Breast cancer awareness campaigns: can they cause harm?

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Breast cancer awareness campaigns: can they cause harm?Β was originally published onΒ Everyday Feminism.
Not all breast cancer awareness campaigns are created equal
Can breast cancer awareness campaigns cause harm? Yes and no. Some campaigns are brilliant and effective, others are really problematic.
For nearly two decades, October has been known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Around this time of the year, the activism surrounding breast cancer spikes, and many breast cancer awareness campaigns receive a great deal of support.
There is no doubt that trying to eradicate breast cancer is a worthy cause. But, areΒ allΒ of these campaigns deserving of our support, or are some of them harmful?
Some breast cancer awareness campaigns are brilliant, and they manage to be effective without being oppressive. But other campaigns are really problematic.
Itβs important that we examine these campaigns and call out their harmful behavior. If weΒ trulyΒ want to support breast cancer patients the best we can, we need to be willing to reject campaigns that cause more harm than good.
Letβs look at four ways certain awareness campaigns are oppressive.
1. Some breast cancer awareness campaigns focus on breasts instead of patients
βSave the tatas!β βSave second base!β βI love boobies!β
Many awareness campaigns seem to focus onΒ breastsΒ instead of on cancer or, you know, on the patients themselves.
I get it: Breasts are great. This is, in part, what makes breast cancer activism so marketable. Breasts are sexualized without beingΒ tooΒ sexual; we can talk about them openly on national television and radio while still appealing to the heterosexual male gaze.
But this strong focus on breasts has a harmful effect.
In a sense, yes: Breast cancer is about breasts. But more importantly, breast cancer is aboutΒ people.Β
When we endorse slogans like, βSave second baseβ andΒ use sexualized images of breasts to appeal to potential supporters, weβreΒ sexually objectifyingΒ cancer patients.
Instead of saying that we should saveΒ a personβs life, we are saying that we should saveΒ a sexual actΒ or a body part. Instead of saying that cancer is bad because itΒ kills,Β we are saying that itβs bad because it takes away something that appeases the heterosexual male gaze.
In doing so, weβre pretty much reducing a person to the sexual gratification their body can provide. And thatβs just not okay.
Focussing on breasts also has the effect of shaming some cancer patients. If we make breast cancer awareness all about saving breasts, what are we saying about breast cancer patients whoβve hadΒ mastectomiesΒ or, at least a part of, their breasts destroyed?
In those cases, their breasts werenβt βsavedββ their breasts were sacrificed so that they could live. Reconstructive surgeryΒ isnβt always an option, so these people might not have the very thing that these campaigns glorify.
Breast cancer awareness campaigns thatΒ sexualize breastsΒ instead of focusing on cancer patients value vitality over the humanity of patients.Β
2. Some campaignsΒ are gender-essentialist and cissexist
Through their rhetoric, images, and the use of pink, breast cancer awareness campaigns have come to equate breasts with womanhood and femininity. This is problematic on a number of levels.
Firstly, equating womanhood with breasts is extremelyΒ cissexistΒ as it equates aΒ secondary sex characteristicΒ with gender. This is yet another example of society insisting that biology determines oneβs gender. We knowΒ that isnβt trueβand the proliferation of this misinformation results in the oppression and βotheringβ of trans and gender non-conforming people.
Secondly, campaigns that do this are actually spreading a myth about breast cancer: the lie that women andΒ onlyΒ women get breast cancer.
This, simply, isnβt true. Yes, breast cancer disproportionately affects women. But what about people who have breasts but do not identify as women, likeΒ trans men and non-binaryΒ people? They get breast cancer too. EvenΒ cisgender menΒ get breast cancer.
We need to call out the misrepresentation and marginalization of trans and gender non-conforming people in breast cancer awareness campaigns, especially since theyβreΒ statistically less likelyΒ to receive quality cancer treatment.
By using more gender-neutral language and imagery, campaigns can stop perpetuating the dangerous myth that only women get breast cancer.
3. Some breast cancer awareness campaigns misrepresent cancer
Although Iβve never personally had cancer, I have family members who haveβor have hadβcancer. Cancer is chronic pain, hair loss, fear, and sometimes death.
Women smiling, laughing, holding their unscarred breasts suggestively are really unrepresentative of cancer.
Am I saying that all cancer patients are, or should be, miserable all the time? Definitely not! Rather, Iβm saying that the βfeel-goodβ breast campaigns often erase the reality of cancer.
Cancer is serious. But the advertising surrounding breast cancer isΒ not.
Representing something as serious as cancer withΒ low-substance, feel-good advertising not only fools people into thinking breast cancer isnβt seriousΒ β itβsΒ offensiveΒ to cancer patients and their loved ones.
Many have argued that the use of pink is strongly connected to the misrepresentation of cancer, andΒ aΒ recent studyΒ shows how the association of pink with breast cancer can be damaging.
Women who were socialized to associate pink, and other gender cues, with breast cancer were less likely to believe that they might eventually get it. In other words, pink makes people take breast cancer less seriously.
Sandy M. FernandezΒ points out:
βPink is the quintessential female color,β says Margaret Welch, director of the Color Association of the United States. βThe profile on pink is playful, life-affirming. We have studies as to its calming effect, its quieting effect, its lessening of stress. [Pastel pink] is a shade known to be health-giving; thatβs why we have expressions like βin the pink.β You canβt say a bad thing about it.β Pink is, in other words, everything cancer notably is not.
Of course, some cancer patients find cancer-related humor comforting and empowering. This is great β I fully support what makes them feel empowered.
Just as cancer patients and their loved ones have every right to be fearful and hurt by the presence of this disease in their lives, they have every right to be offended by the dangerous erasure of their experienceΒ when the vast majority of well-funded and well-supported campaigns focus on βfeel-goodβ messages.
4. Some breast cancer awareness campaigns exploit cancer for profit
Around October, many companies package their products in pink and pledge to donate money to anti-cancer organizations. They usually encourage consumers to buy their products by telling them their purchase will go towards breast cancer research.
And it works: These companies boost their sales by saying that theyβre supporting breast cancer awareness.
But, sometimes, these companies do more harm than good. Many of these companies make a profit from the causeΒ while producing carcinogenic products.Β
Breast Cancer ActionΒ coined the term βpinkwasherβ, which refers to βA company or organization that claims to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, but at the same time produces manufactures and/or sells products that are linked to the disease.β
Basically, they pretend to support those who were probably made ill by their productsΒ in order to make a profit. If you ask me, thatβs flat-out exploitation.
In 2014, global fracking company Baker Hughes took pinkwashing to the extreme when they teamed up with anti-cancer organization Susan G. Komen For The Cure. Despite the fact thatΒ fracking produces a number of disease-causing chemicals, both companies claim to support cancer patients.
This is not the first time for Susan G. Komenβthe organization once produced a perfume calledΒ Promise Me, which has since been discontinued. Promise Me contained a number of carcinogenic chemicals.Β Other known pinkwashersΒ include Clinique, Estee Lauder, and Bobbi Brown.
If we truly hope to support cancer patients and prevent cancer, we need to be willing to ask ourselvesΒ difficult questionsΒ about the companies we support, such as whether they truly care about cancer patients or if theyβre exploiting cancer patients in order to make a profit.
βBut it raises awareness!β
Many people brush off concerns about awareness campaigns by saying, βWell, at least it creates awareness about breast cancer. Surely thatβs a good thing.β
Awareness of a problem is, indeed, the first step in coming to solve it. But what exactly does cancer awarenessΒ mean?
Do these awareness campaigns add anything to our knowledge about breast cancerβknowledge that will result in cancer being detected earlier or enable us to support cancer patients better?
We need to examine whatΒ kindΒ of awareness certain campaigns promote. We should not simply be aware that cancer existsβwe need to know more about who it effects and how we can help them.
We should be aware of the pain and terror some cancer patients experience. We should be aware of the fact thatΒ poorer people are less likely to have accessΒ to effective cancer treatment. We should be aware of the fact that black women in the US areΒ 40% more likely to dieΒ from breast cancer as white women. We should be aware of laws that enable companies to produce known carcinogens, and we should be aware of the obstacles that prevent people from seeking and receiving cancer treatment.
Awareness is important. And breast cancer patients deserve a lot better awareness than the recent βawareness campaignsβ have been offering.
So what can we do?
While some breast cancer awareness campaigns are oppressive, others are less so.
If you want to support breast cancer patients and increase awareness,Β think criticallyΒ about the campaigns you support that are run by for-profit companies.Β Are these companies producing potentially cancer-causing products? Are they donating it to a worthy organization, or are they unspecific about the recipients?
When it comes to awareness campaigns, think carefully about the kind of awareness youβre raising. Be mindful of whether the language and images you use is cissexist. Consider whether it perpetuates any myths surrounding cancer. Think about how cancer patients would feel about the campaigns.
Researching anti-cancer activism can be difficult and energy-consuming. But, as I said,Β if we truly want to support cancer patients, we need to be willing to do some difficult work to ensure that weβre not doing them more harm than good.Β
After all, if our anti-cancer activism doesnβt center the patients, arenβt our values in the wrong place?
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Caption:
When we use sexualized images of breasts to appeal to potential supporters, we're sexually objectifying cancer patients.