Exposé of Pinkwashing: Couldn’t be Timelier

Abstract

Readers of Sex Roles will doubtless have heard of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (http://ww5.komen. org/), now renamed Susan G Komen For the Cure, the largest breast cancer awareness fundraising organization in the world and one of the most successful charities in any domain. It is largely U. S.-based, but has a substantial global reach, begun in 2007 (http://ww5.komen.org/aboutus/ globalinitiatives.html). Many may even have participated in the runs, walks, and endless stream of consumer fundraisers (“Buy your Kentucky Fried Chicken in a Pink Ribbon bucket”) sponsored by Komen (as the Foundation is known) in many different countries. Founded in 1982, Komen now operates at the very highest levels of philanthropy, raising over $420million in 2010 for breast cancer awareness, screening, and research programs (Singer 2011). However, in the last year Komen has received negative publicity for its administrative style and conservative political choices, and has drawn the attention of investigative journalists. In October, 2011, during the annual Komenmade-famous “Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” New York Times business reporter Natasha Singer (2011) wrote a major article that raised many questions about the financial and corporate-friendly elements of Komen’s operations. And then, early in 2012, Komen announced its decision (reversed within a few days, but with continuing repercussions of diminished funding and top executive turnover) to stop funding breast cancer screening at Planned Parenthood for political reasons (Madison 2012). Whether the organization survives these turbulent times or not, Komen’s lasting contribution will have been to the nascent field of cause marketing to brand “pink ribbons” as the symbol of breast cancer and breast cancer awareness. Sociologist Samantha King (2008) provided a wonderful examination of how breast cancer advocacy (and cause marketing) got transformed from feminist grassrootsdriven activism to corporate-sponsored marketing in a book based on her dissertation. Her slim book packs a wallop of information and outrage, and it eventually came to the attention of documentarians. Now we have the film, Pink Ribbons, Inc, to bring the facts and perspectives of King’s book to the screen. It features lengthy interviews with a wide variety of leading players in the breast cancer fundraising and marketing controversies, from those who are pro-corporate philanthropy to long-time critics. In addition there are many scenes of the largest (and they are huge!) U. S. breast cancer fundraising and awareness events in New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Montreal, along with poignant interviews with event participants who believe they are honoring their mothers, sisters and daughters as they raise money to fund research and services that they hope will cure cancer and save women’s lives. Also deeply moving are the interviews with a group of women with stage 4 (“there is no stage 5”) breast cancer who feel that pink ribbon culture makes women with advanced disease into losers who just didn’t try hard enough. They offer a unique and powerful critical perspective. Samantha King provides much of the sociohistorical background in her on-camera interviews, framing the growth of corporate health philanthropy as an outgrowth of Reaganomics, specifically its shift of responsibility for healthcare research and services away from government to the private sector. Barbara Brenner, former executive director of the anti-corporate grassroots group, Breast Cancer Action, talks about the misleading emphasis by mass media and patient groups like Komen on “early detection is the best protection.” She explains our growing understanding of the diversity among breast cancers and how detecting some early does no good, while detecting others early is unnecessary. Our whole notion of cancer as some sort of indwelling Not yet available for individual or educational sale.