The Komen Story Take-Away

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Feb 102012
 

There are many take-aways from the recent Komen fiasco.  Not that there has ever, in anything vaguely resembling recent history (say the last 5000 years or so) been a time when women’s health and rights have not been under siege, but the level of attacks the last few years has been horrifying and women have been working full tilt to combat them.  While there have been a lot of successes, there have been dreadful losses too, perhaps the worst of which is that we haven’t been able to stem the tide of these attacks.  But the one thing that we most certainly have done is found amazing ways to work together on these issues and very effective ways to respond quickly and loudly.

What I see in the way that we reacted to the Komen debacle is perhaps the perfection of our coming together to say,

NO MORE!  We have had enough!

For me, the Komen story has been deja vu.  Many of the issues that have been highlighted by the many wonderful people who have documented this story are things I have written about before and I am so glad they have finally been aired in a way that has reached critical mass.

Without hesitation, I can say that of all the many topics I have ever written about, the Komen story is one of my least favorites.  But yet I have felt compelled to write about it again  last week and I am gratified by the attention the two pieces that I wrote on this blog received.  Today The Washington Post ran a piece that linked to my work and last week, the Institute for Public Accuracy included a link to one of them in a press release, the result of which was requests for numerous interviews with radio stations and print media from all corners of the country.  Here are links to two of them:

Sonali Kolhatkar interview with FPN’s Lucinda Marshall on KPFK’s Uprising

FPN’s Lucinda Marshall interviewed on WORT’s Her Turn

Let’s take what we’ve learned from the Komen incident about raising our voices together and keep this rolling because enough is enough, women’s rights are human rights and our lives and our health can no longer be used as political footballs!

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 Posted by Fempeace on February 10, 2012

Curing The Pink Stink

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Feb 032012
 

After several days of unrelenting fury (much of it from long-time loyal supporters)  that has severely damaged their credibility as our boobs’ best friend, Komen For The Cure has reconsidered its decision regarding funding Planned Parenthood (albeit with a statement that definitely leaves significant wiggle room). In the wake of what may well be the worst case of accidental re-branding ever by the organization that pinkified the world and took cause branding to epic proportions, we need to take a hard look at  Komen’s  very unhealthy advocacy and re-examine what if any role they should play in supporting women’s health.

As angry women have said repeatedly the last few days, it is not acceptable to advocate for breast health at the expense of our overall health.  The reason we have stood by Planned Parenthood is because it is absolutely essential to fund them because they provide essential healthcare for women that, for many, is simply not available elsewhere.  And yes, 3% of that care is providing abortions.  But as we insist on funding Planned Parenthood, what we really need to be asking is why it is that we are in a situation where we must depend on Planned Parenthood for these services that are frequently unavailable or unaffordable elsewhere.  The answer or course is the unrelenting attack on women’s health in Congress and state legislatures and a lack of single payer healthcare in this country (which Komen has reportedly lobbied against).

Over the years, Komen has accepted massive support from corporations that make all manner of products that have been linked to cancer and hawked all manner of pink stuff with cancer-related ingredients.  They have hammered about the need to be aware and get annual mammograms even while study after study has questioned this recommendation (and oh yeah, they have accepted contributions from the companies that make mammography equipment).

Komen has told us that being aware and early detection are the key, even though in many cases, this simply makes no difference in outcome.  They have hawked (and even trademarked) ” for the cure” (a trademark they have spent millions of  the dollars we have raced to raise defending), the shockingly expensive drugs that treat this awful disease, while taking large contributions from drug makers.

Komen has told us that we have to take personal responsibility while focusing on treatment, rather than looking for the cause while they take contributions from chemical companies, car companies and others who pollute the planet with  cancerous toxins.

To state the obvious, this is not healthy.  What is needed in this country is, first and foremost, single payer healthcare that provides full reproductive health services to everyone.  Secondly, as organizations like Breast Cancer Action and people like Dr. Susan Love have repeatedly said, we need to figure out what causes breast cancer and work to stop it, not just throw expensive treatments at it.  It also should be pointed out that breast cancer isn’t even the leading cause of death in women.  Heart disease is.  Interestingly, while more women get breast cancer than lung cancer, more women die of lung cancer which is far more likely to be deadly.  But breast cancer gets the attention and the money because diseased or not, we find boobs titilating.  But indulging in that fascination rather than prioritizing our efforts to address the diseases with higher mortality rates is literally killing women.

So enough with Komen and their pink guns and buckets of chicken and toxic signature fragrances.  It is time to demand full universal healthcare, (including reproductive health services) and a responsible medical funding policy, and to refuse to be complicit with the damaging ethos of pink ribbons.

–Lucinda Marshall

 

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 Posted by Fempeace on February 3, 2012

Sandra Steingraber: Atrazine, Susan G. Komen and KFC

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May 122010
 

Last year I had the privilege of hearing ecologist Dr. Sandra Steingraber discuss the environmental links between cancer and reproductive health.  She is the author of Living Downstream:  An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment, which has also been made into a movie.

Steingraber is currently writing a series of essays on environmental health issues. In her latest essay, Escape from the Heartland—Atrazine, Susan G. Komen, and KFC, she weighs in on the damaging KFC/Susan G. Komen for the Cure Buckets for the Cure campaign:

When you are peddling fried chicken breasts in the name of addressing breast cancer, you are not only ignoring the role of diet in the breast cancer epidemic, you are distracting us from an ongoing battle about the use of a chemical possibly linked to breast cancer – atrazine – in the creation of that food.

Chickens are fed corn, and corn is sprayed with atrazine, and atrazine is a chemical that may be linked to breast cancer risk. Atrazine runs in the rivers and streams of Illinois and other states, falls in the rain over North America, and courses through the bloodstreams of children living in agricultural regions. We need to have a conversation about this. Don’t sell us fried fat and gravy. Come back to Peoria, Illinois, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and talk about atrazine.

Steingraber is absolutely right to call out Komen as well as KFC on this issue.  Komen takes far too many contributions from companies whose products have been linked to cancer, something I’ve written about numerous times before. The President’s Cancer Panel’s recent study calling the alarm about the impact of cancer-causing chemicals on our health should be a wake up call, but it is interesting to note that the ink was barely dry before the American Cancer Society, also the recipient of huge amounts of money from companies that add to our chemical load, was insisting that the Panel’s conclusions were alarmist (and obviously bad news for many of their corporate contributors).

That line of reasoning needs to be rebutted and Steingraber’s  expertise on this subject is yet another wake up call about business as usual in the American cancer industry.  You can read more of her excellent essays here.  Steingraber offers crucial expertise on a subject she knows all too well from personal experience and is an important voice that we need to be hearing.

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 Posted by Fempeace on May 12, 2010

Finger Lickin Bad–KFC Pepto Pinkifies Itself To Cure Our Titties (Updated)

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Apr 122010
 

Oh for pity sake…I was out running errands before and drove past a pepto pink Kentucky Fried Chicken and there but for heavy traffic was tempted to stop and confirm my worst suspicions. Sure enough, KFC has started a Buckets for the Cure campaign:

KFC's eat unhealthy fast food to combat breast cancer campaign

KFC's eat unhealthy fast food to combat breast cancer campaign

On their website you can rotate the bucket to see pictures of women who will tell you their breast cancer story and you can even post your own story.  For each pink bucket you buy, they’ll donate 50 cents to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  No word on the website how much the bucket costs but clearly KFC is going to make more on this than Komen, although the pink paint on their restaurants probably set them back a bit (will post a pic when I get a chance).

As I’ve said too many times already–selling unhealthy things to raise money for breast cancer is unacceptable as is predatory cause marketing where the cause gets a lot less than the manufacturer of the cute pepto pink thingy. As our alert friends at Breast Cancer Action point out, KFC has said that their goal is to contribute $8.5 million, however in small print, the guaranteed minimum is $1 million and according to the promotion (reprinted here in a reasonable approximation of the pepto pink),

“Customer purchases of KFC buckets during the promotion will not directly
increase the total contribution,”

So we’re buying pink buckets of greasy chicken why?  And what’s with the $7.5 million discrepancy between the goal and the minimum promised–looks like 15 million people have to buy the pink buckets to make that happen.  That’s a lot of breasts for breasts…

If you want to donate money to fight breast cancer in a way that makes a difference and doesn’t involve eating fried, greasy unhealthy food, please donate to Breast Cancer Action.

And while you’re at it, you can tell KFC to keep their greasy finger lickin corporate selves off our breasts here.

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 Posted by Fempeace on April 12, 2010