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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.
Jeanne Sather, a breast cancer survivor, at Assertive Cancer Patient says "Gag me with a pink ribbon: Where pink marketing really runs wild is in the for-profit sector. Retailers offer pink-themed merchandise, then donate only a tiny share of the profits to cancer research. I'm tripping over these products everywhere I go this month. At the pet store, a pink dog collar printed with pink ribbons sells for $9.99; the tag says 30 cents (30 cents!) from the sale of this product will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the 800-pound gorilla of cause marketing." and more.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is one of my biggest pet peeves about breast cancer awareness.
I think the risk of prostate cancer is higher by a considerable margin. A quick Googling for information got me: 18% for prostate cancer, 14.3% for breast cancer. Plus, how many more men die from it because they leave it untreated?
As one previous poster noted, Prostate Cancer Awareness Month was September. Not a great sign for your awareness-month when nobody knows when it is.
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
I noticed this last week while walking home from work, passing the Opera House (Sydney) down to the park it was illumiated in completely pink. It looks really cool.
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This effort is global, cities around the world are getting involved in the cause.
I'm suprised nobody else has seen this, maybe most stay in underground server rooms not to notice?
http://www.globalillumination.org.au/
For Australia, "Porches in Pink will begin a day after the Global Illumination on Sunrise, with Australian porches remaining pink for the duration of October to show Australians' support for breast cancer research."
http://www.porchesinpink.org/
I think part of it is that breast cancer can be detected and treated early much easier than other cancers. Are there very good warning signs of digestive system cancers? If not, what will awareness do? Possibly get people to donate money is about all it can do. But if people learn how to check themselves for breast cancer and see a doctor if they find signs of it, they may actually be able to do something about it. It doesn't take much work to stay alert of the potentials of breast cancer. Awareness can go a long way. I'm not sure awareness can go quite as far with other types of cancer (except maybe skin cancer).
Totally ditching my mod points for this, but I thought I'd chime in and say that the proctologist gives you a pill that will cause you not to remember a few hours after taking the pill, then goes to work. So yes, even though you will be horribly violated, you will not remember a damn thing. Also, they no long violate you with a metal bar as was the norm several years ago. Now they do it with a thin flexible tube and a micro camera.
And you're right about the bias toward men in health studies. Up until the latter half of the last century there were hardly any studies done on women. In the 19th century medical science thought women were less intelligent than men because they had smaller brains, even. If anything, I think we need to devote our attention equally across the board.
Something that bothers me about the feminist movement is that it circulates some pretty heavily women-centric views. An earlier poster mentioned that there was a large social movement to focus on how girls were treated in education more than boys, and as a result there are far more women graduating high school and going to college. My view of this situation is that there are some things in which we tend to overcorrect, and other things which need more correction. The gender bias in health care needs more correction, but the gender bias in education seems to swing in the other direction, with a few exceptions like the need for more girls to become science/engineering majors.
In general there's a lot more support for girls and women than there is for men in education. Maybe I'm missing out on a few opportunities, but I've noticed also that women tend to be considered a minority for the purposes of funding, completely ignoring the fact that women and men tend to be about equal parts of the population. I've seen plenty of girls scholarships, but I've not seen one mens scholarship, so it seems to me that there is a significant bias there.
End speculation based on specious evidence.
SRSLY.