{"id":591,"date":"2012-05-17T00:22:45","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T00:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarabrenner.net\/?p=591"},"modified":"2012-05-17T00:22:45","modified_gmt":"2012-05-17T00:22:45","slug":"odds-and-ends-in-the-pink-ribbons-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbarabrenner.net\/?p=591","title":{"rendered":"Odds and Ends in the Pink Ribbons Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you like this blog, send it to some of your friend. Let\u2019s keep the conversation going.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Language of Cancer<\/span><\/p>\n

You know doubt have noticed that the language of cancer is drawn largely from a bellicose framework. Women with breast cancer are “fighting” the disease. Women who die have lost their “battle” with cancer. The federal government runs a “War on Cancer.” The drugs available to treat the disease are called — I didn’t make this up — the “armamentarium.”<\/p>\n

Maybe the war language is meant to remind us that, like the war in Afghanistan, or the<\/p>\n

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The War on Cancer Needs You<\/p><\/div>\n

Second World War, we can never give up, because giving up means not winning. Maybe it’s also meant to remind us that, like all wars, this one is expensive, so we’ve got to give to keep it going.<\/p>\n

Advancing the War: More Pink Silliness<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course the easiest way to support the cause, as we’ve been repeatedly told, is to buy something with a pink ribbon on it. Or, almost as good, carry something pink to show how much you care about women’s lives.<\/p>\n

It seems the silly season in pinkness arrives annually now with Mother’s Day. After all, if you care about mothers, breast cancer should be your cause, shouldn’t it? (Things like economic security, child care, or education never seem to make the grade on Mother’s Day marketing for some reason.) This year, as in other recent years, the silly quotient was maxed out for me with major league baseball players, using pink bats in Mother’s Day<\/p>\n

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They really use these<\/p><\/div>\n

games.<\/p>\n

Can anyone tell me how using a pink baseball bat will change anything in breast cancer? Or anything at all having to do with women? An activist colleague noted that the teams don’t use<\/p>\n

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They don't use these<\/p><\/div>\n

pink baseballs, maybe because that would be too emasculating. But pink bats and batting gloves — “real” men use them.<\/p>\n

While Major League Baseball — of which I am a fan — has had its challenges with public perceptions (like the steroid use issue, for example), it looks like a goody two-shoes compared to the National Football League. Several years ago, in an effort to distract people from the criminal activity of many of its players — often involving violence against women — the\u00a0 NFL got into the pink game with pink cleats, head bands, and players’ gloves.<\/p>\n

The NFL effort was encouraged and enabled by none other than Nancy Brinker, founder and leader of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. A little like the Midas of breast cancer, everything Brinker touches seems to turn pink.<\/p>\n

Komen Departures Mount, But Brinker Stays<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that Ms. Brinker is determined to hold on at the Komen Foundation until she either drives it into the ground or dies trying. In the latest departure from the executive ranks at Komen, Leslie Aun, long-time VP of Marketing and Communications has left the organization. While she declined to give a public reason for her departure, I have some evidence that she left because Brinker wouldn’t.<\/p>\n

I know how the Komen email addresses are set up, so I periodically send messages to members of the leadership. Not surprisingly, I have never received responses to these missives. Nevertheless, ever persistent, I sent an email to Leslie Aun on a recent Saturday. My motivation in doing so was to respond to a quote from her in a review of the film Pink\"\"<\/a> Ribbons, Inc.,<\/em> saying she hadn’t seen the movie. I wrote to suggest that she see it, if for no other reason than that she would want to see Brinker’s performance in it. I closed the message with my view that Brinker should resign.<\/p>\n

After I sent that email, I read in the New York Times<\/em> that Aun had submitted her resignation. Imagine my surprise to get an email response from her indicating that she had been trying unsuccessfully to get Brinker to resign.<\/p>\n

Learn More, Support the Cause<\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t want anyone to think that because pink marketing has gotten beyond ridiculous or Komen has lost its way, they shouldn’t support the breast cancer cause. While it’s true that more women die of lung cancer and heart disease, they don’t die at the young ages that so many women with breast cancer do. And the problem is so far from solved that we have to keep working until we can say with confidence that the next generation of women is not facing the scourge that ours is.<\/p>\n

There are many breast cancer organizations that deserve your support. My favorite is \"\"<\/a>Breast Cancer Action<\/a> probably because I led it for 15 years, and I agree with the organization’s vision and applaud its integrity and its work. If you are interested in supporting Breast Cancer Action while at the same time learning more about how the breast cancer movement got diverted from activism to shopping, here’s a great opportunity for folks in the San Francisco Bay Area:<\/p>\n

On the evening of May 31, Breast Cancer Action is hosting a fundraising sneak \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 preview of Pink Ribbons, Inc.<\/em> Information and tickets are available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And wherever you live, don’t miss the film when it opens soon, hopefully in a theater\u00a0 near you.<\/a><\/p>\n

Communicating With Folks at Komen<\/span><\/p>\n

By the way, if you want to send messages to anyone at Komen, the way their email addresses work is first initial no space last name @komen.org. So for example, the email\"\"<\/a> address for Liz Tompson, Komen’s President, is eThompson@komen.org<\/a><\/span>. If you send a message and get a response, be sure post it here.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Barbara A. Brenner 2012<\/p>\n