store and it looked as if someone threw up Pepto Bismal all over the store. Every year it gets worse.
Komen is clearly the master of the cause related marketing campaign, but haven’t they gone a little too far when one can buy toilet paper and “Wipe for the Cure?
I agree with you regarding the effectiveness of the pink ribbon campaign. It has been a successful awareness campaign, but is it really saving lives? Do women buy pink Yoplait thinking they are doing womankind a service and then go home and schedule a mammogram? Doubt it.
As a survivor, all I can say is get out your buckets, clean the pink puke up, stop putting a pink ribbon on a package when you aren’t going to list the organization the donations are going to, and cut back on the amount of pink used during October…there will eventually be a backlash.
I say we boycott all items in the grocery store that has a pink ribbon…wait, I already do.
First let me start off by saying. I have unlimited amounts of respect for all cancer surviors. My Aunt, my best friend, passed away 3 years ago in Aug from breast cancer. My grandmother is currently fighting breast cancer, which has spread to her lungs. My grandfather is fighting prostate cancer. And Me, Im 26 and 2 years ago I had an abnormal pap, which lead to a biopsy. They found pre cancerous cells and now I have cervical cancer. I am debabting my treatment options as I would still like to have more children. I do see pink everywhere. But, it reminds we of who I have lost, who is still fighting and it reminds me to fight. I wish that I saw teal and white ribbons displayed. I wish that people were more aware of cervical cancer and HPV. Most people don’t know that at least 50% of sexually active women will get HPV at some point in their lives. Most people don’t know that this can affect you at any age and that it can be treated if caught early. I didn’t know. I admitt to not getting regular check ups because im young and didn’t think this could happen to me. The only reason my cancer was found was because I was pregnant. I only wish I had been bombarded with awarness instead of having none at all.
This was so powerful. I never saw it that way. But as someone who really hasn’t been affected by breast cancer…I don’t know what else to do to show you that I care! So I wear the pink. I buy the soup. I just want to help.
It’s disgusting that America has gone from Hallmark holidays to Hallmark diseases. What’s worse is that the “pink” products aimed at younger generations say things like “Save the Ta-Tas” or “I <3 Boobs," which lead to facebook updates about bra colors or facetiously sexy quips about where they like to put their purses. Since when has cancer been sexy?
read this post and thought I agree because I have a basic resentment where I work because we go all kinds of crazy about breast cancer awareness because one of us ladies battled cancer, but I’m a heart patient and no one ever wants to do the red thing in February. So I’ve chalked it up to “just me”. But I just realized that the gum I always get has pink ribbons on each piece of gum. Because gum is going to remind me to get a mammo next year? Wow. I’m sorry you have to see all the reminders this time a year. Glad you’re still with us.
Let’s class action that shit. I’m in