Cultural Cancer

I was driving with my Womance ladies the other day, and I saw a bumper sticker that said “Save the Ta-Tas”. This is one in a series of like advertisements geared towards raising awareness about Breast Cancer, and potentially raising funds for a cure. And the whole thing pisses me off. What’s so offensive about a pink shirt that says “Save the Boobies,” if the end result is money for cancer research? Namely, because once again women’s health issues are being sexualized, and a whole person reduced just to her breasts. Why not save the woman—the person? Besides, whose “boobies” are we supposed to be saving, anyway? Young-ish white women? What if those cancer afflicted “boobies” belong to an African-American grandmother? (And breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosis for African-American women). Since hers won’t conform to what our culture idealizes in breasts (i.e. youth, firmness, whiteness etc) are they not worth saving? When are we as a society going to value women as people, and not just as an assembly of sexualized body parts?

Of course, such a thing doesn’t exist for men, or if they do, they’re far less prevalent than the “save the ta-tas” bullshit. I have yet to see a “save the nuts” bumper sticker (and we can’t use proper names for said body parts, we have to use cutesy nicknames, even further reducing the gravity of this disease). That’s because men’s health issues are the default health issues—the norm, and they’re certainly not sexualized in a mass campaign. It’s also important to note that this campaign isn’t solely designed for getting men involved in a women’s health issue (though that certainly is at play, horrifyingly enough)—for every man I’ve seen wearing a “save the boobies” shirt, I’ve seen two young women wearing one, because young women are also being socialized into believing that their breasts are what’s important.

I don’t know too many people who haven’t had their lives impacted by cancer. I’ve lost three of my four grandparents to this voracious disease, and I participate in the Relay for Life every year, because cancer is going to keep killing people—people, not breasts.