Pink Ribbon, Inc. - do you know what is in your cosmetics?

I have written a book review based on the book: Pink Ribbons, Inc. - the pink machine.

I was asked to watch the Pink Ribbons, Inc. NFB movie. It was powerful. The Trailer is below.
If you haven't seen it, it is well worth it.

The fact is that big business stole the idea away from Charlotte Hailey (at age 68), who created the orange/salmon ribbon in the 90s, and it is shameful. She demanded we write to politicians and those who create the poisons in our world. She was a committed individual and high-priced lawyers enabled Komen to steal the idea, collect money, all by changing the ribbon colour to pink.

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics : Raining Pink Ribbons

safecosmetics.org › What's In Your Products?

The pink ribbon was originally neither pink nor was it intended to be used as a ... It was a peach ribbon developed in the early 1990s by Charlotte Haley

They speak of pink washing, and Cause Marketing, whereby a business jumps on a bandwagon without necessarily doing anything concrete for the cause. For all the $1.9 billion dollars Susan B. Komen has raised, and the $600 million given for research, where has it gotten them? Where has the rest of the money gone? Avon ($5 million), Yoplait, Revlon, Ford 'warriors', have all abandoned the cause. Several in shameful ads and marketing plans.

1) Early detection, while treatable, in the Slash, Burn, Poison philosophy. First surgery, then radiation, then chemotherapy. We haven't changed treatments in all the millions of dollars raised for breast cancer research.

2) Death - the language they use, 'battling', fighting, losing the battle, cancer survivor. This is profoundly negative and implies that a foreign thing is the enemy. The enemy is our own cancer cells. If you succumb to your cancer you are not a loser.

3) There is much pressure on women to be positive, forbidding them to properly deal with their emotions, and friends and family properly, fairly and honestly. The women interviewed, who have Stage IV breast cancer, have much to teach us in this regard.

4) Only 20 - 30% of breast cancer occurs in women with identified risk factors. The rest, they do not know the cause. Annie Leonard, The Story of Cosmetics, they contain toxic chemicals, tertrasodium, pesticides, chemicals that may or may not be identified or listed.
Carcinogens, neurotoxins, reproductive toxins. Plastics that mimic estrogens.

Do you know what is in your cosmetics?

5) The shocking thing about pharmaceuticals is that they tend to study middle class white women. They are the creators of both the chemicals like tamoxifen, Astra Zeneca, as well as the push behind the mammography test.
"By their own admission, AstraZeneca has spent several million dollars on the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month project. What is behind their interest in Breast Cancer?
For over the last 20 years, AstraZeneca was the manufacturer of one of the largest selling breast cancer drugs in the world: tamoxifen citrate."

 They want to sell the drug to women, despite flawed, biased tests that 'prove' it is a breast cancer risk reduction drug.

Think Before You Pink

milkingcancer.org What is breast cancer? Some posit a response to the chemicals in our environment.

"Highly revelatory—at times shocking—Pink Ribbons, Inc. challenges the commercialization of the breast cancer movement, its place in U.S. culture, and its influence on ideas of good citizenship, responsible consumption, and generosity. "

Pink Ribbon, Inc

Cancer is a big issue for me. Especially around May. Still a hard w/e for me, Mother's Day, as I lost my mother as well as my palliative care client this w/e. Very weird coincidence. My mother died of cancer, my dad a brain tumour. That said, the Cancer Society continues to be the best place to find information, volunteer drivers, peer support and people who understand.

To that end, I wanted to write a review about this excellent book, Pink Ribbon, Inc.


The editor's review reads in part:

"Highly revelatory—at times shocking—Pink Ribbons, Inc. challenges the commercialization of the breast cancer movement, its place in U.S. culture, and its influence on ideas of good citizenship, responsible consumption, and generosity. "

The author, Samantha King, is an associate professor of physical and health education and women’s studies at Queen’s University, in Kingston, Ontario. It is well-written, and an interesting read. It is, indeed, shocking, the amount of money sunk into 'research', with no promises of support or delivery of programs.

I would caution you in entering the 'race for the cure'. There are questions as to how much money goes to cures, how much should go to supporting those with cancer (the Cancer Society provides a range of services, for example: a lodge in which to stay, peer support, volunteer drivers, etc.). The marketing of cancer, and the buy-ins as business uses cancer as a gimmick to involve those who have a cancer survivor in their family or have lost a loved one to cancer.

You ought to read Pink Ribbon, Inc first. Excellent book that talks about how they rook people in, charge exorbitant fees to participants, and neglect prevention, rather than cures.