{"id":3044,"date":"2014-10-02T09:00:45","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T13:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/?p=3044"},"modified":"2014-10-01T11:46:33","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T15:46:33","slug":"look-past-pink-breast-cancer-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/elbowglitter.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/02\/look-past-pink-breast-cancer-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"Look Past the Pink – Breast Cancer Awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.\u00a0 That’s right, the month where everything turns pink to promote “awareness.”<\/p>\n

At this point, who isn’t aware of the existence of breast cancer?<\/p>\n

I know what you’re thinking.\u00a0 “Megan, it’s not just about awareness. It’s about raising money for breast cancer causes.”<\/p>\n

What causes?\u00a0 Where does the money go when you buy that pink water bottle?\u00a0 Most likely, the majority of the funds go right into some corporation’s pockets.\u00a0 From Breast Cancer Action<\/a>:<\/p>\n

EXAMPLE: In 2010, Dansko shoe company sold pink ribbon clogs. Consumers likely thought that a portion of their purchase of pink ribbon clogs went to a breast cancer program. However, purchase of the pink ribbon clogs was not connected to Dansko\u2019s donation\u2014none of the portion of the sales went toward their already set donation of $25,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. No matter whether or not you bought the clogs, their donation was the same.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But hey, it raises awareness, right?<\/p>\n

And actually, I don’t think we are properly aware of breast cancer.\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 Who are you seeing in all of the ads supporting women with breast cancer?\u00a0 Lots of bald women smiling and wearing pink boas.\u00a0 Women wearing t-shirts saying “Yes, they’re fake, the real ones tried to kill me.”\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 These women rock.\u00a0 Because they got breast cancer and they survived.\u00a0 My mom is one of them (though she owns neither a pink boa nor one of those t-shirts).<\/p>\n

But we don’t talk about the women with metastatic breast cancer.\u00a0 The ones who won’t “beat” their disease.\u00a0 My aunt was one of them.\u00a0 She went through a myriad of treatments, but ultimately, the disease was stronger than all of the drugs we had to throw at it.\u00a0 But we don’t talk about that.<\/p>\n

We don’t talk about women like Lisa Adams<\/a>, who is blogging through her breast cancer treatments and just trying to live life to the fullest.\u00a0 We don’t talk about Vanessa<\/a>, who died at 32, having lost herself after the cancer invaded her brain and whose sisters continue to blog about life and loss.\u00a0 Because their stories won’t have the happy, inspirational ending that we all want to see.\u00a0 It’s sad and messy and it’s what we should be working to stop.<\/p>\n

We’re not trying to “Save the Ta-tas,” people.\u00a0 We’re trying to save the women and men who have breast cancer.<\/p>\n

So don’t mindlessly go out and buy some pink ribbon products and feel proud that you’ve done something good.\u00a0 Don’t admire a corporation for “going pink.”\u00a0 Avoid the distractions and focus on the issues.\u00a0 We need research.\u00a0 We need access to treatment for all women, not just those with “good” insurance. We need a way to increase survival rates.<\/p>\n

This month, don’t bring awareness to the pink ribbon.\u00a0 Bring awareness to the realities of breast cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.\u00a0 That’s right, the month where everything turns pink to promote “awareness.” At this point, who isn’t aware of the existence of breast cancer? I know what you’re thinking.\u00a0 “Megan, it’s not just about awareness. It’s about raising money for breast cancer causes.” What causes?\u00a0 Where does the money go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nLook Past the Pink - Breast Cancer Awareness - Elbowglitter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This month, look past the pink. 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