It seems that all throughout October when I go shopping I have to look like a dick at the check out counter when the worker ask if I would like to make a donation to breast cancer and I just say no with a stern voice.
I can honestly say that I have had enough awareness of breast cancer. Did I mention that I'm a feminist? Oh, why am I taking this stand? Well, as a feminist I would like to make sure that there is gender equality across the board. That neither gender is getting favoritism due to packing a penis or a vagina. That is, after all gender equality for one and all, right?
Besides that, it's pretty insulting to sum up woman's cancer concerns with just breast cancer. As well as having your sickness used as a tool by corporate America to sell more yogurt. I suppose spreading awareness is one thing, but making an iPod pink so you can feel better about ignoring homeless beggars isn't, guess what all the 13-30 year old do it for.
Oh wow, breast get cancer like any other part of the human body? Who would have thought! This is useful information, thanks for making me aware! The whole thing is just fake feminism co-opted for business purposes in the worst way. There's identity politics issues even with stuff like the March of Dimes, but it's practically insignificant compared to Susan G. Komen consumerist trash.
I'm not going to deny that cancer sucks, but this whole Pink Ribbon shit is just a corporate scam and screenings on a whole are excessive. And don't give me this notion that "dude, it's your mother/sister/girlfriend". It doesn't change the fact that the real cancer here is the corporate menace that has made a fortune fear mongering 51% of our population's tits.
Here's a quote from a random google search on the subject.
There is no other disease that we try to eradicate by going shopping. We are bombarded with all manner of wonderful pink things we can buy to raise money to help fight breast cancer. Everything from makeup to a line of clothing from the Ford Motor Company. Never mind that the makeup contains ingredients linked to cancer and auto exhaust contains known carcinogens, it's all for a good cause.
These pink charities give such a tiny amount of the proceeds to actual breast cancer research. The rest goes to paying cost of the promotions. Basically, just give your money to cancer societies directly. You may not have a cute little pink ribbon to show off to your friends that you donated money, but it will actually be put to good use in cancer fighting.
Most of all, people probably should donate to research instead of awareness. I mean, not much point in being aware of something if there's no potential cure in the works other than chopping off a boob. We're in the 21st century, man. We shouldn't have to live with slicing off cleavage. Breast cancer isn't even particularly deadly as far as cancers go. It has something like an 80-85% five year survival rate compared to say, 12% for lung cancer. However breast cancer absolutely dominates for no good reason.
Why is it that there's boobies awareness and yet my prostate goes unnoticed and unappreciated?! Huh?! You tell me, fine American reading audience. Maybe it's because boobs are a lot nicer to look at than a prostate. You don't say "Man, those jeans really make your prostate look fuller." or "Nice prostate, is it real?"
I'll tell you why no one cares. From what I understand based on something I heard once from a guy or on NPR, people diagnosed with prostate cancer will most likely die of something else before ass orgasm cancer ever has a chance to finish them off. The French don't even care about it and it's only an issue when it hits some has-been comedian.
The main reason why I flip out about breast and prostate cancer in the US is that because of all the false positives we treat thanks to our retarded counterproductive pointless screening and "awareness", it makes our cancer survivor statistics look fucking amazing because people were never going to die of cancer miraculously end up not dying of cancer.
Here's why the screenings are a bit pointless. With the constant media and political pressure to get awareness out there, the targeted groups move further away from the at-risk groups. So you have more people who were never at risk to begin with raising the survivor %. There are a lot of studies about where the effective cut off point are for various screenings but these will be continually ignored in America as evidence of some sort of death panels.
If the bloated US medical establishment insisted on you irradiating your lungs with X-rays once a year, and then triumphantly pointed to a particularly sticky lump of phlegm while saying "Oh no, maybe yous got cancer herceptin biopsy chemotherapy oh, that'll be $200,000 please" while your insurance company gleefully rubbed it stomach with one hand and with the other underlined useful little bullshit no-coverage circumstances in your policy, we might have similarly impressive survival rates.
Not to mention that over screenings are a negative thing when it starts wasting limited medical resources.
Maybe it's catered this way because women still do the majority of shopping in the household. So it really just boils down to being a marketing gimmick to get women to buy the products. It's pretty evident that society doesn't value a woman who has small or no breast, so the marketing here is about saving boobs. Which simply enforces stereotypes that women have about their body images and presentation to others they encounter. Making sure that they don't have to resort to having them lopped off is incentive enough to frantically checked more than regularly needed.
In short, other cancers re just not as sexy.
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