Advice for Komen: Try Pink and Purple Ribbons

The Susan G. Komen Foundation lost support from donors last week after the organization announced that it would cut funding to Planned Parenthood. Its apology on Friday was lauded by some, but viewed with skepticism by many others, who pointed out that Komen hadn’t actually promised to refund Planned Parenthood. The damage has been done [...]

Just Another Business Decision for Komen

In the midst of the many attacks against Planned Parenthood and abortion rights over the past year, the news that Komen for the Cure was halting future funding of breast cancer screening and breast health education to Planned Parenthood affiliates has still managed to create shock waves in women’s health advocacy circles. Many feel hurt [...]

Komen and the Dangers of Corporate-Funded Causes

Breast-cancer charity Susan G. Komen’s decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood–an organization that provides subsidized breast cancer exams for lower-income women–leaves me scratching my head. Komen claims to be withholding funds because of new criteria barring it from providing grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. In and [...]

How Audre Lorde Made Queer History

In her piece “Breast Cancer: Power vs. Prosthesis” in The Cancer Journals, black feminist lesbian mother warrior poet Audre Lorde wrote: “I also began to feel that in the process of losing a breast I had become a whole person.” This courageous insight and numerous others—about her mind, body and spirit being sites loaded with meaning, [...]

Have a Hunk Remind You to Feel Yourself Up

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that usually manifests in the bombardment of sexist and demeaning awareness campaigns like “Save the Ta-tas.” Don’t even get me started on the useless and idiotic Facebook memes. But there’s one surprising and, er, “exciting” new breast cancer awareness campaign this season. Rethink Breast Cancer, a Canadian [...]

The Problem with Pink

Breast cancer awareness efforts have been wildly successful in one way and, research suggests, a great failure in another. On the success side, the movement has mobilized a truly stunning range of companies to brand their products in ways that raise awareness of breast cancer. Here are a few examples. Fresh cookies (with pink chocolate [...]

Womanslaughter: Cuts in Breast Cancer Screening Hurt Women

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and also happens to be the month, in 1986, that I first underwent surgery for my own breast cancer. I do a lot of thinking as the days grow shorter and my sense-memories of being diagnosed, having surgery, radiation and chemo grow stronger. I was younger than 50 when [...]

Mother Loses Custody Battle For Having Breast Cancer

Judge Nancy Gordon of North Carolina ruled last month that Sofia, 11, and Bud, 5, should be raised by their father, Kane Snyder, rather than their mother, Alaina Giordano. The main reason? Giordano has stage four breast cancer that, though currently stable, has metastasized in her bones. Giordiano’s breast cancer was not the only concern–Giordano [...]

Breaking the Breast-Cancer Stigma in Saudi Arabia

In October of last year, more than 4,000 women in black abayas topped with pink ponchos gathered together in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to form a giant ribbon in support of breast cancer research–the largest human awareness ribbon to date. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the country–nearly one-quarter of all cancers–so the campaign [...]

Alternatives to Planned Parenthood? Not in Texas

The House and Senate are expected to vote on Thursday on stand-alone bills that take away all federal funds from Planned Parenthood. Without Planned Parenthood, alternatives for women are lacking, as reporter Andrea Grimes found in her account below, originally commissioned and published on April 5 by RH Reality Check. Before I met with Texas State [...]

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