"The Movement"

I don't know about you, but I've been becoming increasingly irritated with the breast cancer awareness movement. Many of us (myself included) know someone who has battled breast cancer - it is a terrifying, harrowing, and in many cases ultimately empowering experience that should never be minimized. My feelings regarding "the movement" itself have absolutely nothing to do with the value of those experiences and the necessity of the ongoing search for a cure. But, that said... hear me out.

At first I was just irritated by the sheer volume of press associated with breast cancer. Awareness is great, but the powers that run these foundations seem to spend an awful lot of money on frivolous advertising. Not that promoting breast cancer awareness is frivolous in and of itself, but it's just EVERYWHERE - they could take at LEAST half of the money they spend on advertising/PR/merchandising and divert it to research and get far more bang for their buck as far as the fight against breast cancer is concerned. I don't know about you, but when I donate money to fund research for cancer, pink cleats for NFL players aren't exactly the "cure" I have in mind. The outrageous overload of advertising they're bombarding us with is not only an inefficient use of precious resources, it also seems quite unnecessary - everyone is already HIGHLY aware. And no, I'm not just trying to be sarcastic. I truly find it bothersome, the amount of hard-earned dollars donated by hard-working, caring people that are blown through every year by this out-of-control PR machine. Do these foundations feel any sense of accountability to the regular, everyday people who support them? And as if the (in my humble opinion) frivolous spending wasn't enough...

The nagging irritation I've long felt toward the movement has (relatively) recently been given "a violent shove into serious" (-Maura Tierney, Liar Liar). The day that some PR exec got the grand idea to start throwing the word "boobies" around... that just threw me over the edge into PISSED. The mostly bare breasts on billboards, the "feel your boobies" paraphernalia... not only is it inappropriate for the general audience exposed to it, but it's cheapening to women and to the cause that is SUPPOSED to be at the heart of it all.

My sister-in-law Emily wrote a fantastic blog post about this very issue that pretty much sums up my position as well, so without further adieu...

Raising Awareness or Selling Out?
Go check it out! And don't forget to read the comments... great insight to be found there as well :]