this is an article i wrote about breast cancer awareness and exploitation.
i have a lot of cancer in my family, and i understand how awful it can be. i also understand the importance of making people aware of how it forms, how to prevent it, and (most importantly) how to find it. america is a country of blissful ignorance. the chickens we eat come from a farmer wearing overalls. we don’t embrace death; we put makeup on it and bury it. trash disappears every wednesday morning to never be seen again. this is a society that avoids taboo but only progresses by breaking the molds, and it creates really unusual double standards. for example: breast cancer.
for the past few years, breast cancer awareness has been blossoming. in stride, breasts are becoming less of a sexual secret and more socially embraced as an anatomical fact. a titty-loving society will agree that titty diseases are unfortunate. breast cancer awareness projects would not be successful if we couldn’t openly talk about breasts; however, we can, and they are. this has perplexed me for two reasons —
reason #1: why can’t we talk about ball sack cancer?
yes, i have boobs. i love boobs. i am 100% on board with women knowing their bodies and being able to identify when something is wrong. being an open atheist, i probably find this more important than some of the people next to me. fuck no, i don’t want to have cancer because this is the only life i have. therefore, i am going to be feeling myself up as much as possible to avoid anything that may cut my dark, soulless life short. on the other hand, what about my boyfriend? what about my naive man friends? why aren’t there any t-shirts or bumper stickers or triathlons or kfc buckets reminding them that they are also vulnerable to cancer? in 2010, about 209k americans were diagnosed with breast cancer (not all women) and about 218k american men were diagnosed with prostate cancer.
1a. breast cancer is not limited to women. no one talks about this because men apparently aren’t allowed to have it. here we have the double standard. we can run and swim and eat chicken to raise money and awareness for breast cancer… as long as we’re clear that we’re limited our conversations to women’s “ta-tas” — particularly hot women.
1b. never in my life have i seen a “save the balls” or “promote prostate awareness” or whatever ribbon magnet on the back of a car. people recoil at the idea of it. when you talk about it, the mood in a room changes. it’s a strange social phenomenon. the calculation is pretty simple, but it’s too depressing for most people to consider: if breast cancer and prostate cancer affect a similar number of people and have a similar death rate, neither one more important than the other, then the pressure of awareness and safety should also be equal. but since tits and the idea of tits and talking about tits and guys talking about tits is far less controversial and more “sexually attractive” than talking about prostates, society — which leads to corporate funding, group activities, facebook groups, free-for-a-donation bumper stickers, wendy’s biggie cups, etc. — favors breast cancer. breast cancer awareness is sexist. in reality, it’s not. all of this fundraising bullshit is feeding off of primitive thinking disguised as social acceptance.
reason #2: am i any less of a woman for having breast cancer?
“save the ta-tas” is a slogan adopted by breast cancer awareness groups to make the issue less racy and more communicable. that’s understandable (though, it’s a shame that “save the pork sword” wouldn’t work) in a demographic and profit sense. a message it does send, though, is breasts are what make a woman. if i were to have breast cancer and survive by having a mastectomy… what then? first off, i lost my fucking ta-ta. it’s not so cute then — shit gets serious. and that’s the point. cancer is serious, and cancer can get to anyone, and cancer comes in many forms. breasts are a part of a woman and a part of a man. cancer is dormant in everyone. we should be aware of cancer, period. we should not be aware of the kind of cancer that may interrupt the fantasy of an idea woman. we should not be targeting cancer for sex. we should be targeting cancer for lives.
cancer lives in bodies, lives, families. cancer does not live in sex. cancer does not exploit sex, and cancer should not be exploited.
