Pink Ribbon Blues How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women's Health

by Sulik, Gayle A.

• ISBN13: 9780199933990
• ISBN10: 0199933995
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-10-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Pink ribbon paraphernalia saturate shopping malls, billboards, magazines, television, and other venues, all in the name of breast cancer awareness. In this compelling and provocative work, Gayle A. Sulik shows that although "pink ribbon culture" has brought breast cancer advocacy much attention, it has not had the desired effect of improving women's health. It may, in fact, have done the opposite. Based on eight years of research, analysis of advertisements and breast cancer awareness campaigns, and hundreds of interviews with those affected by the disease,Pink Ribbon Blueshighlights the hidden costs of the pink ribbon as an industry, one in which breast cancer has become merely a brand name with a pink ribbon logo. Indeed, while survivors and supporters walk, run, and purchase pink products for a cure, cancer rates rise, the industry thrives, and breast cancer is stigmatized anew for those who reject the cheerful, pink ribbon model. Even as Sulik points out the flaws of this system, she outlines alternatives and presents a new agenda for the future. The paperback edition includes a new prologue on the recent developments in breast cancer culture involving Susan G. Komen for the Cure as well as a new four-page color insert with images of pink culture and compelling reactions to its messaging.

Author Biography

Gayle A. Sulik, Ph. D., is a research associate at the University at Albany (SUNY) and founder of the Consortium on Breast Cancer Culture. She was a 2008 Fellow of the National Endownment for the Humanities and is winner of the 2013 Sociologists for Women in Society Distinguished Lectureship Award for Pink Ribbon Blues.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Introduction to the 2012 Edition	p. xxvii
What is Pink Ribbon Culture?	p. 3
The Development of Pink Ribbon Culture	p. 27
The Breast Cancer Movement	p. 28
Medical Consumerism	p. 31
Aesthetics and Normalization	p. 35
A Cause of Epidemic Proportions, and the Rise of Pink October	p. 45
Solidarity, Fundraising, and Publicity	p. 49
Unintended Consequences	p. 57
Mixed Metaphors: War, Gender, and the Mass Circulation of Cancer Culture	p. 73
The Masculine and Feminine Ethos of American Cancer Culture	p. 78
Livestrong and the Masculine Ethos	p. 78
Gilda's Club and the Feminine Ethos	p. 84
Pink Femininity	p. 89
Pink Femininity in Breast Cancer Culture	p. 94
The She-ro	p. 101
Consuming Pink: Mass Media and the Conscientious Consumer	p. 111
The Special Role of Women's Magazines	p. 113
The Breast Cancer Audience	p. 120
Branding and the Niche Market of the Socially Aware	p. 125
Warriors in Pink	p. 129
The Breast Cancer Brand	p. 133
Fear and the Pink Menace	p. 134
Hope and Faith in Breast Cancer Awareness	p. 138
Goodness, Fundraising, and the Pink Lifestyle	p. 141
Komen's New Logo	p. 146
Consuming Medicine, Selling Survivorship	p. 157
The Breast Cancer Industry	p. 160
Disease Classification	p. 163
Medical Technology	p. 171
The Benefits of Mammography	p. 173
The Risks of Mammography	p. 181
Cost/Benefit Analysis	p. 186
Screening Programs and the Makers of the Machines	p. 189
Big Pharma	p. 195
Industry Ties to Advocacy	p. 203
Under the Pink: Optimism, Selfishness, and Guilt	p. 225
Ruby's Story	p. 225
"Becoming" a Breast Cancer Survivor: Learning the Rules	p. 229
Feeling Rule I: Optimism	p. 231
Incorporation of the She-ro	p. 231
Rejecting the She-ro	p. 237
Feeling Rule 2: Selfishness	p. 244
She-roic Selfishness (i.e., Rational Coping Strategy)	p. 245
Selfishness as Confessional	p. 251
Feeling Rule 3: Guilt	p. 257
The Inadequate She-ro	p. 258
Embodied Social Stigma	p. 261
Family Disruption	p. 264
Conclusion	p. 267
The Balancing Act	p. 273
Taking Care of Myself	p. 277
The Balancing Act	p. 287
Setting Boundaries	p. 288
Accepting Help	p. 294
Asking for Help	p. 300
Balancing the Sisterhood	p. 305
Final Thoughts	p. 310
Shades of Pink	p. 315
The Limiting Nature of Words	p. 317
Narrating One's Illness	p. 321
Realism and Transcendent Subversion	p. 326
The Picture Outside the Frame	p. 335
The Terrible Stories	p. 338
Rethinking Pink Ribbon Culture	p. 357
"Not Just Ribbons"	p. 366
"Think Before You Pink"	p. 369
Index	p. 381
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