Where Is The Social Justice In Breast Cancer Awareness?

Caitlin Carmody has a very excellent post up on the Think Before You Pink website about what is missing in the pink ribbon approach to breast cancer ‘awareness’, namely that they, “don’t encourage us to think about social justice.”

Amen to that.  Carmody goes on to offer an excellent list of reasons why we need to make the connection between breast cancer and social justice:

• What if your primary language is not English? What if you live in a food desert?
• What if your profession is hazardous to your health?
• What if you don’t have health insurance?
• What if you do have health insurance but not an extra $8,000?
• What if you bear the burden of this country’s environmental waste, which is linked to a higher risk of breast cancer?
• What if the federal agency entrusted to ensure your food is safe, approved a growth hormone that increases your risk of breast cancer?

When we examine those questions, we get a very different awareness than just run for the cure, get a mammogram and eat right.  Kudos to Carmody for this excellent re-framing.