Breast cancer activism thoughts

[lady_kishiria]

I realize that while I'm at medium risk for breast cancer (no kids, moderate drinker) I could never, EVER participate in breast cancer activism.

The short answer is that there's too much damned PINK. I do not do PINK.

This is shorthand for "to participate in activism against a disease that attacks women no matter what their lifestyle, only women who fit a certain stereotyped femininity need apply." If you're white, married, preferably with kids, and you are conventionally feminine and like pink, come on by. If you're butch or androgynous or queer (the three do not necessarily all go together) please go away.

I tried to picture ommkarja, vzd, prushrush and myself as part of this event. I couldn't do it.

I'm tempted towards a long dissertation about the subtle death wish against those who don't fit the stereotype of a "good" woman, but I won't.

Comments

[caprine.livejournal.com]

I could see a fun subversion of this--a queer group entering a breast cancer run all wearing big pink triangles.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

Or purple female signs and no pink period.

Back in the 90s some lesbians started wearing black triangles because no women were ever put in concentration camps for being *lesbians*, they were incarcerated for being anarchists who just happened to be lesbians. (Only men wore pink triangles.) Didn't catch on, though.

[strigine.livejournal.com]

I had a necklace with pink and black triangles in college, which would have been the 90s, yeah. :D

[xerne.livejournal.com]

Is this a particular event that requires a lot of pink? Because I'm not a big rainbow person, and I can wear rainbow and pink pins equally well without the world coming to an end. =P

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

Breast cancer events are pink, Pink, PINK! No rainbows involved! No pink pins involved either, we're talking pink hats, pink shirts, pink signs, pink everything.

[xerne.livejournal.com]

Well, when I've gone to them, they don't force me into pink, no more than gay events force me to wear rainbows, or AIDS activists tie me up with red ribbons. Of course, if a color bothers you sufficiently that you're not interested in supporting a cause, it's your decision.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

I'll preface this by saying "Maybe this is a San Diego" thing. However they've been pushing the upcoming three-day walk heavily on our local TV stations and using footage from other events and everything is pink.

I'm not saying I don't support a cause just because of a colour. I'm saying that use of a colour that is used to stereotype women makes me suspect that I wouldn't be wanted there, that I would be marginalized, because I'm not conventionally feminine and am growing increasingly uncomfortable with femininity. Pink is shorthand for femininity in this culture, and a particular kind of femininity at that.

I know you have a lot invested personally in breast cancer research, and thought of that after I responded to you initially. It's not the colour I object to, but the stereotypical use of it, with a side trip to the way the ads here are formulated, with lots and lots of images of white women in a city where at least half the city isn't.

[khandreia.livejournal.com]

I don't do pink either. Except this icon, really. Otherwise, it's just too...girly. Despite what my place of work may lead one to believe, I don't exactly do girly. Give me nice, dark colors any day of the week. But unfortunately, those really don't make for good "activism" colors...unless someone wants to start a gothic-pride or metalhead-pride group somewhere. Or something like that.

But seriously...if I were to become an activist for any kind of cancer that a woman could develop, it would be for cervical cancer. My mom had it when I was very young, so it hits rather close to home for me.

[prushrush.livejournal.com]

Pink. Gawd. :: vomits into nearby bin ::

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Eew. Pink. chaosloki hates pink even more post-breast cancer.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

So it's NOT just a San Diego thing?

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Newp. She's in Florida.

[helenkacan.livejournal.com]

Or is it an American thing? A California thing? Because I've never heard of anything so overwhelmingly suffused with pink-ness up here. It's just the pink ribbon and that's it.

'Cuz gag me with a spoon.
Sea of pink.
Ugh.

Siding-with-you hugs,
H.

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

I tried to picture [info] ommkarja, [info] vzd, [info] prushrush and
myself as part of this event. I couldn't do it.

Heh heh... yah. Maybe we should be part of it though (albeit I'm not wearing any damn pink). It's upsetting when people think they can't get access to good medical care because they're not gender role compliant.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

Gender role compliancy is a BIG problem in medical treatment and that's my complaint. The point is not the pink per se, and that's what everyone is missing. The pink is *shorthand* for gender compliancy.

If you and/or vzd want to do a walk or run for the cure, I'm down with it. Let's represent for butches and androgynous women everywhere.

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

When is the event?

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

I'd have to look it up. I keep seeing it on TV and I've been so over-focused on how angry the ads make me I haven't noticed the date.

[android-raptor.livejournal.com]

Oh Gawd, reminds me of how, in the 4th grade, I practically declaired WAR on the color pink. I hated it so much, and still hate it...