The whole Avon Pink Warrior/Susan Komen Race for the Cure thing pisses me off. My mom had breast cancer in 1996. She's still alive in 2010, and she doesn't call herself a breast cancer survivor. I'm all for finding out how to cure any number of ailments, including breast cancer and heart disease, but I have no idea why spending a ton of money getting a bunch of people to walk over three days wearing Pepto Bismo pink is supposed to have anything to do with curing any kind of cancer. For all the money they're spending on advertising and organizing the hike, as well as all the money spent supporting the hike seems like it could just be donated to cancer research without all the contortions of everyone patting themselves on the damn back and infantilizing women.
Now the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is apparently reputable, with only 8% of money raised going to administrative costs, but as far as curing cancer goes, 28% goes to research. The remaining 64%? Not broken out from what I can see: I'm seeing fundraising (is that administrative? They're spending a ton on advertising), education, screening, and treatment. But to cure a disease, the research part would seem to be the primary focus, and 28% doesn't seem primary to me.
The thing that bugs me the most about the whole thing is the attitude: the woman saying she never had a say about losing her mother to cancer, but this walk makes her feel like she's finally had her say. Like everyone else gets a say regarding the loss of a family member? On what planet? (Or as the Saturday Night Live skit goes: Really? Are you fucking kidding me?) So we're going to walk wearing hideous colors so that no-one ever dies when we don't want that person to die? I don't even know where to start with that.
Don't get me wrong. Breast cancer is horrible. So is leukemia, skin cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, liver cancer, heart disease, cholera (a big threat in Haiti right now, and no-one there got asked whether they wanted to lose their loved ones either, I'm pretty sure), myelofibrosis, typhoid, Tay-Sachs disease, or old age.
Nuclear Grammy has suffered more broken bones, and no-one asked me if I wanted my tough as nails grandmother to have her bones crumble to dust before she died (I don't, and she doesn't). I don't get a say. Fortunatley, my family, accepting that you don't always get a say, is simply making her pain free (if a bit addled) by loading her up on the opiates.
Big Grampa's second wife died horribly of ovarian cancer, and her teenage kids didn't get a say either: she was younger than I am now and her younger son was all of fifteen. Wearing pink didn't help, you know?
So if you want to use up a bunch of resources organizing a hike rather than paying for research, find. Why not just take a hike with friends, and give all the money that would be spent on organizing, etc. and have it go directly to research? I just don't get it. And find it annoying. Yes, I'm a misanthrope.
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7 comments:
I understand and have a similar cringe watching the non stop commercials and seeing everything draped in pink ribbons in October. My mom is on her third trip down breast cancer lane. And I have walked a 3 Day and Raced for the Cure. The additional monies go to support patients. Support groups, wigs and education aren't free - but they are free for patients who need them. This time mom wore a tiara presented to her when she finished chemo. She isn't a pink shirt wearer or someone who calls herself a survivor - but that tiara boosted her weakened spirits greatly.
Sylvia, I hope that your mother recovers. I'm glad the program provides support that is helpful to your mother. I'm glad they do provide these services to patients. I know I'm being grumpy, but when I think of all they're spending on advertising, I wonder how much of the education really is advertising, and I find the pink crap nausea-inducing. Nonetheless, what I think is good and what others do don't have to coincide and the charity guides do rate the Susan G. Komen stuff pretty well. So it doesn't really matter much if I can't stand them.
I do hope that fourteen years from now, you'll be in the same situation I'm in: with a mother whose breast cancer was a disease she had in a previous decade and who plans to die of something else. Good luck.
I quite agree with you, I think. But I wonder if 28% of what results from all the advertising BS isn't still considerably more money than, say, 90% of what would come in without all the hoopla. Or are there just more (hidden) lobster dinners involved?
I've always felt a little guilty for avoiding the whole Buy Pink (and the like) movement. I'm sorry but if I want to support a cause, ANY cause, I will write a check directly to the cause.
As a former fundraiser event planner, I know just how little money actually ends up going to the cause. It breaks my heart.
Wunelle: I've always wondered about the psychology that someone won't just give $20 to cure cancer or feed orphans or whatever, but will pay $100 to have a fancy (but mediocre, as far as the food value goes) dinner or hike in a race when $20 or less than that generally goes to the cure/cause whatever.
I give very small amounts of money to causes I believe in, but give the money without requiring dinner or whatever. Re diseases, I give platelets and blood and sign up to be a guinea pig at NIH whenever I can do so at minimal risk and inconvenience. I've let myself be monitored regarding breast cancer (as a daughter of a woman who had breast cancer, apparently my cells have some value that I don't understand), blood stuff, vaccines, depression, and a few other things. I hope some gains are made, but they won't be made by me going on a hike and shaking people down to contribute or by me eating a mediocre meal and having a percentage of the amount I'm overcharged go to the cause.
TC: I don't feel guilty. I feel incredibly annoyed (which isn't useful at all, but there you are). If our society is so depraved that people won't give money to save lifes without getting kudos and dibs on self-congratulation, we rather deserve to die.
Ditto me. I really am irritated by that same commercial. And the walk for a cure. Does walking really make a cure? It makes people feel good, I dont' think it accomplishes much. And I hate the infantilization, with all the pink and funny clothes. They'd never do thsi with prostate cancer for men.
Innana
Innana: IMHO, the walk for the cure uses up a lot of resources (the cost of advertising, organizing, buying all those ugly t-shirts, providing march support, etc.) to very little return. It might be very helpful for some people in terms of feeling cameraderie, but I am very sceptical about that too. Why not just fund research and treatment and ask people to contribute to the same. Give a big check to NIH and anyone else who is doing anything to help, and say that's good.
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