I feel that someone must have written about this at some point but my search on feministing comes up short.
This weekend here in Austin was "The Race for the Cure." It was the first Race for the Cure since my sister-in-law passed away from Breast Cancer in May. She was 33, had the BRAC gene, and happened to have an incredibly virulent strain of the disease. She fought hard for two and a half years but her body couldn't hold it off any longer.
Since her death, I have really begun to hate the "Save the Tatas" shirts. While it would be nice to save them, I really wish that we could simply save the people. It's the people who matter in this fight, not the breasts.
On top of that, I absolutely hate how they privilege breasts over any other aspect of a breast cancer fighter, survivor, or victim's humanity. As if the battle to find a cure or a treatment is simply because that body part is missed when it has to be sacrificed for a woman's health.
Also, it unfairly makes those survivors who do have to live without their original breasts, either foregoing any breasts or going through the long, painful process of reconstruction, feel inadequate. At the race this weekend, a whole group of people had shirts that read "Save Second Base" and a group of guys had ones that read, "I run for them because I love them," which could mean women with breast cancer but it is clearly ambiguous so that it can also refer to the breasts themselves. In my family, four close female relatives all had breast cancer in a three-year span and between them, one "real" breast was left, there were five reconstructed breasts, and two breasts that were never replaced. Does second base no longer exist for any of those women? Does that love only extend to the woman with the "real" breast or the women reconstructed breasts?
What does it really mean when people wear silly shirts with funny slogans like that? Is it about breasts or is about women? And if it is about women, is about more than their ability to please someone else sexually or to be available in a sexual way? In all fairness, I just want a shirt that says "Fuck breast cancer."
Please, let the focus be on saving people's lives. If we eventually get to save the breasts, too, that's great. But first and foremost, it has to be about the people.
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I support anything that will stop breast cancer from happening. My mom and grandma have both battled the disease and I also have the gene that is responsible for the disease. It is a horrible disease and for me its about saving women by whatever means necessary, even if that means sacrificing breasts to do so. If it takes saying that the breasts themselves need to be saved in order for my mom, grandma, aunts, sister, and myself to not have to do battle with this horrible disease, then so be it. Save second base. Save the tata's save my fucking sexual objectification, just find a cure, and I don't care
Isn't that sort of a silencing technique, though, suggesting that we should stop complaining about X because we have to focus on Y? Just because we have lady brains doesn't mean we can't focus on BOTH issues and support breast cancer research while at the same time demanding BCR campaigns that don't dehumanize us.
I'm not saying that at all. I just don't want the criticism for something that does help women. I've seen first hand what breast cancer does to people. I don't want to go through that. I don't want any woman to go through that. And if it takes talking about our breasts and them being gone to get the companies that are run by idiotic men to pay attention than I am all for it. I don't like that it has to be that way, but I do like that they are trying.
Breast cancer is the only disease we want to stop where we mention saving the diseased body part over the person.
It's also the disease that kills women we care about most, even though it isn't the number one killer. It's number 3. Where are the "Save the heart" and "Save the lungs" campaigns? Shouldn't they be right up there with the "Save the ta-tas" campaign?
I totally agree. It's nothing but a marketing ploy. The good thing is that, as far as I understand, the treatment for breast cancer (surgery, radio- and chemotherapy, antibodies etc.) is largely the same as for other types of cancer, and if the cure were found for it, it would probably be applicable to cancer in general. So hopefully some of the money made from selling all that pink crap will do something to benefit all cancer patients. I wish we didn't need marketing and celebrity endorsements to get people to do something for a cause, though.
Not sure that is true. A good friend of mine is a cancer researcher and he's told me each cancer is actually quite unique and could almost be considered a different disease.
Finding a cure for 1 cancer could very well only be a cure for that cancer and do nothing for others. Though one would intuitively think it couldn't hurt finding a cure for others, and surely some must be related.
It's a curious thing - people's fascination with saving breasts. I've read first hand accounts of breast cancer survivors who mourned the loss fo their breasts. I just don't get it. If I were diagnosed with breast cancer, I'd insist on a double mastectomy immediately. If I had apendicitis, I'd want my appendix removed. Why should me breasts be any different? I can easily live without them and keeping them might kill me. It seems like a fairly obvious decision.
By the way, please sign me up for the "Fuck Breast Cancer" t-shirt. Actually, maybe I'll do an all-pink cross-stitch sampler with that on it.
Way to trivialize a difficult decision that you've been fortunate to never actually have to face.
I've actually been really uncomfortable with the Breast Cancer (Awareness? Cure?) movement for a long time.
As far as I can tell, this movement, as well as being the only one that emphasizes the body part over the survivor, also virulently reenforces gender roles. The pink products, especially makeup and dainty power-tools, rarely have a "masculine" alternative. What's a butch girl, or a hetero husband, or simply someone who doesn't like pink, to do with all this pink nonsense? And don't get me started on consumerism-as-charity.
Plus, by emphasizing and reemphasizing that breasts are a link to femininity, aren't we really making the trauma of losing one or both breasts to cancer all the more stigmatizing?
That's not true. My doctor's lecture to me about getting a prostate exam focused quite a lot on how a swollen prostate can render a man impotent.
On the other hand, there are no ads for "Save The Boners!", which is a shame.
Prostate cancer provides an interesting contrast. There are a variety of ways to treat prostate cancer, and the discussion always includes the effects on the patient's sexuality. Treatment discussions for breast cancer include reconstructive surgery, but rarely include a discussion of how to maintain sexual feeling in the breasts. The focus is on saving appearance rather than sensation, which essentially is a focus on preserving male-defined sexuality.
I totally agree with this post. I hate the "save second base" crap. Like, my boobs arent JUST for your sexual pleasure. Breast cancer does not put sex in risk, it puts lives at risk. I know its to say "save the tatas" but thats not what fighting breast cancer should be about. Its actually kind of offensive.
If I were to get breast cancer today, the second someone decided that it was empowerful to hand me a fuzzy pink bear, I would basically tell them that I was ready to roll over and die if it meant avoiding years of being infantilized, talked about with cloying piano music and filmed in soft lens, constantly told I would want to regress into some sort of consumerism-driven feel-good campaign was the best way to soldier through breast cancer.
Of course, what I've described is a lot like what being a woman in western society is like these days. Ah fuck.
For a feminist perspective from someone who's had breast cancer, Twisty Faster is the way to go.
Warning: graphic photographs of medical procedures at link. SFW, but not for the squeamish.
I felt the same way when I saw this horrifying PSA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_xEUi_OSHE
It really made me want to cry. I wrote about it on here a bit ago: http://community.feministing.com/2009/09/save-the-boobs-psa-what.html
Ugh. That PSA absolutely turned my stomach.
I agree with what everyone else is saying, but then I remembered--
Save the Bazoombas!
Save the TaTas!
Save second base!
This was what I read on the blog of a woman who I truly admire, and who is very dedicated to the cause of breast cancer awareness and research, having lost close friends to it. So here is a context where "save the tata's" is not a cheap marketing ploy, it is a smart, conscientious person's attempt to use lighthearted language in a way to encourage people to support her worthy cause. Or maybe she just doesn't understand why her phrases are objectifying? I don't know what to think--is it wrong or is it a misunderstanding or does it depend on the context?
While every woman's experience is going to be different, I don't find "save second base" to be the least bit offensive. I think it's fun! Laughing in the dark, as it were. But it's important to recognize that not everyone finds laughter "the best medicine" in this situation.
Now, an overtly sexual/sensual PSA, with hands sliding over soft-lit skin, with a VO about how breasts are what make us women... yeah, that would make me ill.
And I don't buy pink things, but I will gladly accept free stickers and whatnot. Because yay! stickers. And my checkbook cover is pink cuz it was just as free as the ugly blue one AND (supposedly) contributed to research.