White

Breast cancer. Maybe you have heard of it? Yeah, apparently there is a form of cancer that is specific to the breast. It can happen to a man or a woman, but most often occurs in women. We have not made any real headway into preventing it or even efficiently detecting it, but thankfully we are making some progress in treating it.

What? You have? You do know about breast cancer?! Oh, my bad.

My point? Well to be honest I'm not really sure I have one. Yesterday I, along with just about every other woman on Facebook (apparently) took part in a little game. The email I got was pretty clear on what we were doing, post the color of your bra and nothing else. The idea was to get people talking and guessing, and "raise awareness" about breast cancer. However, some people I know got very detailed information regarding what was to be shared, such as including links to resources and information about preventing breast cancer. Some people I know simply got "post your bra color and make all the guys wonder what is going on".

We did, and they did. And it was all in good fun. Maybe a tad immature, but so is loving Stepbrothers and quoting it all the time. Or Slurpees. Slurpees are immature, food dyes and corn syrup. Pajamas with bunnies, also immature. But I know many of us you have them. So a little immature fun is no big deal.

Or so I thought.

I see the backlash today, ranging from how posting our bra colors does nothing to raise awareness about anything other than, well yeah, our bra color, all the way to some serious anger over the trivialization of such a horrid disease. The former point is valid. Having people scratch their heads and say "huh?" did not prompt many to go do a self exam or research breast cancer. However, it did prompt some to do so. Some, who will now probably think a bit more about the subject. No, it's not that they had never heard of breast cancer, but maybe they had never thought about it as it pertains to them before.

Which brought me to my not-so-optimistic realization. How many of us truly care about breast cancer as much as we care about breast cancer not happening to us? Ok, there are many (too many) of us who know someone, or love someone who had or has it, who fought it and won, or who fought it and it won. I can count three off the top of my head. And you know I have posted about cancer many times recently, it's every-fucking-where! (Yeah I tend to save that word for cancer, and truthfully I can hardly discuss cancer without uttering the word. Fuck cancer.)Ok, so if we leave off the ones who know someone who had or has breast cancer, or love someone who has been affected by it in any way, then we are left with.......

...not a lot.

We all know what it is, we all know it's there. We all know it kills people. It destroys lives, families. Faith. Joy.

Then someone posted this video. Actually, a few people did. I don't agree with every single point, but I do agree with the greater point. And that point is: shut up about it, quit buying up pink ribbons and let's figure out how to actually DO something about it!



I was recently discussing the pitfalls of school fundraisers. We help our kids sell overpriced wrapping paper/popcorn/candy/magazines, etc. in order to give a portion of the proceeds to the given fund, while we are stuck with said paper, candy and other crap. Why not just skip the middleman and give all the money you would have spent on the paper to the fund? Oh, because the kids need to learn the value of fundraising and teamwork. Well then, what about the value of simply giving to a good cause, without anything to show for it other than a receipt (that you should definitely hang on to for tax purposes)? If breast cancer researchers need money to continue research, and you truly want to help, give money!

So the naysayers are correct, in that sharing my boring white bra color yesterday did absolutely nothing to raise awareness about breast cancer. Or did it? People are certainly talking today, aren't they? People are circulating that video, people are discussing ideas about what we can do, and people who probably would not have otherwise given breast cancer a single thought today are now pondering it.

I have a point after all, and my point in all this is that I seriously need to go bra shopping!