Companies often decorate their products with pink ribbon logos, implying they are supporting breast cancer research when in reality they are using breast cancer as a marketing tool to draw in consumers.
Breast cancer survivor Katie Hogan discussed this during an event, “Pink Ribbons, Inc.,” which included a screening and discussion in the Mechanical Engineering Building at the UW on Oct. 28.
According to Lindsey Kirkham, director of ASUW Student Health Consortium, companies that often have the pink ribbons on their products don’t financially support breast cancer research at all; it is merely a marketing technique.
Hogan said 10 percent of the donations are actually going toward the wrong kind of research. Breast cancer is caused by environmental factors 95 percent of the time, yet proceeds are often donated to genetic research.
The products many of these companies sell contain carcinogens, substances that can cause cancer in women. Ironically, these products have the ribbons on them, demonstrating a supposed lack of understanding for these companies who claim to be supportive of combating it.
“Corporate greed has taken over the search for a cure,” Hogan said.
Hogan said the pink ribbon has made breast cancer “the Donald Trump of the cancer movement,” suggesting breast cancer is seen as the least serious of all the other types of cancers.
“[It’s a] disservice to women who are fighting every day to survive, to live one more day, to see their daughter go through elementary school,” Hogan said.
There are consequences beyond women losing their breasts. These consequences are the aftershocks of the earthquake that is their diagnosis.
Kirkham collaborated with the Women’s Action Commission to elaborate on the falsified notion that breast cancer has more to do with a woman’s appearance than her life. Kirkham said it is considered sexist and disrespectful.
According to Hogan, people assume supporting breast cancer is analogous to wearing the pink ribbons.
“I feel alienated,” Hogan said. “I don’t feel connected to the campaign at all.”
The expectations of healing are superficial, Hogan said. It expresses the triviality and powerlessness of breast cancer, which needs to be contested because it underestimates and belittles the difficulty of cancer.
Hogan revealed how she has lost more than she expected. In addition to losing her hair and nails; it included the loss of her identity, her job, and even her home.
“I was learning how to die while watching others learn how to live,” Hogan said. “Breast cancer deserves to be treated with respect, rather than associated with distilled homogenized pink ribbons.”
Reach contributing writer Praphanit Doowa at development@dailyuw.com.
