That Annoying Party Guest No One LIkes

Side note: I am going to take a break from writing my own posts for a few days. I've become a serious buzzkill. I believe half my Facebook friends have hidden my posts - I know for a fact that very few are reading them. Instead, they are posting the heart meme and something about inches/hours and pictures of their men "wearing dresses to fight breast cancer" which their friends think is "hysterical". These are the same friends who tell me to "stop talking about it, you're fine."

 I have become the crabby guest at the party who doesn't drink and thinks the music is always way too loud. I started posting about pink mostly to vent my own frustrations. I started sharing my posts because I mistakenly thought it would make people rethink something that was originally meant for good, but has turned into a seriously offensive thing to the very people they are trying to help. Instead, I have learned that it really IS a party, on par with the holidays, that is to be celebrated. "Happy Breast Cancer Awareness Month!" You can actually Google that phrase and see that it actually exists. People don't want to hear that what they think is fun could be wrong. I get that. I guess it's like religion. People will make up their own mind in their own way and timing, and any attempt to help them is proselytism. I suppose I would feel the same way. I started to hate pink long before I was personally affected with BC, but it was a process in my own mind and based on what I was seeing, rather than a result of anything anyone told me.

These topics are still a very sore subject for me, anyway. When I write about them, my stomach gets tight and I start feeling a little bit sick. On the other hand, this is the same way I feel when reading the articles and seeing the pink crap everywhere. Even the cancer center here in town, which I am so happy to have here when I need it, has jumped on the bandwagon. Yes, I noticed it last year when I was going through chemo. It was a hot topic of conversation in the chemo room, which was filled with - get this - PATIENTS OF OTHER KINDS OF CANCER. Can you believe that! Yet there was - and is, now - a ginormous pink banner hanging on the outside of the building. Boldly proclaiming that REGIONAL CANCER CENTER SUPPORTS BREAST CANCER AWARENESS!!!! Well, Good Gravy, I should sure hope so!! Does anyone even question that? How nice of you to hang a banner to announce it! I will eagerly look forward to seeing all your other banners for all the other cancers. But wait, I know from last year that there AREN'T ANY. Yes, we noticed. Yes, we still notice. How is it that you, our trusted doctors and caretakers, do not notice? Can you feel my stomach knotting up as I type?

I get that in the past, breast cancer itself was the big elephant in the room. Reading an article about stupid pink crap - the very kind I am featuring at the end of my posts this month - was this comment:

"Not to rain on the snark parade, because there's plenty here I agree with, but: I sent an article on this topic to my mom...She's a breast cancer survivor herself, and lost her best friend to an extremely aggressive form of breast cancer when they were in their late 20s. I got one of the hardest phone calls I've ever received in my life, as she recounted with deadly calm how exactly no one even acknowledged the disease that killed her friend in the 1970s; how it was a whisper, a secret, a woman's problem that didn't get dealt with until far too late. She was horrified and irate that our generation would ever be flippant within the context of that conversation. 

Pinkwashing is, of course, a thing, and a problematic thing that should be dealt with. But overall, awareness is a good thing I don't want to be a part of a backlash against that movement."

I never meant to be flippant, in fact I believe it's the pinkwashers who are the flippant ones (as well as raking in the bucks at our expense!). I don't understand how the mom can't see that. But it makes me sad. It doesn't change my opinion, and I will continue to snark on the topic, but it just makes me sad . Aren't we on the same side? Can't there be some middle ground?

Stupid Pink of the Day:

 With possibly the best stupid comment ever written (emphasis mine):

"I only rated it mid range because I haven't used it yet. I bought it because its good to have it to use in case its needed, also I bought it because I wanted it for protection without having to use lethal methods and to support breast cancer research. I'm sure it will be fine when I do test it, everything I have purchased that supports breast cancer research has been a good product."

...Because you KNOW that if it's PINK it HAS TO BE GOOD!