# E. Nough. With. The. Pink. Al. Ready. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 28, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869 "2013-09-28T15:37:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/21 "2013-09-28T18:32:18Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > In all seriousness, it’s the combination that bothers me. There’s no evidence that “Breast Cancer Awareness” has changed a single person’s life; I think it would be hard to be an adult woman in a Western nation without having been made aware of the need for “awareness.” Like most health risks that can remain hidden, it does need some awareness effort, but as **saje** put it well, no more so than at least a dozen other silent killers. > > Couple that with the fact that we’ve made almost zero progress on cancer since the maturation of testing and surgical intervention, and the whole notion of hyper-awareness gets a little absurd. > > Couple that with the massive and overwhelming marketing tool the whole “Paint It Pink” movement has created, and the fact that it feeds and benefits retail marketing a lot more than the welfare of past, present or future cancer victims. > > And hitch on the whole concept of trival-to-useless feel-good efforts boosted in place of anything that might really be effective or meaningful, and… _gah_. You are just a big meanie who hates breasts and [anything soft](http://www.betabrand.com/vajamas-drawstring-pants.html). Is what people might say. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/22 "2013-09-28T18:36:44Z")
Most people don’t know that breast cancer is not just a women’s disease. It’s diagnosed about 1,000 times a year in men in the United States. Original KISS drummer Peter Criss has spoken extensively about this; he for one did not know that the disease existed until he was diagnosed with it. Best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich is a BCS, and when she was diagnosed, she was given what amounted to a souvenir catalogue, and she’s said many times that the “Breast Cancer Bear” was the most demeaning thing she had ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/23 "2013-09-28T18:44:27Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > You are just a big meanie who hates breasts… The way WC Fields, Dean Martin and Norm hated alcohol. Absolutely nothing demeaning intended, but people who come down with a widely occurring illness and suddenly get very vocally, personally public about it don’t arouse any special sympathy in me, nor do I regard them as selfless public spokesbeings. They are like every other person who was dealt a sudden and unexpected hurt, and worth every bit of individual sympathy and understanding, but their tumor doesn’t give them a halo or (necessarily) a worthwhile voice. ETA: Especially when, as in the case of breast cancer, all they can do is flog tired maxims about “awareness” and “doing something.” If 50+ years of research hasn’t found The Cure, your blog, t-shirt and bumper sticker sure ain’t gonna. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/24 "2013-09-28T18:52:36Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > …and require **BREAST CANCER AWARENESS** to be raised by putting a handsome color photo of a breast - say, one of that year’s [Miss October’s](https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000416291118/bd9a6dd6e997db1fe7eb87b63c95e042.jpeg) - on every retail product in the store. Well, _my_ awareness is aroused. I second this OP. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/25 "2013-09-28T18:53:14Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > OK, but what if some self-entitled rich white woman’s sister dies of anal cancer? Sheayyhh… White people suck!! ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/26 "2013-09-28T20:06:59Z")
A local (Chicago area) hospital group has big-ass pink banners all over Union Station with the tagline [Stories of the Girls](http://www.storiesofthegirls.com/). Tee-hee. Aren’t you clever. :rolleyes: I hate the commercialization and marketing of a disease as something cutesy. Plus lots of these products don’t even [help anything breast cancer-related all that much](http://thinkbeforeyoupink.org/). ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/27 "2013-09-28T20:50:51Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Plus lots of these products don’t even [help anything breast cancer-related all that much](http://thinkbeforeyoupink.org/). The ones that “legitimately” use the ribbon, color and come-on donate some related fraction of sales to ACS and/or Komen. There is widespread… well, is it piracy if you decide to sell your product in pink shrinkwrap during October? Let’s call it coat-tailing. Awareness drafting. Stealth awareness. Or just another retailing shuck. It takes us months to get rid of pink packaging after a typical October, even trying to avoid the boobie brands. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/28 "2013-09-28T20:58:47Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > . . . There’s no evidence that “Breast Cancer Awareness” has changed a single person’s life . . . It’s helped raise a little money for basic research. That might have sped progress and save a few lives. I know a bloke who runs in the various 5K and 10K runs, and occasional marathons, and he gets some non-trivial pledges. It may be a small contribution, but why not? At least it isn’t doing any harm, is it? (I suppose one might object that, in a zero-sum world of limited donations, it’s taking away money that might go to some other life-saving research. Ah, well: let the free market sort it out…) ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/29 "2013-09-28T21:02:43Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Everyone who is “unaware” of **BREAST CANCER** , raise your hand… thought so. > > I have enough issues with the wonderful world of retailing that I don’t need to see a sea of pink products reminding us to think about **BREAST CANCER** for yet another month. > > I propose that if we have to have a full month of **BREAST CANCER AWARENESS** every year, that we quit screwing around with pink batteries, pink dusters, pink shopping bags, pink soap, pink socks, pink tools, pink everything… > > …and require **BREAST CANCER AWARENESS** to be raised by putting a handsome color photo of a breast - say, one of that year’s [Miss October’s](https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000416291118/bd9a6dd6e997db1fe7eb87b63c95e042.jpeg) - on every retail product in the store. > > After all, the entire purpose is to sell more product and make people feel good in that useless, save-the-pull-tabs way, so we may as well move on from pink to boob. The retail world and ACS and Komen seem to take us all for boobs in this respect, so let’s put a little real boob in the mix. Aren’t most of the consumers who buy the Pink Shit women? I’m pretty sure that putting pictures of titties on products would result in fewer sales to women. Yeah, some men might buy the shit, but not enough to make up for the loss of the women’s dollars. > [@Psychopants](#): > > Don’t forget the komen/planned parenthood debacle last year. After fundraising over $20k for them over a 3-year period, I will never give them another dime. I don’t support Komen any more. PP was one of their greatest allies in fighting breast cancer. I did give PP $250 this year, after listening to Mike Huckabee foam at the mouth about them on the radio. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/30 "2013-09-28T21:10:41Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > It’s helped raise a little money for basic research. Vanishingly small, against government grants and major philanthropic donations. It also tends to go to ACS, which is the poster child for, “Well, this approach hasn’t worked before but if we run 100 more trials on it we might learn something.” > [@](#): > > It may be a small contribution, but why not? At least it isn’t doing any harm, is it? Being benign doesn’t mean it’s good. As you say, at a certain point it’s drawing donations away from other needful and productive charities and efforts, and to very little end purpose. For every case of someone “contributing” to The Cure for their feel-good instead of finding a less-hawked, more worthy charity, it’s arguably a negative. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/31 "2013-09-28T21:34:04Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Aren’t most of the consumers who buy the Pink Shit women? I always assumed women were smart enough to see through it, and all the Pink Shit was bought by men (for women). ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/32 "2013-09-28T22:05:27Z")
I think it might appeal more to women - women who haven’t really thought it through and think no further than “helping fight breast cancer is good.” Which is all the retail hustlers want you to think about such things, really. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/33 "2013-09-28T22:24:04Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Being benign doesn’t mean it’s good. As you say, at a certain point it’s drawing donations away from other needful and productive charities and efforts, and to very little end purpose. For every case of someone “contributing” to The Cure for their feel-good instead of finding a less-hawked, more worthy charity, it’s arguably a negative. Plus, their bullshit aggressive “defending” of the “for the Cure” trademark. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/34 "2013-09-28T22:34:16Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > The way WC Fields, Dean Martin and Norm hated alcohol. > > Absolutely nothing demeaning intended, but people who come down with a widely occurring illness and suddenly get very vocally, personally public about it don’t arouse any special sympathy in me, nor do I regard them as selfless public spokesbeings. They are like every other person who was dealt a sudden and unexpected hurt, and worth every bit of individual sympathy and understanding, but their tumor doesn’t give them a halo or (necessarily) a worthwhile voice. > > ETA: Especially when, as in the case of breast cancer, all they can do is flog tired maxims about “awareness” and “doing something.” If 50+ years of research hasn’t found The Cure, your blog, t-shirt and bumper sticker sure ain’t gonna. Ditto mothers of autistic children. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/35 "2013-09-28T22:36:16Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I actually like the color pink, and I think it’s a stupid gimmick. > > I got these really cute exercise tops in two different shades of pink, the only problem was the ugly breast cancer ribbon on the front of each of them. Totally cramps my style. > > I’ve seen a lot of good feminist critiques of the breast cancer movement. Probably one of the best ones came from a woman who was actively dying of breast cancer, sort of resenting the implication that breast cancer is this thing that can be ‘‘overcome’’ with guuurl power. She’d have experiences where her ‘‘negativity’’ was not appreciated by other breast cancer survivors. You know, when she was talking about how much it sucked to be dying of breast cancer. Then there’s the association of these movements with ultra-feminine gender roles, lipstick high-heels and motherhood. A lot of people end up left out. There are women who are lucky enough that they get to be ultra-positive and see it as a source of their strength. But there are also women who are bitter and angry and have every right to feel that way. Someone wrote a letter to my local newspaper stating that women die from breast cancer because of sexism, and a local oncologist replied, “You can have regular screenings and still die. You can have a woman doctor and still die. You can BE a woman doctor and still die.” And the last I heard, men still die from testicular and prostate cancer, and I don’t see anyone screaming sexism there, do I? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/36 "2013-09-28T22:37:16Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > OK, but what if some self-entitled rich white woman’s sister dies of anal cancer? This was the disease that killed Farrah Fawcett. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/37 "2013-09-28T22:42:49Z")
> [@Turek](#): > > Plus, their bullshit aggressive “defending” of the “for the Cure” trademark. Yes. I failed to say above that it’s become a great deal more about the retailing opportunity than anything else. At all. That’s why it’s a bad thing/does harm; it is using a real, deadly, widespread disease to sell batteries and swiffers. Even on my scale, that’s egregious and filthy. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Ditto mothers of autistic children. Especially the ones that bypassed all the effective therapies for the feel-good ones and now have no idea what to do with their lethally large and strong 15-year-old who goes off when she runs out of strawberry jam. It was too much trouble to stick with an ABA program; much more fun to go ride horsies and put puzzle ribbons on the car. And now whine about it in a blog. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Someone wrote a letter to my local newspaper stating that women die from breast cancer because of sexism… I don’t and never have gotten this one. Women tend to see doctors more than men and every woman I’ve known has bitched because their PC or Gyno was forever after them about pelvics and mammograms. Where does “sexism” let women die of an unheralded breast tumor? ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/38 "2013-09-28T22:44:10Z")
Here is Coventry, Rhode Island we have a full sized, completely fitted out, hook and ladder, pink … … fire truck. Shoot me now. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/39 "2013-09-28T22:45:47Z")
That actually kind of cool. Pink police cars would be cooler though. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869/40 "2013-09-28T22:47:29Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > That actually kind of cool. Pink police cars would be cooler though. We have that as well. They usually appear as a team. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-nough-with-the-pink-al-ready/669869.md?page=3)