October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and pink ribbons are everywhere. They’re on shirts, pins, pens, shoes—pretty much everything, all in an effort to raise awareness for breast cancer.
If you’ve ever thought to yourself “What exactly is awareness? And how does it actually help people with breast cancer?” You’re not alone. In fact, one breast cancer survivor recently posted a picture of her double mastectomy scars on Facebook, along with a scathing message about the shady motivations behind the breast cancer “awareness” movement—and how it often leaves behind those who are actually suffering.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10209708106754882&set=p.10209708106754882&type=3&theater
“While the majority of people believe that Breast Cancer is a pink ribbon, a pink Pom Pom, a pen with a pink ribbon, a tote with a pink ribbon, an encap at your local Walmart engaging you to be a ‘part of the cure,'” she writes. “First, a hard reality, you are not being part of the cure, you’re just throwing your money away to propaganda, for NFL cheerleaders, and kiosk after kiosk with items from handbags to ziplock bags.”
Marie’s perspective echoes what a lot of people have said about breast cancer awareness; that it doesn’t really end up helping people with breast cancer, and that being a “part of the cure” is a myth sold to people to make them feel good, while others suffer.
“Showing models with fake scars, beautiful bodies and breasts with the strap so perfectly dangling from her shoulder,” she wrote. “That’s not what Breast cancer is. It’s CTs, surgeries, amputations, biopsies, MRIs, X-rays, radiation, chemo, IVs, blood tests, fear, worry, hate, anger, confusion, sadness, loneliness, medications, check ups, anxiety, depression, insomnia, pain.”
Since she posted the photo on Facebook two weeks ago, it’s been shared over 188,000 times. Marie told Scary Mommy that she’s heard from survivors who have reached out to her for advice and help.
“I think it’s important that I really read their messages and respond appropriately and in a way that I can help,” she says. “I am helping so many realize the truth about the pink ribbon and how the support it used to mean for us diagnosed with breast cancer is now shadowed by pink dollar signs and lined pockets and it’s not the cancer patients receiving the help.”