Given that the end of the year is fast approaching I thought it a good time to review my blog posts of the past year. After reviewing my little "Stats" tool, to which I'm completely and unhealthily addicted, it seems that some of my more popular posts were those where I displayed and discussed the more heinous and/or tacky examples of pink ribbon and breast cancer awareness products that are so ubiquitous now, particularly in the U.S.
My love affair with writing these kinds of posts probably stems from Christmas a couple of years ago, when I received as a gift from a well-meaning relative, this vomitous little "breast cancer awareness" figurine at left. Talk about traumatic! If you're interested, you can read my my full reaction to this gift in the post entitled
"The Adventures of Pink Lady: Part I". It represents my first foray into this kind of a rant, and also explains why I think these kinds of products are simply a marketing scam foisted upon the unsuspecting good spirit of humanity, all in the name of corporate profits dressed up as breast cancer altruism.
I remember at the time, after opening the box, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Firstly, the figurine was marked as being the first in a series, which possibly meant I was going to receive the rest of the series at some point. Arrrgggh! And secondly, I couldn't believe that someone actually thought that buying this gift for me was a good idea. Thirdly, what I was going to say to the well-meaning relative? I mean what do you say? Thanks? And thanks for reminding me that I have breast cancer? And by the way, this doesn't make me feel better? (I think I completely chickened out of this potentially teachable moment and just muttered thanks, biting down on my tongue. Very hard!).
However, I knew instantly that I needed to keep this gift because it reminds me of all that is wrong with pink ribbon culture, and inspires me everyday to keep writing this blog. So I put her in my dining room cabinet where she has become quite the dinner party conversation piece and the best excuse I can think of to get on my soapbox to rant about awful pink ribbon products. I also keep her there in case the well-meaning relative ever visits my house. Gulp !
Many months later, still feeling completely enraged by the plethora of pink ribbon tat that assaulted my senses everywhere I looked, I halfheartedly launched something called "The Pink Boob Awards". Readers sent me their examples, and I posted them to a not-very-exciting list on my blog. And there the list sat, periodically updated, whenever I found another particularly foul example. It became clear to me that it was going to be hard to pick a winner, because there were just so many to choose from. So I just didn't.
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| Cleaning products and breast cancer. Hmmmm. |
Anyway fast forward to today, with more and more images starting to fill my little desktop picture folder I realized that I needed to find a better way to preserve and display these images for posterity. So today, readers I give you the
Pink Boob Awards Gallery, featuring the best of the worst pink ribbon and breast cancer awareness stuff as judged by me. This will be an ongoing feature and can be accessed from the right sidebar at any time.
So please bring me your ridiculous, bring me your egregious, bring me your distasteful and bring me your downright nauseating, and if I think it fits the bill, I'll add it to the
Pink Boob Awards Gallery for all to see.
Email me your
Pink Boob Awards Gallery nominations to
cancerculture@gmail.com, and it would be great if you could also include an Internet link to the original image source.
