The darkness hidden behind the pretty pink ribbons of the Komen Foundation.

Courtesy of the Globe and Mail:

Near the end of the polemical new National Film Board documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc., activist Judy Brady is asked what she thinks of when she sees the pink ribbon symbolizing breast-cancer awareness: “I see evil,” says Brady. 

Who could possibly see anything wrong in a symbol that has mobilized people to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for breast-cancer research since the 1980s? The answer is provided in this documentary by Quebec’s Léa Pool (Emporte-Moi, Lost and Delirious). 

The film is based on a 2007 book by Queen’s University professor Samantha King (Pink Ribbons Inc: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy, one of a handful of studies in the past dozen years on the contentious social history of breast cancer and the gulf between the reality of the disease and the high-profile public perception of it. 

In spite of the optimistic messages, breast cancer is not being beaten. According to the film, in 1940, a woman had a one-in-22 chance of developing the disease, while today that figure is one in eight (based on the assumption that, if all women lived to be 85, one in eight would develop it during her lifetime). And, in any case, the high profile of breast-cancer fundraising has less to do with its risk (cardiac disease and lung cancer kill more women) than its marketability.

I have to admit I am shocked by what I am learning about Cancer research, the Komen Foundation, and women's health today.  I thought I was fairly well informed, but essentially I knew NOTHING.

It almost feels like some of these organizations are picking the pockets of people who want to stop this dreadful disease, and feeding them the kind of BS one would expect from faith healers.

I remember how a few times in the past I put my testosterone in neutral and purchased one of those bright pink marketing items because I believed it was for this wonderful cause. Now I feel like a schmuck.

Like I said before,  I will be making my donations in the future DIRECTLY to Planned Parenthood. And clearly I am not alone in that choice as so far PP has raised 3 million dollars in reaction to the Komen decision.