Pinktober Revolution
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NY Times has an article up about (basically) the subject of this thread. Their comment site is open!
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/health/breast-ca...
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Hi rainnyc I had a DUH moment recently. Figured out your screen name was --rain new york city. Caught on when you posted about going into the NYC police department
Nice article except the lifestyle issues are there. Diet, exercise, and obesity. Oh the energy to track the origins. AND too many of te obesity studies say it's inconclusive. Yet it's promulgated as true. I feel differently about the microbiome studies b/c they are showing a direct physical change in bodies structures. But these studies aren't being quoted in the studies as a source of info. that's being used in the obesity bull chit of today.
Katy, are you going to do a thread?
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Can't get anything past you, Sassy!
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This just popped up in my Facebook newsfeed from The New York Times
here is the link if, there are many comments, the ones I read mostly agree with the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/health/breast-ca...
A Growing Disenchantment With October 'Pinkification'
By GINA KOLATAOCT. 30, 2015
The White House went pink this month, awash for a night in rose-colored light. Delta Air Lines painted a huge pink ribbon on one of its planes, dressed flight attendants in pink, and has been selling pink lemonade to passengers. Police departments started using pink handcuffs. Ford is selling "pink warrior" car decals. Dick's Sporting Goods is offering free shipping on pink products including football cleats and batting gloves. Its slogan: "Sport your support. Together we'll turn the sports world pink."Pinkwashing, as some breast cancer activists call it, has become an October rite, to "raise awareness" of breast cancer during what has for years been called National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Those who promote the pink campaigns say they raise millions of dollars to fight the disease.The White House went pink this month, awash for a night in rose-colored light. Delta Air Lines painted a huge pink ribbon on one of its planes, dressed flight attendants in pink, and has been selling pink lemonade to passengers. Police departments started using pink handcuffs. Ford is selling "pink warrior" car decals. Dick's Sporting Goods is offering free shipping on pink products including football cleats and batting gloves. Its slogan: "Sport your support. Together we'll turn the sports world pink."
"When I see Delta flight attendants dressed in pink, I thank them," said Daniela Campari, senior vice president for marketing at the American
But many women with breast cancer hate the spectacle. "I call it the puke campaign," said Marlene McCarthy, the director of the Rhode Island Breast Cancer Coalition, who has metastatic breast cancer.
This month, things are pink all over. Here, pink adorned police handcuffs in Greenfield, Mass.CreditLt. William Gordon/Greenfield Massachusetts Police Department
"Breast cancer awareness," critics charge, has become a sort of feel-good catchall, associated with screening and early detection, and the ubiquitous pink a marketing opportunity for companies of all types. For all the awareness, they note, breast cancer incidence has been nearly flat and there still is no cure for women whose cancer has spread beyond the breast to other organs, like the liver or bones.
"What do we have to show for the billions spent on pink ribbon products?" asked Karuna Jaggar, the executive director of Breast Cancer Action, an activist group whose slogan is "Think before you pink."
She concluded: "A lot of us are done with awareness. We want action."
Some broader women's health groups agree. "The pinkification of the month of October, from football cleats to coffee cups, isn't helping women," said Cindy Pearson, the executive director of the National Women's Health Network, an advocacy organization.
Such questions and skepticism come as some organizations are dialing back recommendations for the very screening measures the campaigns promote, recognizing that mammograms can lead to harm like overdiagnosis — finding and treating cancers that would never have become life-threatening — and false-positive results.
Others are starting to refine their message. On Oct. 2, the start of this year's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the National Breast Cancer Coalition, a nonprofit group representing breast cancer groups across the country, put out a news release calling for "action, not awareness," and for channeling billions of dollars that pay for awareness campaigns toward research instead.
When it comes to pink, said Fran Visco, the group's director, "we don't want to be part of it."
The coalition's new campaign is called Breast Cancer Deadline 2020 and has a research component, the Artemis Project, that involves working with scientists and funding agencies on developing effective prevention measures (including a vaccine) — both primary prevention and prevention of metastasis in those who do get the disease. While the chance of success may be slim on the group's 2020 timetable, it is part of the organization's emphasis on science and research.
Certainly some organizations that receive money from pink campaigns spend at least part of it on research, but the campaigns have rarely made science their main focus. And how much of the money from pink products goes to any breast cancer cause at all is also unclear.
The Dick's Sporting Goods website notes, in fine print, that some of the companies selling the pink products it offers do not donate any money to breast cancer charities. (Dick's did not respond to a request to comment.) Some companies have a cap on how much they will donate, but consumers, when they buy the products, usually do not know if that cap has been reached.
The idea for a pink ribbon, which soon turned into extending pink to anything and everything, began 25 years ago with a 68-year-old California woman, Charlotte Haley, whose sister, daughter, and granddaughter had had breast cancer. Ribbons had by this time become a popular symbol of other causes — the AIDS red ribbon, the yellow ones to remember hostages. Mrs. Haley decided to make her own peach-colored ribbon to draw attention to what she felt was paltry funding for breast cancer research.
Companies like Estee Lauder and Avon and organizations like the Susan G. Komen Foundation quickly realized that ribbons for breast cancer could be a powerful symbol. They substituted pink ribbons for Mrs. Haley's peach ones.
A movement was born.
But the message has not always been consistent. The pink lights bathing the White House were supposed to make Americans aware that the Affordable Care Act covers recommended mammograms, Katie Hill, an assistant White House press secretary, said. And of course, to promote "awareness" of screening.
Outside the New York Sports Club on 41st Street in Manhattan, pink and white crepe paper wraps the poles propping up a scaffold to protect pedestrians from construction debris. Tied to the poles were pink and white balloons and pink crepe paper flowers. Although there is no sign saying so, the decorations are to make women aware that exercise and diet can reduce their risk for breast cancer, said Lisa Hufcut, public relations director for Town Sports International, the parent company. And to make them aware of the importance of mammograms, she added.
Some groups have a broad definition of awareness. In addition to the usual mammogram message, the American Cancer Society's goal is to promote the importance of exercise and the risk of obesity, and to heighten awareness of the group's programs to help women get the treatment they need, Ms. Campari said.
The cancer society's Making Strides walks for breast cancer raise $60 million a year to support breast cancer research, programs and services, reported Elissa McCray, the group's managing director for media relations. In the last six years, she added, the National Football League's "Crucial Catch" program contributed $8 million for screening, raising the money by selling pink merchandise.
At Avon, said Cheryl Heinonen, the president of the Avon Foundation, the money raised goes toward screenings for women who cannot afford them, and to providing care and support for women with breast cancer, including child care and transportation to medical appointments.
While Avon's campaign has an awareness component, Ms. Heinonen said, "our biggest emphasis is on care."
"I have concerns when I see programs focused only on awareness," she said.
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Divine that's the same article that rainyc linked. Great minds think alike
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oops. Thanks sas and excuse the repetition, rainy.
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Not to worry, Mrs. M. You did the smart thing and pasted the whole article!
Lots of comments up, running overwhelmingly in favor of less pink, more research $$.
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Sas- I've had house guests. They just left. I'm having trouble keeping up. What thread did you have in mind that I start? I feel at home and happy right here. I did start a thread before about my frustrations with the LGFB, but frankly, it didn't get much traction. I think this is the place to be!
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Breast cancer action has a couple articles on cosmetics and bc today, here's one:
Member Perspective: 'Stop Trying to Make Cancer Pretty'
Posted on June 26, 2015 by Caitlin C.
The following is a Q&A that our Campaigns Coordinator, Alyssa Figueroa, did with BCAction member Sandra Allegrini regarding an article recently published on The Huffington Post with the headline "Making Cancer Pretty." Sandra has been a member of Breast Cancer Action since 1993 after her first breast cancer diagnosis.
By Clarisselitiatco (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Alyssa Figueroa (AF): What was your reaction to the article, "Making Cancer Pretty"?
Sandra Allegrini (SA): Initially the title, 'Making Cancer Pretty,' was just an affront because it reinforces the idea that if we put some makeup on [cancer], we can cover up all the nasty stuff behind cancer. In an industry that continues to put things that are carcinogenic, like parabens and phthalates, which are endocrine-disruptors, in their products, and then says that they support breast cancer awareness—well, I'm very aware of breast cancer. I don't need awareness, I need somebody to fix it.
We're getting there slowly, but I just think when you have articles like that, it gives the wrong impression. When I was diagnosed, I went to events like this—I don't know if it was "Look Good Feel Better," but it was, 'Come in and we'll give you some makeup and we'll show you how to do your makeup while you're going through chemo.' But it's old makeup. It's makeup that has parabens or fragrances in it. And we just keep glossing over [these facts]. It makes those that provide the makeup feel good, but they are promoting the problem.
Beauty products, the author wrote in this article, 'could reverse the tolls of chemotherapy.' Have you ever gone through chemotherapy? You can't put makeup on and reverse what it's doing to you. And those tolls of chemotherapy are life-lasting for many women. It doesn't go away by putting a little makeup on.
AF: How does your reaction relate to your experience with breast cancer? You were diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993?
SA: Yes, twice, in 1993 and in 2009. My reaction to this article was based on my experience with breast cancer. I don't think that you can tell me that the beauty industry is interested in finding a cure for breast cancer. I don't see it on any level. I don't see it with Revlon. I don't see it with the walks or sticking a pink ribbon on my lapel in October. In fact, I won't wear pink in October. And I like pink! But I'm not going to wear it in October. So it's from that perspective. [No one is] getting it.
AF: Why do you believe the cosmetic industry is not addressing the realities of breast cancer?
SA: I don't know that an industry like that can address it. I think it's too serious a thing. It's a business, right? They're in the business of selling makeup. Those two things are contradictory. 'I'm in business so I want to sell this product, so in order to sell this product, I have to make you want it. So I give it to you in many ways. I give it for free to some people. I give you samples.' If you try something or you touch it, you're more likely to purchase it, right? They do that at makeup counters all the time. 'So just by giving you my makeup I'm going to make you purchase it later. I have a greater probability of making a sale later than I do now by giving it to you for free.' But your product may be causing breast cancer because of your ingredients.
AF: Earlier you said you won't wear pink in October. Can you say more about why?
SA: I'm not going to wear a pink ribbon. Breast cancer is not a pretty disease. It's a horrible disease, as are all cancers. You can say that for all of them. And it just feels like we gloss over it all. If I give you some makeup or a pink ribbon to wear, you feel good because you think you're doing something good, but you're really doing nothing and we're doing more for the industry than for people who have breast cancer. It just feels wrong to participate in that.
- See more at: http://www.bcaction.org/2015/06/26/member-perspect...
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People outside the breast cancer community still need to be made aware--or even repeatedly reminded--that more research needs to be done, especially for those with Stage IV cancers whom the media have forgotten (or ignore because their story is not a feelgood “we can all beat this if we just try to catch it early" one). That is why I still will wear pink on occasion, even if in token fashion (such as on my toenails), not just in October but year-round. “Pinktober" should be merely a gateway for those who are inadequately informed and undermotivated to raise funds that go directly to research and to support all breast cancer patients--especially those women whose cancer can't be cured but only managed. This is why I choose donate to this website and Gilda's Club rather than to Komen and the ACS.
As to the statement by Kolata et al that “mammograms can cause harm by overdiagnosing and causing false positives" and that some cancers “would never have become life-threatening?" Who among us wouldn't rather have had their “positive" biopsies turn out instead to be false alarms? And there's still no way to definitively determine which cancers are and aren't “life-threatening." Not all of us diagnosed with invasive tumors in the earliest stages, with statistically least-aggressive cancers, will be “cured." There's still no way to determine for sure, without biopsy, even which DCIS cancers will remain intraductal-only and not become invasive.That is why there needs to be more research, not just for better and more effective and less dangerous treatments but also for more truly accurate testing. Were it not for that research we wouldn't have had Oncotyping--which helps many women avoid the chemo that used to be a given as recently as 10 years ago; nor would we know about what can fuel estrogen-receptor-positive tumors and how to lessen recurrence, nor about targeted therapies for HER2+ and other rarer and more aggressive cancers. We wouldn't have known about mutations of the BRCA 1 & 2, PALB or Chek-2 genes, how (and whom) to test for them, and how best to make use of the information learned from the results. With enough research, the day may come when breast cancers can be definitively diagnosed or ruled out without invasive biopsies or even uncomfortable (and radiation-exposing, however relatively minimal) mammography. But research takes money, money must be raised, and potential donors alerted to the necessity for that. (Not to mention support services and legislative protections for women with cancer at all stages, as well as their families).
So, yes: SHAME on those who “pinkwash" in order to boost their own image and profits. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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Katy, I think it has value to do a thread with all the make-up toiletries info as well as putting it here. Putting it both places accomplishes two different objectives with a similar base. A stand alone thread allows some to sift through the make-up/toiletries/ lotions/topicals that are safe. Here it's an activist point of view. Plus, likely the other thread will be lots of viewings with few posts. Here the pages will pass with activism and your info will be lost to turning pages. A thread that hasn't many pages isn't always a bad thing. Take rectal issues? Can't go on long about what to do with it. But if someone has a problem..............
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HI ChiS, here here(applause).
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Haven't caught up with the last two pages but will tomorrow. Just recuperating from eye SX and wanted to let you all know my talk Monday night to a group of realtors went great. I had two major points for them with one being the sexualization of BC. They seemed shocked at first but quickly caught on. The are women without BC but the majority knew of someone or had someone close to them as BC victims. I was very proud of them as they seemed very interested in this "not being okay" to call my breasts tatas, etc. A little shock therapy goes a long way. I referenced the cosmetics industry, the Kroger produce fiasco, and the exploitation of women used in many marketing campaigns. Since this group was all female power players I felt the word is spreading even more. Now, I have to go lay down for awhile! Rest my tired eyes!
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mema, wishing you a speedy recovery from the eye surgery and hope it is not too uncomfortable or that you are in pain.
I love that you brought up the sexualization of bc to the women's group. So many talks about bc are geared toward the "be a warrior, you can do this" kind of thing. And the topic needs discussed even if some think it's shocking. That's where I believe that when people are given the information and truly think about it, it makes sense. Especially because as you say, most everyone knows someone who's dealt with bc. And would any one of them say to someone else, "I'm concerned for your tatas." Or "I worry for my grandma's boobies." Absolutely not. They would say, "I'm concerned for you." Or "I worry for my grandma's life."
It must be pointed out to people that boobies,tatas, second base, ect., hey, sure, use the slang words In jokes and in less serious situations. I don't expect or need people to be serious all the time when talking about breasts. However, breast cancer is something that should never be joked about. There should be a separation and a distinction between the flippant remarks and this serious and for some, fatal disease.
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This is what I posted on my Facebook page today.
Breast Cancer Education/Rant/Soapbox
You've all seen them or heard them. "Cute" catchy phrases about breast cancer. "Save the tatas" "Save the hooters" and anything else along that line. Breast cancer is anything BUT "cute". It is ugly. And these phrases only serve to continue the sexualization of the disease. When Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer, he didn't start a campaign to "save the balls", he started Livestrong.
In the most graphic of terms, breast cancer treatment consists of "slash, poison, and burn" not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily all three for each patient. I got all 3, in that order. My body is disfigured. It is permanently scarred. My upper left arm is permanently numb. I will deal with lymphedema (swelling) in my left hand and arm for the rest of my life. Once in awhile I have trouble finding the word that I want, a residual effect of chemo. For the next 4 and a half years I get to deal with side effects from a drug that reduces my chances of recurrence.
To those who would say "oh, you can get a free boob job"... breast reconstruction is nothing like getting implants for enlargement. It's not a "one and done" surgery. There are multiple, sometimes countless surgeries involved in reconstruction. There can be any number of complications with each and every procedure of reconstruction. And sometimes they fail and nothing can be done.
Did you know that one percent of all breast cancer patients are men?? Yep, men can and do get breast cancer, and it can be just as deadly for them as it can be for women.
In spite of the all advances in treatment that have been made in fighting and treating breast cancer, over 100 people still die every day from metastatic breast cancer. Metastatic breast cancer is cancer that started in the breast, and then spread elsewhere in the body. It's also known as stage 4 cancer.
Okay... so first, let's stop the sexualization of breast cancer. Fighting breast cancer isn't about saving body parts, it's about saving LIVES.
Second, if you choose to contribute funds in the fight against breast cancer, make a visit to the Charity Navigator website to see if a particular organization is worthy of your hard earned money, and will use it in a way that you feel is appropriate. Just an FYI for you--- Susan G Komen and the American Cancer Society each get only 2 out of a possible 4 stars on Charity Navigator.
Okay, today is the last day of 'pinktober' (or 'puketober' as it's called by many in the breast cancer world) so this is my last post on the subject. Until next year. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
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Ramona, that is an excellent post. Thank you for sharing.
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Mema great job
Romana great Fb post. Can it be borrowed for reposting?
Divine, the balance of when to be serious and when being relaxed is a good thought.
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sas-shatzi and anyone else, feel free to share it!
After I posted, a friend and sister bc patient messaged me asking how I was feeling today. I replied 'apparently a little militant'. :-)
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Ramona, fantastic post. You got it ALL in. Thank you
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Mema - Great idea and powerfully executed! And while you were suffering yourself! Rest and heal now..
Ramona- so well crafted! I would love to borrow that as well. Writing like that should be exposed to as many audiences as possible.
Great work to all who did any one little thing during this hurtful month, finally over today.
Thanks again to Sas- giving us a place to draw on each others' experiences and energy.
Happy last day of Pinktober everyone!
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Yaaaay Ramona!!
Puketober is almost over for another year - something to celebrate!
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Ramona, excellent post. I'd tell people that you're feeling at the top of your game.
I think this thread has exposed nearly all the crappy aspects of this crazy pink month this year.
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yes rwiley, great post. And I think we all did a good job throughout the month raising a new consciousness on the subject of breast cancer to those who came across our path. I think as we do it on our level, in our communities, the sentiments are being repeated on the larger scale through Facebook sharesand sites like the New York Times. Good work everyone.
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This afternoon, I wandered over to the Halloween festivities in the park across the street. Kept seeing little girls with pink pumpkins and thinking Oy, they've even got the kiddies roped into PInktober before realizing they were just trick or treat pumpkins. Sometimes pink is just, well, pink.
A fitting end to the month!
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And sometimes little girls (and the occasional boy) wear pink....'cause they want to dress up as fairy princesses and that is just the only color for one's tutu. (a bit too wet here for proper fairy princess ballerina cowboys)
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I just made this: the REAL pink ribbon.
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Tomboy- stunning and silently screaming.
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Jackbirdie, a couple of days ago you were wondering when we should start our campaign next year against pinktober. I remember reading an article a few years ago that said changeovers in marketing a product start six months or more before the product hits the shelf.
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Another night of strained sight but it's getting better. I probably should have went with a lower strength lense, but no, had to show off and try to get rid of glasses one eye at a time!
Thank you Miss Divine and others, in 3 weeks I have the other one done. I heard from one of my realtors that attended the meeting. She had some questions about how to handle pink overload; plus, she is a Mary Kay distributor part time! And I'm not familiar with them but I sure hit on checking out all BC charities through charity navigator. She said she removed her marketing materials right away that she was using in pink. Stated that several women on her team had been discussing our discussion. I'm glad. In my opinion, this battle can't end with any particular month, it has to keep going in prep for the next round.
You people are wonderful. Your fight to get the word moving will always stay with me. I thank you. Polly
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I guess that means I should come out of hibernation in March/April. I'm not going to go to sleep completely though. I will keep one eye open for opportunities. Thanks for that info Kath.
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