Going Pink For October

Matthew Oliphant is inviting anyone and everyone to turn their Web sites pink during October, which is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Nearly 150 sites have done so as of this writing. And by the way, guys can get breast cancer too.

Comments

Strangely unfamous cancer

[Henry V .009]

What color do I make my website for prostate cancer?

Re:Strangely unfamous cancer

[Anonymous Coward]

I always make that point too. Prostate cancer is as prevalent in males as breast cancer is in females, and kills about the same number of people too.
But for some reason there isn't the same concern for it.

What is really disappointing is that some women criticise men for not caring about breast cancer, but seem completely unconcerned themselves about one of the most common cancers for men.

As with most things gender-related, it shouldn't be a case of competition, but it is for the simple fact that there is an overwhelming lack of effort out there on the part of men's health issues.

Re:Strangely unfamous cancer

[lakeland]

Prostate cancer has a much higher tendency to affect older people than brest cancer. When you're old, people expect you to get sick... People don't like the idea of previously healthy 40 year olds suddenly getting mortally ill and prostate is less of a problem in this age bracket than brest cancer.

Re:Strangely unfamous cancer

[t-twisted]

I have mod points but I can't let this pass:

The only reason breast cancer awareness is so high is because women, WOMEN, organized themselves and brought both the public and government's attention to it. This was more a grass-roots effort that became a force to be reckoned with than a "oh, never mind the men, we women are more important!" action. Breast cancer was thought to be treatable and curable through early detection and women set out to prove it through these campaigns, rather than continue the barbaric treatment of lopping off their breasts and blasting them with chemotherapy to treat any and all signs of cancer.

Yes, prostate cancer is high among men, it's the second leading cancer for men. For every 3 men who die of prostate cancer, 4 women die of breast cancer, so it's almost, but not quite, equal. What makes it more unequal is 70% of all prostate cancer cases occur in men 65 years or older in age. Compare that to 50% of all cases of breast cancer cases occur in women 61 years or older in age. In addition, prostate cancer can be so slow-growing as to be a non-issue in men - they frequently die of causes OTHER than prostate cancer due to age.

I think it's misguided to be "bitter" that one group garners more attention than the other, when one group isn't doing as much as the other to bring attention, publicity and resources to their cause. You're right, this isn't about a competition, this about who is doing what for their "own". And don't think men do not benefit from the publicity and research generated from these campaigns, as men can get breast cancer, too.

However, I can't even believe you went there with your "overwhelming lack of effort out there on the part of men's health". Please. Do you know how differently signs of a heart attack present themselves in women than men? Yet the rhetoric (tingling in left arm, shortness of breath, etc) is always about signs of impending heart problem in a man, not a woman, yet heart disease is the #1 killer of women, too.

Don't be upset because a group of people got organized. Organize yourself and get out there.

T.

Re:Strangely unfamous cancer

[Thrip]

What do you mean by "out there"? Who do you expect to make that effort? I'm no expert on the subject, but it seems to me that a lot of breast cancer survivors have been very vocal in trying to raise awareness, whereas prostate cancer survivors tend not to be overly eager to talk about it. Let's face it, men choose to suffer in silence because our macho image is more important to us than our health. And if some guy tries to get me to wear a ribbon or buy a teddy bear in support of prostates everywhere, I'm just not going to be very receptive.

Re:Strangely unfamous cancer

[mordors9]

You are certainly correct about women organizing and making breast cancer more of a cause celebre than prostate cancer or for that matter lung cancer or heart disease. And I agree it shouldn't be an us against them situation. Unfortunately the competition for research dollars does seem to be a zero sum game. It also reminds me of the outrage that arose a few decades ago when women's groups raised the awareness of the American public that little girl's weren't being treated fairly in the schools. Now girls are graduating high school and going to college at a much higher rate than boys. There seems to be very little concern about that either.

Re:Strangely unfamous cancer

[snarkth]

For the most part, males don't discuss this sort of thing in quite the detail women do, when it comes to body functions. It's a fundamentally old, and stupid, social firewall rule. *snarky*

I'm in what else can I do?

[josepha48]

less than two years ago one of my sisters was diagnosed with breast cancer. Today I just discovered my other sister has breast cancer. It's spread to her bones, so the doctors are treating her with chemo. She's 47!

So what's the #xxxxxx code for pink or do we just use 'pink' ( which is kinda dark ).

What else can we do?

BTW: guys, get your selves checked for prostate cancer!

Where the hell is Carcinogen Awareness Day?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm all for Breast Cancer Awareness, don't get me wrong, but how about we promote prevention instead of detection once in a while?

"Awareness"?

[Hao Wu]

What does awareness do except make people falsely believe that something is being done about a problem?

"Awareness" is organized complacency.

If you want to fight breast cancer, then do it in a laboratory or hospital setting - someplace where caring actually matters. (...and stick your "pink-website" concept back up your ass where it came from...)

Re:"Awareness"?

[davidc]

Awareness might make the difference between a woman having a mammogram, or not.

Let's not be ignorant about this: screening and early detection can make a huge difference in breast cancer (others, too!). I just don't agree that awareness makes people think they are safe. And, yes, something is being done about the problem, starting with screening.

Every bit of publicity helps. Please don't belittle educational programs. Grass-roots education for regular screening arguably helps as much as the latest whiz-bang chemotherapeutic agent. If you catch it early, you markedly improve survival rates.

How much more awareness are you expecting?

[Will_Malverson]

Is there any woman still out there not aware that sometimes her boobs can develop lumps that will kill her? If such an utterly clueless person exists, is turning websites pink really the best way to communicate with her?

Re:Breasts

[nacturation]

Theres a time and a place for jokes, but this is a rather serious thing which could one day kill you. Being a little horny asshole who wants to see porn isn't an important thing.

Lighten up. Seeing breasts != porn. Seeing people fucking == porn. And many things could one day kill you... should we be serious about everything and just stop joking altogether?

Re:OMG Ponies!!!

[nacturation]

Leave it to the 90% male Slashdot audience to laugh at something like breast cancer.

And when there's a story about prostate cancer, this same 90% male audience will be joking around about that too. Get over yourself.

Disease Gap...

[evilviper]

Nothing disturbs me more about "charities" than the promotion of one disease over another.

Besides breast cancer, we all hear about AIDS constantly, and calls for donations. Yet, AIDS research already recieves a disproportionally large ammount of money, if you look at the number of people who die from it, and the ammount spent on other serious diseases.

Are there any organizations that you can donate to, that just tackle critical diseases at large, rather than having tunnel-vision on one single issue?

Women live longer too...

[Anonymous Coward]

Men die younger, they have Prostate cancer to worry about, higher suicide rates, reckless activities, higher incidence of autism and are more likely to die in wars. After aout 70 years old, women outnumber men by so much it is not funny.

It is time to start taking care of men!!!

This is dumb.

[prescor]

I'm a guy who three years ago had a lump-ectomy. (Mammograms are NOT fun, y'all. The girls can KEEP 'em!) Fortunately, it was benign.

That said, "pink sites" is a dumb idea. Or sites of any OTHER color to support a cause. Still, I support freedom of speech and all that. Anyone who wants their site pink because of breast cancer or panther fetishes or whatever, well, more power to 'em.

I still think it's stupid.

Just another..

[kbox]

....Temporarily pretend you give a shit about something month/week/day.

Re:Breasts

[eikonos]

I vote we have a National Breast Awareness month (without the cancer) next month.

I like your idea, but maybe we can just use the other eleven months to celebrate breasts without cancer? ;)

Re:OMG Ponies!!!

[buswolley]

Laugh at breast cancer? We laugh at the color pink. We laugh at turning websites pink. We laugh at the memory of /. turning the website pink with tittles like OMG! Ponies!

pink my butt

[cdn-programmer]

While I definately want to keep breasts where they belong, it occurs to me this is an opportunity for wee geeks to show how insensitive we can be.

A common joke in engineering circles is that engineers tend to use their personalities for birth control.

I expect programmers and web masters have this technique refined somewhat.

So if we are to support breasts and the idea of keeping them where they belong, then perhaps it behooves the primary beneficiaries to share the benefits with wee geeks rather than the jocks (jokes anyone?) in the crowd which urban lore would suggest are questionably more desireable?

What's the bloody point?

[Asrynachs]

Thanks for the awareness? How come there's no breast cancer prevention month? Wouldn't an attempt to educate people on how to spot the disease early on and get it properly treated be a better use of resources than some stupid pink theme? It's always walk for a cure, or some other crap like that. They NEVER talk about preventing breast cancer. They use mammograms for that. But with the way things are now you'd think you could stop breast cancer with a big smile and a long walk.

As a high-risk woman...

[acherusia]

Warning: I'm not entirely emotionally rational on this subject. Please read the rest of my post with this in mind.

Look. I am a woman at extremely high risk for breast cancer. My mother had breast cancer. My father had cancer. Going back further, the family history I have of cancer borders on the ridiculous. Furthermore, I have extremely large breasts, which is another risk factor. (The more tissue, the more room there is for tumors to grow. Also, larger breasts make cancer harder to detect just by feeling it, which is your best chance of catching it early.)

At some point within the next five years, I'm probably going to have to undergo breast reduction surgery. I'm still young enough that it hasn't become medically necessary yet, but my doctor's been suggesting it since I was 16. I'm terrified of this. I hate surgery. I hate the risk that I'll lose all feeling in my breasts. I hate the fact that I probably won't even have the option to breast-feed. I hate the fact that no matter what, I'm going to end up with scars on my breasts.

But you know what? At some point, assuming they don't come up with a sure-fire cure for breast cancer, I'll go through with it. Because I'd rather have scarred, numb, tiny breasts than risk dying.

As such, as you might imagine, I am EXTREMELY supportive of breast cancer research. I try to do whatever I can to get those extra dollars in that might allow me to avoid having surgery. I try to attend those goddamn money-raising breast cancer things, despite the fact that I hate hate hate crowds. If I were any good at dealing with people, I'd organize one. Or several. I do do as much as I can within my areas of expertise to raise awareness. Because. Well. I watched my mother go through chemotherapy. I watched my father go through chemotherapy. I heard about my aunt, and my cousins, going through chemotherapy. And every last dollar that goes to breast cancer research is one more chance I have of not dying.

You want prostate cancer awareness to reach the level of breast cancer awareness? Then advertise it yourself. I'm busy.

Re:OMG Ponies!!!

[Simon Garlick]

breast cancer is bad.
Noone is immune, it knows no boundaries, rich and poor, famous or not it could hit.


And more people die of prostate cancer than of breast cancer. Yet, strangely, I see no huge PR campaign against it. I guess breasts are more trendy.

Re:OMG Ponies!!!

[b0r1s]

Just a quick reminder - Breast cancer is up 80% over the last 30 years - definitely a worthwhile cause!

How about a National CANCER Awareness month

[SetupWeasel]

This shit must infuriate people with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Excellent

[Anonymous Coward]

I love slashdot. The answer to "both my sisters were just diagnosed with breast cancer; what can I do?" is "#ff99cc".