I Don't ♥ Patriarchy: Thoughts on Breast Cancer Awareness

Not too long ago, I saw a sorority girl on my university campus wearing a T-shirt that read "I ♥ Boobies" with a pink ribbon below the text. This past week, I noticed an obnoxious load of Internet postings from female friends about where they "like it," or what color their bras are. While hunting for a parking spot a few days ago, I coincidentally parked next to a car with a "Save the Ta-Tas" bumper sticker. As the daughter of a survivor and the niece of two beloved aunts who died of breast cancer, I don't find anything cute about sexualizing the disease to promote awareness. I wanted nothing more than to rip that disgusting sticker off of his/her car. Instead, I left the driver an anonymous Post-It note, informing him/her of how offensive his/her bumper sticker is to breast cancer victims, survivors and their families. Given that October is breast cancer awareness month, how many more cars, T-shirts, and Internet waste will be plastered with ridiculous slogans that trivialize such a terrible disease?

This directly stems from the American obsession with breasts. While globalization has transplanted toxic American beauty standards throughout the global South, it would be incorrect to say that other societies do not have their own pre-conceived social constructions of breasts. Still, the concept of female breasts as purely sexual organs for male pleasure is not originally rooted in most non-Western societies, where breasts are generally associated with maternalism. Depending on the context, the exposure of female breasts (as opposed to male breasts -- funny how we use the word "chest" to desexualize men) in American society is either sexy or obscene. Unlike other parts of our anatomies, breasts do not have a sexual function, yet we are socialized to understand them as such through pornography, advertisements, fashion, etc. In this country, women and girls judge their self-worth on their breast size and mutilate their bodies with breast implants. We become the targets of lingerie companies who sell us push-up bras as a way to conceal our bodies and delude ourselves into thinking that we have perfectly round, perky breasts. Our society views female breasts as a taboo only when their exposure is linked with motherhood. Consider how Americans frown upon breastfeeding in public. A woman's cleavage is sexy, but public exposure of a female nipple is taboo and must immediately be censored. Ironically, the porn industry directly capitalizes off of the social taboo of bare female breasts -- the curiosity associated with a body part we don't normally see heightens its sex appeal, especially for the male viewer.

Patriarchal control and eroticization of the female body complicates any meaningful discussion of diseases like breast cancer. Even men suffer from the disease, but our phallocentric society does not want you to know that. Now, we have a patriarchal campaign that belittles women who are forced to choose between losing their breasts or losing their lives. Women who have had mastectomies are still sexualized, but are now defeminized. Saving these women's lives and providing emotional support for them and their families becomes irrelevant. Only a women's breasts, rather than her entire being, are regarded as worthy of being saved.

So, thank you, idiots, for completely devaluing every single woman who has suffered from this awful disease as nothing more than a pair of "boobs" that your privileged selves must rescue. You have successfully internalized the sexist status quo by belittling the disease as a schoolyard joke, even though at least one million women are diagnosed with it worldwide on an annual basis. Don't bother educating yourself and your lady friends about self-exams, regular doctor screenings and other preventative measures you can take. Forget about grassroots campaigns for better health care options, or organizing against factories that pump carcinogenic fumes into the bodies of poor women and women of color (who, might I add, have disproportionately higher death rates from breast cancer). All you have to do is take a picture to "show off your ta-tas," slather on some "boob lube" and update your Facebook with how you "like it on the floor."

There is nothing more tasteless and disrespectful than using sexual innuendos to demean the very painful struggles of women living with breast cancer. Before appointing yourself as a savior, begin by saving yourself from the patriarchal mindset behind these campaigns. Women with breast cancer are full human beings, not a pair of "ta-tas," who deserve genuine support.