Breast Cancer Awareness Satire

If only raising awareness about breast cancer wasn't so much work.

Image taken from The Onion

This satire of breast cancer awareness from The Onion isn't a far stretch from the reality, plus it notes some typical features of pink and objectifying breast cancer campaigns:

Gender Issues of Pinktober and Movember

With pinktober and Movember behind us, I've been reflecting on some interesting similarities, correlations and themes between them. Most of these revolve around gender.

While researching both of these, I noticed many argue that Movember was the time to focus on men's health, as October was all about women: "You have pinktober; we have Movember." When women complained that Movember was exclusionary because women can't grow moustaches, male defenders of Movember argued: "We didn't protest against pinktober."

There's this idea that if you are against either campaign, you are against the gender it purports to serve and all for the other campaign. Kind of ironic when you consider that many people against Movember are socially conscious and hate pinktober for similar reasons they hate Movember.

Best Facebook Awareness Campaign Ever!

I created this image to satirize the slacktivism "I bet 99% of you won't repost this" Facebook awareness campaigns. If you want to stop slacktivism and encourage real awareness, you'll share this. Don't worry; I'm trying to be ironic.

I think it would be hilarious if people thought this was serious. Or if it went viral for any reason. I saved this image to the Beyond Passing Time Facebook Page, so maybe!

A Letter to Movember Participants

Movember is upon us and I couldn't help but notice an even more disturbing trend:

There is no discourse about prostate cancer in any of the participation I have found in my Facebook feed or in Twitter search.

So I searched Google, under a variety of keywords and phrases. Same result. Well, some of these at least used the word "awareness," so I guess that counts, right?

Pinktober Exploits Women with Breast Cancer

If you read my blog, it's probably no surprise to you that I vehemently oppose pink breast cancer marketing, where products, services and NFL games are decked out in pink, supposedly to support women with breast cancer, but the barrage of pink is actually just a marketing tool to support the companies who use it.

I have read countless blog posts, news stories, Tweets, Facebook posts and even a book called "Pink Ribbon Blues" about this infiltration of pink and how it hurts women. I studied pink culture a bit in university. A popular documentary called "Pink Ribbons Inc. was released earlier this year, coincidentally (or not?) around the same time as the Komen/Planned Parenthood scandal.

Signing an Online Petition is NOT Slacktivism

Yesterday I wrote this comment on a blog post called Stop Calling Them Slacktivists that argued that slacktivism can create change.

I don’t consider signing an online petition an example of slacktivism. Just because it is easy and quick, that doesn’t mean it’s slacktivism. We can’t paint all social media campaigns with the same brush. A lot of people do and this hurts the reputation of the good social media campaigns.

Copying and Pasting Awareness

"I bet 99 % of you won't repost this"

Many Facebook users post status updates that include this message after reposting it from someone else's. This is so rude. Passive aggressive. A guilt trip. They're pretty much saying "I don't think you'll join me in dealing with issue; I don't think you care about this cause, but I'll post this anyway." Is this how we garner support? We recycle someone else's message, instead of creating our own, and we guilt trip people -- our friends -- in the process? 

Boobstagram Breast Cancer "Awareness"

It's depressing what can be justified under the veil of "awareness."

What now?

Kony 2012 Youtube Comments

I keep seeing "KONY 2012" written as a comment on Youtube videos.

It's part of a huge social media campaign that is supposed to stop Joseph Kony who, with his army, has been abducting children in Uganda and making them child soldiers.

So what exactly does writing and reading the lone text "KONY 2012" accomplish?

Why I Hate Movember

Does growing a moustache raise awareness about prostate cancer?

No. Movember, the term for the month-long November campaign to get men to grow moustaches to support prostate cancer, is a type of slactivism. It's just about the silliness and the fun. It's not about prostate cancer. It's an excuse to grow a freaking moustache and also feel like you're doing something important.

Anyway, what does awareness mean in this case, exactly? Does your moustache share information about the importance of screening, or where to get screened? Does it tell you how you can prevent prostate cancer (if you even can)? Does it tell you the symptoms? Does it tell you who's affected?