October 24, 2009

I bought a pink sweater.

DSC04882

Then I felt like I had a Breast Cancer Awareness sweater.

Why has a disease been permitted to claim a color for itself? Pink is one of the all-time great colors. It speaks of youth, freshness, prettiness, and health. Please let pink be pink again.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good point. Hadn't thought about that. There's also the matter of the urging to be 'aware' of something.

If there's compassion fatigue, I wonder if there is also awareness fatigue. How many things to I need to be aware of?

Chris

thefewandtheplenty said...

And why does one cancer get more 'awareness' and research money than another. Higher mortality rates? Closer to a cure than other cancers? Further?

If there's one cancer that needs awareness is childhood leukemia. Why does one cancer get to be more important than another?

steve said...

Why button only the top button? What's the point? Your middle is still exposed, though your arms are covered. Is wearing the sweater that way simply a fashion statement? You can't be wearing it to keep warm

WestVirginiaRebel said...

I hear ya-it's kind of like what the environmentalists have done to green-it used to be, at worst, a color lamented by Kermit the Frog.

Black at least makes sense. The absence of color, the color of death (in Western cultures, at least) the color of night. Red and Blue also still stand as primary colors (contemporary election associations aside).

Ann Althouse said...

It seems to me that if we are to be made aware of diseases we should be made aware of some diseases we are not already aware of.

traditionalguy said...

Pink is a healthy and a bright color. Roses are great in pink varieties. But this wide spread association of pink with special vulnerabilities of women's breasts re-enforces the idea that women are significantly not like men at all. Was Larry Summers behind this campaign?

blake said...

Wait.

Breast cancer?

What's that?

Really?

I was not aware!

Thanks, Althouse!

john said...

I bought a pink box of saltine crackers this week. Every time I check out at the grocery, the card machine asks if I want to "donate to breast cancer".

No Thanks. I don't think anyone should do that.

Rockport Conservative said...

Teal is the color for ovarian cancer. I have a hard time with teal since my niece died of ovarian cancer.
Pink is not as completely ruined, my daughter in law has successfully fought that one. I find it a little more on the triumphant and feminine side.

David said...

Looks like more of a Breast Awareness sweater to me.

Unknown said...

Actually, it looks a little lavender or hyacinth on my monitor. Oh, well...

In any case, you look a bit like my wife there. She can be rough and tumble on the outside, but sweet and big-hearted on the inside. I knew there was a reason I came here...

WV "reconses" When one must conse again.

Meade said...

edutcher said...
In any case, you look a bit like my wife there...

You are a lucky guy, my friend.

David said...

David said...
Looks like more of a Breast Awareness sweater to me.

That other David said that.

Skipper50 said...

About the same as the co-option of words and language by special (or not so special) interests.

dbp said...

"Looks like more of a Breast Awareness sweater to me."

I'm yet a third David, and I was thinking along similar lines.

dbp said...

My three daughters (the oldest is 12) all wear lots of pink, blissfully unaware that the color has been co-opted.

The joys of youth.

Unknown said...

.... oh c'mon ! wear the color and enjoy it ! dont let the breast cancer campaign get in your head and define the meaning of a color. maybe other people will see it as your breast cancer sweater, but who cares?

Anton said...

"Looks like more of a Breast Awareness sweater to me."

Indeed, and with a touch of ebullient nipple, me thinks!

Prosqtor said...

Yeah, but you gotta love NFL players with pink gear.

J. Cricket said...

Um, pink has also been claimed by an insulation company.

And by a panther.

And by Molly Ringwald.

To mention a few.

Grow up and wear your sweater. Or don't.

But note: whining is not very compatible with pink.

Cedarford said...

Rockport Conservative said...
Teal is the color for ovarian cancer. I have a hard time with teal since my niece died of ovarian cancer.


Not to make light of your loss, but we will run out of colors to "symbolize" diseases before we run out of types of diseases...And are people honestly supposed to remember or worse, be educated in schools - that pink means breast cancer, teal is ovarian, rainbow is gay?

What's the color of diabetes? Yellow?
Testicular cancer...desert rose?

What about other "movements" and their special colors?
Black is the color symbolizing the stupid POW/MIA flag which itself is supposed to symbolize our "caring" for POWs despite having none in captivity for more than a few weeks who were not deserters to the enemy - since 1973.
===============
A thought. Would it be really wrong to glue breast cancer ribbons to the filters of cigarettes and hand out smokes on the street to "raise breast cancer awareness"?
A nice awareness raising idea..but just-wrong-to-do???

=============
No one really has explained how a family raising funds to sail around the world in their family yacht to "fight colon cancer" actually does fight colon cancer.

Or the guy walking backwards to "focus people on autism" the length of New Zealand is interested in anything other than people focusing on himself.

knox said...

Yeah, the whole pink thing is getting old. The whole breast cancer awareness movement is going to experience "fatigue" in the populace if they don't ease up a bit on their marketing.

A guy called in to Dennis Miller the other day said he was on a plane and they passed around a collection plate for breast cancer. The stewardess then chided them for not coming up with enough $$$.

victoria said...

And pink is the only color that looks good on all skin types and universally all people, even you macho men. Love me a man in a pink dress shirt or a pink polo. Hot stuff.

victoria said...

BTW, Ann you look terrific in the sweater. Wear it proud, girl.!!!

victoria said...

BTW again, Dennis Miller is a douche.

Fred4Pres said...

Ann, you are pretty in pink. You can go Molly Ringwold-John Hughes any day.

former law student said...

Why has a disease been permitted to claim a color for itself?

Gays set the precedent by co-opting the entire rainbow. The rest of us failed to protest sufficiently at the time.

For what it's worth, that sweater is too light to be breast cancer pink.

the card machine asks if I want to "donate to breast cancer".

Years ago, a co-worker asked me to sponsor him for the Walk for Aids. I said, "Hell no. But I would contribute to the Walk Against Aids.

Shanna said...

It only feels that way in October. Of course, if you never wear pink it's not an issue.

kentuckyliz said...

Whenever you see a yellow bracelet, don't you think about Lance's balls?

kentuckyliz said...

If you think about it, pink for breast cancer is racist.

Only the whitest white girls have pink nipples.

Darker girls have tawny, brown, or black nipples.

Racists!

You can have a multicolor awareness ribbon--thyroid cancer is tri-color.

I propose the breast cancer ribbon become pink, tawny, brown, and black. All the colors of the nipply rainbow.

Ya with me?!

kentuckyliz said...

Annie, the way that sweater looks on you in that photo, skip the cancer, sheeyit woman, breast awareness!

Chilly?

rhhardin said...

Kroger joins the pink fray today.

Meade said...

Wow, rh! Ronda Hall looks like an Althouse wannabee.