Bah, Humbug ~ by Jay

I'm not the first person to shudder at the pink-ribbon frilliness now associated with breast cancer. Barbara Ehrenreich wrote about the breast-cancer subculture in 2001, after her diagnosis and treatment, and she of course said everything far better than I could. I always feel somewhat Scrooge-ish when I find myself irritated by yet another pink product and yet another opportunity to consume for the cure. But at least it's always been my choice - I can ignore the marketing and skip the pink ribbons and latex bracelets and special cocktails. Today I found myself swept up in pinkification without even the option of refusing.

We went to a baseball game. Innocuous enough - a minor-league game on a pleasant May Sunday. They had a Mother's Day promotion, of course. Pink hats. Pink hats that trumpeted a local breast cancer treatment program. The team wore pink jerseys, and there were pink ribbons everywhere. Survivors spoke and people cried and all was sweetness and light, and money flowed.

Sorry to be un-pink, but what exactly does being a mother have to do with breast cancer? Is breast cancer now the signal experience of being female? Is every event that involves women going to co-opted by the pink-ribbon brigade? Just because I have a uterus, I must be a soldier in the fight to preserve the breasts.

And it does seem to be mostly about the breasts, not so much the women. Breast cancer is not the most frequent cause of death for women in the US - that honor goes to cardiovascular disease. It's not even the most common cause of cancer death - that's lung cancer. (We've come a long way, baby.) Yes, I know people think breast cancer is a scourge of young women but it's primarily a disease of the elderly - although old women, as we all know, are not sexy. Who cares about the removal of sagging, wrinkled, septagenarian breasts? It's perky young ones we really care about.

I don't want people to assume that because I'm a woman and a mother that I will fall in line behind the pink-ribbon-bearers. I don't want to buy a tote bag for the cure. I don't want to focus on the cure at all. I want to look at the serious underlying threats to women's health, to the environmental and economic and educational problems that reduce women's access and increase our risk of disease. I want to ask questions that won't sit well with the corporations that sponsor the pink-ribbon events. I want to think about health as it affects all women, not just the ones who look pretty in pink.

Health is a feminist issue. Access to care is a feminist issue. We need to extend our concern, our interest and our money to all women, not just the ones who look pretty in pink.