Pinktober has very little to do with surviving breast cancer - and far more to do with making money for those who coopt the month to make money for themslves and for "charitable" ventures with higher than average administrative costs.
What do my friends and I have in common? We're all women. All of us hate the co-opting of the color pink. It's not "our" color (in the same way it's not the color of choice of my two daughters, aged 11 and 16). Turning breast cancer pink is infantilizing. But most of the time, we have more important things to worry about than a marketing ploy, so we ignore it.
We worry about our health in a way we never did before. Three of the four of us have had mastectomies; the fourth faces the prospect of one. So, we are getting used to unfamiliar and unfeeling bodies. That's a process that will last a lifetime. What's a lifetime? That's something we have all changed our minds about.
. . .
I wonder why "my" disease has its own month and color, when heart disease and ovarian cancer don't. I was in Greenwich, CT at the weekend and I passed a fancy store window with pink shoes in it. Yes, Manolo Blahnik has designed a special pink shoe – yours for $990 – in honor of the Breast Cancer Alliance. A massive 20% (TWENTY PER CENT!) of the proceeds go to the BCA. I dare you to buy a pair.
. . .
If you are moved to give money to helping those with breast cancer this month, I'd like to suggest you think about giving it directly to a reputable organization. If 20% of pink purchases goes to help people with breast cancer, a bunch of healthy people are doing very nicely with the other 80% from your good intentions. Do those who get rich off the sick have their own room in hell? If they do, let's hope it's a large one.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/30/pinktober-consumerism-breast-cancer-awareness
https://health.usnews.com/health-care/patient-advice/articles/2017-10-03/does-pinktober-risk-trivializing-breast-cancer
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a19913909/pinktober/
I am currently NED (no evidence of disease) from both breast cancer and sarcoma. Breast cancer is both a luxury disease (because of the cost of health care to treat it) - AND - a disease which consumes disproportionate attention and resources. For example, I could have had a double breast job, even though my cancer was confined to one breast, and the "divot" left by my partial mastectomy is not noticeable at all when clothed, and barely noticeable at all. Insurance would have been required to pay for it as medically necessary. This is in sharp contrast to the actual, visible (both through clothing and when I am wearing anything but long sleeves) deformity in my arm left by the removal of the sarcoma. Fixing that deformity is considered cosmetic surgery.
Things provided for breast cancer survivors free (or nearly) of charge must be paid for out of pocket by sarcoma (and other rare cancer) survivors - everything from wigs to scholarships to dream-come-true trips.
Awareness of all cancers, but particularly rare ones, and access to full treatment regardless of financial resources needs to be available to all. There should not be special, preferred deadly diseases. Pinktober perpetuates the disparity of access to to care for those who have one cancer but not another.
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