Pinkwashed

If only the power of one little color could change the world!

Before I had cancer, I knew about the pink ribbon and Breast Cancer Awareness month. I even purchased some things touting the pink ribbon, and never once looked to see if they were even donating money to a cause related to it.

But after cancer, every October is a dread. Or, as most of my cancer friends call it, Pinktober. Why is it a dread? Why am I not excited and happy to see so many people behind a movement to raise awareness for such a devastating disease?

Because I think by now we're all AWARE! All this pinkwashing has absolutely nothing to do with curing cancer, or finding a cause. It's a ploy to make everyone feel better, like they're able to do something to alleviate the devastation it causes in nearly everyone's life somehow. It gives people a purpose, and a channel for all that angst. But it doesn't do a damn thing about a cure!

The thing that really gets me is that now you can't get away from it, even if you wanted to. I mean, here I am, sitting on the couch on Sunday night, watching an NFL football game, and what do I have to look at the entire time? PINK! On the football players! I mean, give me a break, people! Is this really helping to find a cure? (I mean, thanks, New England Patriots' Laurence Maroney, but even you must realize wearing pink gloves on the field isn't helping anyone.)

And, to top it all off, my birthday falls in Pinktober. So, it turns out that I've been blessed to be diagnosed with the cancer de jour, and their chosen time to celebrate it is my birthday month.

I need to get away from all this. I need to be able to get rid of my anger. I need to be a part of something that's actually trying to find a cure, rather than making hoards of money off this thing and perpetuating the campaign.

Does anyone really believe that a cure/cause will ever be found now? There's so much money at stake, so many Races to run, so very many patients to treat. Why on Earth would anyone want to rock that boat?