Category: Breast cancer

Breast cancer, Health, October Breast Cancer Awareness, Pink Ribbons, Strong Women, Wisdom

Why Pink Makes Me Cringe

Mona Alvarado Frazier

It’s not Pink, the singer, that stirs up ambivalent feelings in my soul, it’s the color pink linked to October’s Breast Cancer Awareness month. It’s all the pink stuff beyond the commemorative ribbons. It’s pink deodorant containers, buckets of chicken, yogurt lids, pens, bottles, garden tools, and such. I can’t even look at Pepto-Bismol bottles anymore.

Before sticks and stones are thrown my way, please hear me out.  The end of next month marks the 7thyear from the last chemo session I had. That’s the date I considered myself cancer free. 

There was an eighth session scheduled in mid-December for chemo but I was so friggin’ tired of being tired, having pain, throwing up, (fill in any adjective for miserable) that I skipped it. I wanted to make tamales with my family, as I had since I was a child, and I wanted to celebrate Christmas in my living room, not from my bed. 

So I said “F-K It,” I’m not doing this anymore.


I still don’t know whether I based my decision on fatigue or it was a grasp at self-determination. Maybe it was both. Probably. I do remember feeling particularly powerless at that time. There are the ambivalent feelings of life and death, hair and no hair, sorrow and hope, regrets and plans, hell days and heaven days. Load these into a blender, push the button, and you might get a sense of how I felt.
gettyimages K.Tanier
Pink products and words “Breast Cancer” remind me of this time in my life. This is where my ambivalence comes from; this is when I cringe.

I’m not ungrateful for my life, or breast cancer research, or awareness of breast cancer, 

because I am and so are my three children, but it’s all that dang PINK everywhere in October, when the autumn colors of golden, bronze, pumpkin, and burgundy naturally abounds.


PINK is in my supermarket, the drug store, magazines, T.V., clothing stores, pet stores, bakery, and on my toilet paper wrap. (Now wasn’t that bolded PINK just a little annoying?) That’s what I see in October, flutters of PINK everywhere. ANNOYING.

Breast cancer sucks. Marketing breast cancer double sucks.


My ambivalence also has to do with the fact that in my small world and community I keep encountering numerous cases of breast cancer in women ranging from 28 to 70 years of age. I’m sure you’ve heard of many people battling the disease within your circle of family/friends/acquaintances. 

How can this be after years of research, millions of dollars, and awareness campaigns? Have we been operating on lies? 


I am not saying that we should stop donating to campaigns of our choice (especially my favorite Dr. Susan Love’s research for the cause of breast cancer, thus the cure). 

Au contraire. I’m still going to do my annual Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society. I’m still going to talk with women who are going through BC treatment- if they ask. I’m going to don my khaki hat with the pink ribbon (the one I wore for 6 months on my baldhead) and the black and pink one my sister traded for her own hat on a bus in London.

I will continue to advocate for people to be aware of how to minimize their risk to cancer and find affordable health care. I’m going to do those things and hope you show support by doing these things too. 

I’m just one survivor/thriver trying to communicate my feelings. Maybe a day will come, soon I hope, when Pink no longer stirs up my stuff and becomes just another color, as the lyrics in this video so aptly describes. 

 

                                                    I can hope. 


UPDATE: Jennifer (down there in the comment section) referred me to a site where I met fella sisters who are sick of marketing the “Pink.” Check out Think Before You Pink. They bring up valid points: 

As we head into November’s election, we urge everyone concerned about breast cancer to demand representatives from every state support the 2012 Breast Cancer Action Mandate for Government Action. We need to move beyond “awareness” and pink ribbons to demand candidates and elected officials take real action on breast cancer, by initiating and supporting independent research and strong regulation to turn the tide on this epidemic. 

Thank you for listening. 


Breast cancer, Facebook bans, Mastectomy, Self-confidence, Self-Esteem, Strong Women, tattoos

Mastectomy Scars Pornographic?

Mona Alvarado Frazier

You may have heard about Facebook’s latest news. No, not its IPO problems, or CEO Zuckerberg’s wedding. This one is related to censorship of photos. In this case, mastectomy photos such as the example below.

cancerfabulous.com

The other day I wrote a post on ‘swimsuit confidence,’ a promotion by Land’s End, Curvy Girl and Beyond the Booby Trap. It was all about celebrating your body. This promotion asked for photos of women wearing their bath suits with confidence. It was all about body image and feeling good about who you are. 


In that same vein of feeling good about oneself, Joanne Jackson,  a 40 year old married mother of two and breast cancer survivor posted, on her own Facebook timeline, photos of her mastectomy scar.


After Joanne beat cancer she wanted to celebrate “kicking cancer in the ass” by sharing her story with her family and friends. You know the saying, a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Well, Joanne posted the professional   photos she had taken of her new body, scars and all, showing her audience her story. 


Photos illustrating her self confidence, strength, and courage in the face of cancer were banned as offensive and  “pornographic,” by Facebook.  Joanne expressed shock and anger that they sent her a warning and threatened to shut down her account. They cited their community standards:

Facebook has a strict policy against the sharing of pornographic content and imposes limitations on the display of nudity. At the same time, we aspire to respect people’s right to share content of personal importance, whether those are photos of a sculpture like Michelangelo’s David or family photos of a child breastfeeding.


 The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines pornographic as: 

1
the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement
2
 material (as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement
3
 the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction

Take a look at the photo, then the definition. Facebook failed the dictionary test. 

I can relate to Joanne’s celebratory feeling and the desire to share a story of survival with others. Six years ago, when my chemo and Herceptin treatments were completed, I had a porta-cath removed from above my breast. It had been there for a year leaving a couple of  scars.

Months later I too wanted to celebrate kicking cancer’s ass and had a butterfly on cherry blossoms tattoo (symbols of rebirth)  placed over the area above my breast. It was a reminder of something I will never forget. Not only because of the horrible chemo, family stress, and the reminder of mortality but because beauty came out of the pain. I survived and I wanted to celebrate that fact. Just as Joanne wanted to do with her own family and friends. 

Note: 
I kept my bathing suit top on just in case someone construed my upper body as pornographic.


Thoughts?