Back in October, Facebook trends had female users updating their status with phrases like, “I like it on the bedroom floor,” or “I like it on the kitchen counter.”
As provocative as it sounds, these users weren’t talking about where they would like to have sex, but where they would like to put their purse.
The goal was to get people thinking about breasts, which would inevitably lead to breast cancer awareness.
On top of it all, hundreds of teenagers can pitifully be seen wearing bracelets that read, “I love boobies.” I’m all for breast cancer awareness, raising money, and spreading the word on how dangerous and horrifying this disease really is – but I have to question if it’s about cancer anymore, because the nation’s infatuation with breasts and the woman’s body is getting a little out of hand.
I don’t understand how saying provocative sentences about where you like to “leave your purse,” or by openly proclaiming that you love breasts is going to help awareness at all.
In fact, it does just the opposite for me. When I first saw those bracelets, I didn’t think about breast cancer at all – I just thought the boy wearing it was a pervert.
There isn’t even a ribbon indicating that the bracelet is for breast cancer, because it’s not. The money made from selling the bracelets doesn’t even go to the American Cancer Society.
But why is it that breast cancer is getting so much awareness, when there are other cancers out there that are equally as life threatening? I don’t see bracelets reading, “I love testicles” for promoting testicular cancer. Aren’t those parts of a man just as precious as breasts are to a woman?
Ovarian, lung and pancreatic cancers are just as physically and mentally devastating. However, the only difference is that it isn’t as noticeable, that maybe women are more concerned with losing a breast than they are with losing their life.
The main point is that the reason breast cancer is getting so much awareness isn’t because the disease is horrifying, but because of the sexual meaning behind it as a whole, which led to Facebook trends and overrated bracelets.
Someone who has experienced breast cancer, whether they had it or that someone close to them had it and died, are working as hard as they can to raise money to find a cure, or to get the disease acknowledged for truly being deadly, not just because they want it to be based on the pure fact that they’re breasts and have a sexual visualization along with it.
We have to think long term and not focus awareness so strenuously on breast cancer since there are so many other cancers out there that are just as devastating to both men and women.