October is one of my favorite months of the year.
The cool breezes, the changing leaves, the crisp blue skies …
But recent years has brought a new message our way which is permeating every media outlet imaginable and is anything but enjoyable.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in America and with it comes an annual pinkwashing of the grandest proportions.
Pink gloves and cleats on NFL players, pink sweat bands and referee flags, and pink ribbons worn by TV commentators. Even the National Anthem has been pinkwashed with a giant pink flag in the shape of a ribbon replacing the American flag during the singing of this patriotic song prior to professional sporting events!
To me, this is not only extremely unpatriotic, but downright insulting to our men and women in uniform.
What are these people thinking? Is it so incredibly much to ask for people to actually think before they pink?
Even for those of us who see through the pink propaganda and ignore the media stupidity can’t seem to get away from the zombie like hypnosis that comes over people with regard to supporting the marketing bonanza that is “Breast Cancer Industry Month”.
I was shocked last week when the team manager for one of my children’s sporting teams pushed to have the children wear pink ribbon socks during games for the month of October.
I politely declined. There’s no way my child will be used as a pawn to support the message of pink hypocrisy that the Susan B. Komen Foundation represents – the organization primarily behind October pink ribbon madness.
“Komen for the Cure”?
Fat chance.
More like “Komen for the Cause”.
A story in Mother Jones explains how Komen continues to insist that bisphenol-A (BPA) exposure via plastics is safe despite more than 130 scientific studies demonstrating a clear connection between bisphenol-A (BPA) exposure and breast cancer. In addition, early exposure to BPA promotes early puberty which is a strong risk factor for breast cancer later in life.
Moreoever, Komen aggressively mobilizes businesses to display the pink ribbon or color a product pink as a message of “hope” for the “cure”.
This completely unethical raising of funds enlists these businesses to donate portions of their sales revenues to Komen even though many of these products contain carcinogenic, GMO and highly toxic ingredients.
Where does all the millions upon millions of dollars go that the Komen Foundation rakes in every year?
For fiscal year 2009/2010, Komen contributions included: $141 million for education, $47 million for health screening, and $75 million for research. Fundraising costs and affiliate expenses were approximately $60 million and general administrative costs at $37 million.
- Not one
pinkred cent went into education about how diet greatly affects the development of cancer, particularly how cancer thrives on sugar and other toxic foods. No mention of avoiding junk food and eating whole, organic foods. - Komen refuses to acknowledge nontoxic screening alternatives to mammograms. These include thermography and even better, breast ultrasounds which are zero radiation, no compression alternatives that find breast cancer far earlier than mammograms! It is well known that mammograms cause cancer and result in misdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment of thousands of women every single year. In addition, there is zero evidence that mammograms save lives in the majority of cases.
- The “research” funded by Komen is for the pharmaceutical industry only. Not a dime for Dr. Burzynski in Houston or Dr. Gonzalez in New York (a recent recipient of the Integrity in Science Award from the Weston A. Price Foundation) who are both practicing safe, holistic and highly effective cancer treatments as compared to the living death that is conventional chemo/radiation. Even though Suzanne Somers beat her breast cancer with mistletoe extract injections and wrote a bestseller about it, Komen hasn’t even consulted with her.
Here’s the bitter truth. Komen doesn’t want a cure. Pinkwashing is far too lucrative.
How are you opting out of the pinkwashing madness this month?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources and More Information
Where does all the Komen for the Cure money really go?
The Dangers of Estrogenic Foods, Herbs and Supplements to Breast Health
Susan B. Komen Financial Statements, 2009/2010
I just don’t like the color pink. If it was purple, I’d be all over it.
Right on Sarah! Like you I believe it is our lifestyle, what we eat, drink and breathe, that is killing people and that Komen is just pocketing a lot of money without really educating women about proactive health. Keep up the good work. Kelly
I was with you until you spoke kindly of Dr. Burzynski and advocated thermography.
While mammograms are definitely not the perfect analytical tool, thermography is a much less powerful diagnostic, out of date, and from the era of coat hanger abortions.
Dr. Burzynski is just a dangerous, evil, quack who co-opts words like “natural,” “organic” and the like to continue his unproven therapy, which is essentially just injecting urine into muscle tissue.
I’m no medical person, and have no dog in the fight over Dr. B, but I have watched the movie about him and seen him in court where 1) he is surrounded by grateful patients who would surely otherwise be dead of their childhood brain tumors that conventional cancer treatments can NOT cure, and 2) he has been vindicated in court every single time.
I also read the exchanges between him and the FDA, in which they both agreed to the parameters of a study, and then the FDA changed the terms to ensure his treatments would fail (different kinds of cancers, different levels of disease). Too bad for those patients, but they were out to make a point! Talk about evil…
He does not claim perfect success but there are a LOT of people alive today because of his treatments, aren’t there? And, wasn’t he among the first if not THE first to develop treatments based on the patient’s individual DNA? Many other docs are doing that now.
So, not sure why you believe he’s an evil quack.
There’s always a troll making false accusations in order to cause people to question the truth presented. Dr B has saved many lives. Thermography is the future for those of us who wish to preserve our breast tissue, not fry it with cancer causing radiation.
I agree with the other comments, I’ve ranted and raved about pinkwashing on fb for two years, my mom had breast cancer, just wanted to say I appreciate you so much for this article, thank you The Healthy Home Economist! It’s so great to see all these wonderful people who see through the bull crap, we need to support ourselves and boycott all that is against what God aka mother nature intended for us, blessings, love and light to all. Remember we have the right to our own choices and we can decide what’s best for ourselves.
Another angle to look at.
It’s so great to see someone writing about this – thank you! It needs to be said and it needs to stop! It’s getting more and more ridiculous! You’ve inspired to write my own blog post on the topic and I’ll be linking back to this (I’ll swing back and share my link).
My wish is that instead of Pink for the Cure we switch it to Green for Prevention. And truly provide education around prevention!
just back to share my blog, inspired by yours Sarah!
http://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/pinkwashing-for-the-cure-ridiculous-or-green-for-prevention/
I have marched for the cure. I have went with my mother to chemotherapy. Also, all of my grandmothers have also had breast cancer. I used to believe I would get breast cancer too, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Now I actually have hope that I might not get breast cancer. Why? Because I know there is a better way. I can avoid putting chemicals on my body. I can avoid getting radiation in the forms mammograms and others, I can nourish my body with the same things that have kept generations of this earth healthy and cancer free in epidemic proportions, i.e. natural foods. And if I do get cancer, I know I don’t have to automatically fall back to chemo and radiation. I know there are other things I can do. I don’t have to decimate my immune system to cure myself, that doesn’t even make sense!
Knowledge is power, and I agree with this article. Komen is big business. There is no ongoing money to be made in a cure for cancer. They don’t care about a cure, they are actually promoting cancer causing products and lies. Thanks for writing about this.
Great article Sarah….