All right, all right, it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I GET IT.

[St.Anger]

@Zsofia

Heart disease is in February and if you don’t wear a red dress you’re ostracized in the lunch room.

But doesn’t that kind of crib into Black History Month?

[dalej42]

Wow, this note from Peter King’s weekly football column struck me as the breast cancer movement going too far:

…
9. Since when did it become OK for flight attendants to pass the hat for a cause? I’m all in favor of breast-cancer research and fund-raising, but on airplanes? Every leg of every Delta flight? On an early-morning Delta flight, one flight attendant told us she’d let us sleep as long as we donated enough money (chuckling), but then semi-strong-armed us (‘We can do better than $315, folks!’') when the first passing of the hat didn’t result in enough money for her liking. I’d be interested in your responses on this, but it struck me as a little creepy.…

Here is the link to the entire article, although the remainder of the article deals with NFL football.

I’d feel uncomfortable if the priest at church made a ‘only $315’ comment during the offering at church. I can’t even imagine my reaction if it was a guilt trip attempt by a flight attendant!

[Marley23]

@Smeghead

Yes - I think the worst possible solution to this problem is a massive profusion of other colors/ribbons/slogans/yadda/yadda/yadda.

Hell, they’re fucking out of ribbon colors at this point. (I posted a list in the other thread.) They’re onto LiveStrong-style rubber bracelets now.

@dalej42

Wow, this note from Peter King’s weekly football column struck me as the breast cancer movement going too far:

I read that, too. It’s inappropriate.

[Ann_Onimous]

Just remember: November is Diabetes Awareness month. And gray is a much nicer color.

[Marley23]

I guess that makes sense. Everybody wears gray and in a few years everybody’s going to have diabetes. :rolleyes:

[StGermain]

Hijack -

Marley - How’s your brother doing?

StG

[Magiver]

@St.Anger

But doesn’t that kind of crib into Black History Month?

So take an African American woman to lunch and talk about Dr. Charles Drew’s promotion of plasma techniques. You’re covered.

[jsc1953]

@Marley23

Just as a cross reference, there’s a thread about this in MPSIMS, and in January there was a sorta-related Great Debates thread called “Politically Correct Cancer.”

Thanks for remembering (I opened that PC cancer thread).

I think it is a chicken-egg cycle; there are a lot of breast cancer survivors, which make for good fund-raising stories, so funds get raised, so there are more breast cancer survivors.

Meanwhile, lung cancer kills more women than breast cancer does. It would be interesting to calculate fund-raised dollars/case, and fund-raised dollars/death, for each type of cancer.

[rocking_chair]

peter chriss (orig cat - drummer of kiss), richard roundtree (orig. shaft) and a former senator of mass. are famous men who had breast cancer. also there seems to be a high rate of breast cancer in marines and sons of marines who were at camp lejuene.

mr. chriss has breast cancer in the women of his family and was rather surprised to find out it could hit the men in the family as well. mr. roundtree had a mastectomy and the senator from mass. had a double radical.

perhaps there could be a darking of the pink for male breast cancer. something more like a faded red? remember pink was the boys colour for quite some time. perhaps they should try to bring it back.

[schnuckiputzi]

This is a family gripe for me, too. I have lymphoma, whose color is light green. You can’t find ribbons/toasters/yogurt lids for lymphoma, now can you?! :rolleyes:

[PunditLisa]

I have five friends who have recently battled, or are currently battling, breast cancer. All in their 40s. All moms.

Re the NFL: There’s something about the juxtaposition of a big, burly football player wearing pink arm bands that I find very touching.

Our tennis league has been wearing pink shirts all month as a sign of support. One of my friends, who is now missing her boobs thanks to a mastectomy in Nov 2008, was moved to tears at the sight.

I could be wrong, but I believe breast cancer is one of the diseases that’s on the rise, though the survival rate is getting better. That alone is worthy of note.

[scout1222]

I get pink fatigue too. I stumbled onto this book recently, and have marked it to-read:

Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy

[jsc1953]

@PunditLisa

I could be wrong, but I believe breast cancer is one of the diseases that’s on the rise, though the survival rate is getting better. That alone is worthy of note.

It looks like both incidence and mortality are down.

[Marley23]

@PunditLisa

I could be wrong, but I believe breast cancer is one of the diseases that’s on the rise, though the survival rate is getting better. That alone is worthy of note.

It’s being detected more often, and earlier, but that doesn’t mean incidence is up.

Tangentially related to this, here’s a New York Times story that shows the American Cancer Society is revising its message on screening for prostate and breast cancer, and saying the benefits of screening for the diseases have been exaggerated.

If breast and prostate cancer screening really fulfilled their promise, the researchers note, cancers that once were found late, when they were often incurable, would now be found early, when they could be cured. A large increase in early cancers would be balanced by a commensurate decline in late-stage cancers. That is what happened with screening for colon and cervical cancers. But not with breast and prostate cancer.

[Susanann]

@whiterabbit

I know why people wear the ribbons and stuff, it’s so they feel like they’ve done something even if they haven’t, and anyway, who is going to be for cancer of any form? .

You nailed it.

That is exactly why.

[Recliner]

@athelas

Prostate cancer is the comparable sex-specific one, and no there is no comparable “awareness initiative.”

And on that angle, how many men put off or never get screening for their prostate, vs women not getting mammograms? I’d be surprised if all the “awareness-raising” is being best-spent, here.

[Odesio]

@St.Anger

And just exactly what does all this wearing pink accomplish? Does it really raise that much money?

I don’t know if it raises money but I think a lot of organizations see it as a way to advertise themselves. It’s more about moving their product than it is about raising awareness or money for breast cancer.

It cant be to remind women to get exams----since most of the NASCAR and NFL audience is male.

A few years ago the NFL started to make an effort to appeal to females. Even if more men enjoy football than women I bet a lot of women watch simply because a male member of the household is watching. I’ve also see prostate commercials aimed at women so aiming something at men for breast cancer might make sense. No, it wasn’t to prevent prostate cancer in women it was to get women to encourage the men in their lives to get prostate exams.

Why do I suspect this is some sort of effort at political correctness? “We may be big macho football players and good 'ol boy race car drivers, but we aint afraid to do something girly to show we care about the wimmens!”

I disagree entirely. It isn’t about political correctness it’s about sex. Other forms of cancer and heart disease don’t get this kind of air time because they’re not as sexy as breasts. It ties into using sex to move product.

Look, I’m not saying that Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a BAD thing. And I understand certain diseases have stronger advocacy groups than others because of the people behind the movement, regardless of actual fatalities.

If it makes you feel any better there are breast cancer patients who have some problems with the way pink is being used. Some of them feel as though companies are using their misery and misfortune to pimp their products.

Odesio