a great article from the NYTimes, which I think echoes the feelings of many Breast Cancer People, myself included. At least breast cancer gives you new things about which to feel righteously indignant.
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A friend of mine’s 12-year-old daughter has taken to wearing a bracelet, one of those rubber, Lance Armstrong-style affairs, that says on it, “I ❤ Boobies.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said, vaguely, when questioned about it. “It’s for breast cancer.”
Really?
It’s hard to remember that, not so long ago, the phrase “breast cancer” was not something women spoke aloud, even among themselves. It wasn’t until the early 1970s, with the high-profile diagnoses of the former child star Shirley Temple Black, the first lady Betty Ford and Happy Rockefeller that the disease went public. A short time later, Betty Rollin, an NBC-TV correspondent, published the groundbreaking memoir “First You Cry.” Back then, her grief over losing her breast and the blow cancer dealt to her sex life was greeted with hostility by some critics and dismissed as frivolous. Mammography was just coming into use to detect early-stage tumors. The American Cancer Society was still resisting the idea of support groups for post-mastectomy patients. A woman like Rollin, some said, was supposed to be grateful that she qualified for a radical mastectomy, stuff a sock in her bra and get on with it.
Read the rest at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/magazine/14FOB-wwln-t.html?_r=3&ref=health
Thanks for sharing this. I have seen this attitude on FB, asking women to post their bra colors, where they put their purse, etc. I have always felt that this makes light of a very serious subject. I guess that most of all, I am sorry you have had to deal with people making breast cancer frivolous and enjoyable. On the upside, I do believe that we are further than we were. At least, we are "allowed" to discuss it now. Perhaps portraying the cancer as fun and sexy is the only way the current public can deal with it. I believe (and hope!) that in time, we can find a more serious, middle-of-the road attitude. It's not funny or cute. On a side note, I have often wondered if the pink ribbons bother you personally. I think they might bother me if I were in your situation... just my thoughts... as always... hope you are well. ;)
ReplyDeletePink ribbons don't really bother me, but I don't really like them either. Mostly I think I feel the same way about them now as I did before -- I'm not going to wear one because it isn't really my style (and I never thought anyone needed to be reminded about breast cancer anyway - is there anyone in the developed world who HASN'T had their awareness raised by this point?), but I don't have a problem with however people want to express themselves.
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