What’s the one color you see more than yellow, orange, red and brown this time of year? Athletes sport it, businesses support it and now women are taking off their bras for it. I’m talking of course about the color pink.
Now let me start off by saying I completely support the fight against breast cancer. It is a terrible disease that affects many women and men each year. We do need to bring awareness to this cause in order to educate people on the subject, but we will not stop breast cancer by painting the town pink.
My issue with the idea is that this disease has become glamourized and trivial over the past few years. Rather than being recognized as the month to support victims of breast cancer and help fund research for it, some people use it as an opportunity to overstock themselves with pink merchandise, and some businesses will slap the color pink on their product just to get some extra recognition and customers, without actually donating money to reputable causes.
For example, the National Football League has launched a program called “NFL Pink” that supposedly donates 100 percent of their net proceeds to fund cancer research. However, contributing writer for the Daily Caller Sarah Hofmann claims that statistic is exaggerated. After the proceeds are split in a multitude of ways, Hofmann said that only 8.02 percent of proceeds actually go toward cancer research. According to an ESPN reporter, the NFL donates only $8 for every $100 that is spent.
Therefore, unless the company actually donates to research efforts for finding a cure, that jar of peanut butter with a pink ribbon on it does not support cancer any more than Kirby, the pink Nintendo character. “Pinktober” has become more about the color than the cause.
This year, people took it a bit further and declared Oct. 13 “national no-bra day.”
This idea of making a “fun” way of supporting people with breast cancer is not only pointless, but it is downright disrespectful. In no way does spending the day sans-brassiere help those who suffer, have suffered or died from this disease. There is nothing fun or cute about breast cancer, and things like this only make it seem as such.
Blogger Leisha Davison-Yasol posted a rather lengthy rant to her page cancerinmythirties.wordpress.com that brings light to this whole situation since she is actually a breast cancer survivor. One of her main points was how offended she was by the “no-bra day.”
“[T]he thought of seeing bra-less women flaunting two body parts that I have lost to cancer-more than I already see this on a regular day-does not feel all that supportive. In fact, it feels quite the opposite,” she wrote.
There is nothing wrong about bringing awareness to a good cause. In fact, it is good that people are talking about more and more diseases in the world. But there is nothing pink and rosy about breast cancer. It is a serious disease that affects millions.
If you really want to support the fight to end this disease, open your wallet to support research for a cure, and keep your bra on.