10 things wrong with the pink ribbon!
Be sure to let me know what I'm missing.
Hello, friend.
Thank you for being here. I’m thrilled and grateful you are.
Generally, I post articles every two weeks here on Substack. But October is a big month in Breast Cancer Land advocacy. Plus, I’m working on a new political post, so I decided I better amp things up and publish this one today. Stay tuned for my count-down to election article that’ll be up next week. As an older female voter in a swing state, I’ve got stuff to say.
This week, I decided to update/revamp a post from my other website because most folks on Substack have not read it. It’s one of those pieces that changed and fueled my advocacy. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, it’s still timely and relevant in 2024.
A version of this piece was also published on Huffington Post.
Admittedly, writing about pink ribbons feels a bit trite considering the many huge issues of the day. (Maybe this is a good point in and of itself — pink ribbons make a serious disease seem trite. Unacceptable!)
Thank you for reading my article, and if you’re moved to do so, thank you for sharing it. I can’t wait to hear how YOU feel about pink ribbons in 2024, so be sure to share your thoughts in the comments.
10 things wrong with the pink ribbon!
So, what’s wrong with the pink ribbon anyway?
Turns out, plenty.
I get this question a lot. It’s a fair one, so I thought I’d share my ideas on why the pink ribbon has lost its appeal for so many of us. Pink itself is not a problem. It’s only a color. (I love pink. You?) And ribbons are not the problem — they’re just ribbons!
But then, we have a certain ribbon that has received oodles of attention as well as a fair amount of criticism of late and that, of course, is the almighty pink ribbon.
I wonder if there is anyone on the planet, or in this part of the world anyway, who hasn’t seen the pink ribbon. It’s everywhere. And not just during Breast Cancer Awareness Month anymore. No, now you can see it all year long slapped onto to this, that, and the other thing.
The pink ribbon might have been a good symbol at one time, but it became overused and too often, misused.
The pink ribbon is worn out, and the problems with the pink ribbon keep stacking up.
Here are ten things wrong with the pink ribbon!
1. Largely due to overuse and misuse the pink ribbon has lost its effectiveness, or at least, the right kind of effectiveness.
The pink ribbon has morphed into a marketing tool, and a highly successful one at that. The pink ribbon is now used to sell stuff and lots of it. Unless you’ve been house bound for quite some time you probably don’t need any visuals, but just in case, here’s a collage put together by my friend, Kathi Kolb.
The very fact that breast cancer awareness is so tightly linked to shopping in the first place is flat out sexist. Why are we not shopping in the name of prostate cancer, heart disease, or childhood cancer awareness?
(You might want to read, Why Is Breast Cancer the Shopping Disease Anyway?)
As the late Barbara Brenner said:
If breast cancer could be cured by shopping, it would be cured by now.
Amen, right?
2. The pink ribbon is sometimes used in an underhanded way to make people feel good about shopping AND where they are shopping.
Pink ribbons are used to increase profits as well as a corporation’s image. Talk about bang for your buck — I mean ribbon.
3. Pink ribbons are often misleading.
People buy items with a pink ribbon on them because they assume their money will go to a good cause. This may or may not be true. Sometimes, there is a cap on how much will be donated regardless of how much money comes in. Worse, sometimes not one dollar or even one penny will go to breast cancer anything.
If it’s not clear how much is being donated to help real people impacted by breast cancer or toward research, ASK. If there are no clear answers, don’t buy it or support that company or organization.
4. The product with the pink ribbon is sometimes questionable.
Some of the products are even linked to the possibility of contributing to the risk of breast cancer. This is known as ‘pinkwashing’.
5. Many people are insulted by the pink ribbon because it too often seems to “dress up” breast cancer. It’s a cute and tidy way to package a deadly disease.
A pink ribbon suggests that breast cancer is feminine, pretty, and perhaps even an “acceptable” kind of cancer. I mean, how many times have you heard, at least you got the good cancer?
Before buying that provocative t-shirt or biting into that breast-shaped whatever it is, ask yourself, who is this helping and how?
6. Pink ribbons are, well, pink. They represent females with breast cancer. Men are completely erased.
But men can and do get breast cancer, too. Sadly, this can leave them feeling like outcasts — adding to the possible humiliation of having a “woman’s disease” in the first place.
Whenever you can, remind folks that men can and sometimes do get breast cancer, too.
7. The pink ribbon is used to represent hope, faith, and courage.
The underlying message for some might be construed to be, just remain hopeful. You’ll be fine. This leaves little room for other genuine feelings like fear, anger, and uncertainty.
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with courage, hope, or faith. But when these things become tied so tightly to a pink ribbon, perhaps we are unintentionally suggesting women should sit quietly and accept breast cancer. It might even suggest we should sit back and accept the lack of progress in prevention and treatment, much less a cure.
Think about it.
Remember all that sugar and spice nonsense about good little girls?
8. The pink ribbon overshadows all the other ribbons. In a way, it’s become the bully of ribbons.
The other colored ribbons for all those other diseases are mostly forgotten, too often shoved out of the spotlight by the mighty pink one. Don’t feel bad if you can’t name even one other colored ribbon and the disease it’s matched to. Most people probably can’t.
Here’s a chart via Choose Hope to help you out:
9. The pink ribbon does its part to help keep sexualization and trivialization of a still deadly disease alive and well in Breast Cancer Land and beyond.
There are too many lame attempts to make breast cancer awareness lighthearted or sexy by adorning pink ribbons on t-shirts (and other stuff) along with sassy, provocative slogans.
Many such campaigns claim such an approach is necessary to appeal to a younger crowd and to avoid being too serious. I say, that’s BS. Breast cancer IS a serious disease. Nothing about it is amusing. Nothing.
Too often, many of these campaigns and/or products seem to suggest breast cancer awareness is more about saving breasts than lives. Here’s one example:
It’s all about the boobs.
Seriously?
NOTE: Just this week, I received an email promoting a campaign a couple local restaurants are taking part in called “Burgers for Boobs”. Yikes. Just when I thought we were making good progress. Granted, donations (didn’t say how much or what percentage) are going to a local cancer/breast cancer center, but geez. “Burgers for Boobs” — why the trivializing slogan?
10. The pink ribbon has been around for decades, but when you look at the results that matter — fewer deaths from breast cancer — this has not been the outcome from all those ribbons.
Breast cancer continues to claim 40,000+ lives annually in just the United States, a number that’s gone unchanged since my diagnosis in 2010. In 2024, 42,720 women AND 500+ men are expected to die from metastatic breast cancer. Plus, the metastatic community continues to be mostly left out of the pink ribbon hoopla in more ways than one. Sad, but true. Unacceptable!
There are undoubtedly many other problems with the pink ribbon, but this list should do for starters.
It’s time to get the knots out of the pink ribbon. I say, let’s untie it, retie it, or maybe even throw it out!
What do you say?
Finally, I’m delighted to share a newspaper link to an article, “It’s time for Breast Cancer Awareness Month to rebrand,” written by one of my long-time readers, Meredith Clark. (My readers are the best.)
Meredith decided to do something and wrote an opinion piece for her local newspaper. I hope you’ll take a minute to read it. Let’s help get her article lots of clicks and added attention!
I’ll close this post out with some wise words from Meredith’s article:
It’s time to acknowledge that we are ‘aware.’ It’s time to rebrand October as the month for more relevant breast cancer education, more political pressure to find a cure, and fewer pink tutus.
Well said, Meredith, and thank you.
If you like this post, thank you for sharing it and spreading some real awareness!
Now, it’s YOUR turn to express your opinion on pink ribbons in 2024.
Do YOU think the pink ribbon is still an effective tool for raising awareness about breast cancer?
Which # on the list below, if any, irks you the most?
Before buying a pink or pink ribbon product, do you find out how much and exactly where the donated dollars are going?
What did I miss on this list?
Before you go…
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Big favor - If you do take part in these deals, please consider sharing your thoughts in a brief Amazon review. That would really help me out. Thank you in advance. I appreciate you.
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Thank you for being here with me. Your support means so much.
I’ll be posting that election count-down post next week. Something very upsetting happened, but I’ll tell you about it then.
As always, I see you. I hear you, and I care about what YOU have to say.
Until next time…
Take care of yourself, and be kind to someone.
Warmly, and with gratitude,
Nancy
Hi, Nancy. My daughter was diagnosed at age 35 with an aggressive form of breast cancer. No family history, no inherited gene mutation, nothing. She’s reached four years now, but has never received any kind of benefit from a pink-ribbon campaign. I’m right with you on this: it’s not about the boobies. My daughter is not a boobie. No one is. Thank you for this terrific article.🙏
I wrote a similar post on my Facebook page three years ago. I was diagnosed in October 2020. The month already brings up a lot of emotions and being bombarded with pink everything does not help. I especially hate how sexualized the campaign is. It's got nothing to do with "saving the boobies". It's about saving lives.