Is it November Yet? I'm Tired Of Hearing About The Boobies

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and if one more person bounces down the hall in a pink shirt that says something about boobies or ta-tas or, my personal favorite, lady lumps, I might scream. Breast cancer takes over 40,000 moms, daughters, wives and sisters away every year, and we are trying to make it cute. We’re focusing on the specific location of the cancer and in way sexualizing it, instead of focusing on the cancer itself. Are men more likely to get involved and spread awareness if we focus on saving the tits instead of the life? Is it easier to talk about breast cancer in big groups or around men if we continue to refer to the breast as a sexual organ? And God forbid cancer takes a woman’s breast, because then she’d be less valuable and desirable in the eyes of the opposite sex. Is THIS what we are teaching our daughters? To be aware of breast cancer so you don’t loose your coconuts? How about we check for breast cancer so we don’t DIE. That may be a good place to start.

Companies have door-decorating contests, where each department decorates a door in the office or building in honor of breast cancer awareness month. And who wins? The department that covers their doors in bras and comes up with some fluffy slogan about saving the jugs. When are we going to stop focusing on the fact that the cancer takes more than just fatty tissue? It takes LIVES.  If MY mom died of cancer (oh wait, she did) I’d be livid (oh wait, I am) that everyone was focusing on saving a piece of her rather than all of her. Save her boobs?! Let’s cure breast cancer so women can have their breasts? How about cure breast cancer so daughters can have their moms and brothers can have their sisters and fathers can have their daughters? How about we focus on saving the person instead of making it cutesy and funny? Why don’t we parade around in July with signs that say “Save Your Bladder” for Bladder Cancer Awareness month? Or pass out free violet bracelets that say “Save the Testicles!” in April? Because bladders and testicles aren’t sexy. But breasts are, so let’s make sure we save them, right?

This is in NO way minimizing the fact that mastectomies change lives. Women lose a lot more than fatty tissue and a nipple when removing their breast to save their life is the only option. Many lose their sense of womanhood, their self-confidence and struggle to love and accept their newly changed bodies. Saving the boobies is a great goal, but it’s not the only goal. The goal is to give daughters more time with their moms, husbands more time with their wives, and sisters more time with their sisters. 

Watching a woman you love struggle with any kind of cancer is heart breaking. What is even more heart breaking is watching the world treat cancer like some sort of girly, delicate little sickness just because it is in a part of the body that only women have. Instead, we need to be attacking this cancer like the son of a bitch it is, and pour our hearts and souls and prayers and money into finding a cure for cancer, no matter where it resides.

A cutesy slogan about saving the hooters that encourages one woman to go home, and do a self-exam that leads to early detection of breast cancer is worth it. But for the thousands of people who have lost a woman close to them to this awful disease, focusing on saving just one part of their body is not enough. Breast cancer steals sisters and daughters and mothers and wives every day. Let’s focus and get angry about THAT and stop making it sexy and fluffy. It’s not about saving “the twins,” it’s about saving lives.