My siblings and I lost our sweet stepmother to breast cancer in August, after battling the disease on and off for 18 years. After 6 weeks, everything turned pink, as it happens every October. At my gym, Wednesdays are even designated as “wear pink day.” On the first Wednesday of this month, I fought back tears as the boot camp class warmed up and everyone watched as pink-clad instructors demonstrated weightlifting moves. Because this year, more than ever, the phrase on every tank top and baby T-shirt I saw there hit me with a new wave of sadness: “Save Tata.” “Warrior.” A pink ribbon curls into the shape of an O. “I love bobies.”
During that class, I had a flashback to the last few minutes of Marilyn’s 67 years. I couldn’t see the color pink as her children and sisters cried around her. I saw red. My stepmother, Marilyn, hated the “warriors” and “fights” surrounding breast cancer awareness. Is it really true that if you “fight” cancer hard enough, you can win? with her 42,000 other lives lost I would say no to being shortened every year.
Despite the good intentions of people who choose to dress up in pink in October, it feels to me that some are missing the point. That same day, at the gym, I came across two women who were happily talking about how good it felt to take off their jeans and wear colorful, stretchy pink workout clothes. I couldn’t help but wonder if they cared more about fashion than cancer awareness.
But they were participating in one of the largest and most successful women’s health campaigns in history. Breast Cancer Awareness Month was established in 1985 by the American Cancer Society and Imperial Chemical Industries in honor of Betty Ford ( had breast cancer herself). This is why, decades later, pink is used as a symbol of October breast cancer awareness. There is no doubt that the amount of money Pink Goods has raised over time has contributed to the medical advances that allowed Marilyn to live 18 years after her diagnosis.
But because of the product’s lucrative power, “pinkwashing” has become a sneakily sinister problem in its own right. terminology created by the organization Initiatives against breast cancerrefers to companies that use pink products that claim to support breast cancer awareness, but at the same time sell or fund products that are harmful to women’s health. “The pink ribbon is the most widely recognized symbol for breast cancer, but historically there has been a significant lack of accountability, a clear lack of transparency, and widespread hypocrisy in pink ribbon marketing,” Breast Cancer Action said in a statement. It is conveyed as follows. information video. “These issues in pink ribbon culture enable the exploitation of breast cancer patients.”
Source: Allure – www.allure.com
