I was going to blog about something entirely different, until I looked at Google news and saw that today ushers in a month of pink.

Pinky this and pinky that, all in the same of curing breast cancer.To be quite honest, this whole campaign makes me a little queasy. One, because the “pinkettes” have somehow turned a dreadful disease such as breast cancer into a trendy and feminine and celebrity ridden “event.” We run for the cure, do dances for the cure, buy pink colored nonsense because a company is going to give some undefined proceeds to curing the world of breast cancer…while the real issues remain silent.

Real issues like why has the rate of breast cancer–that is, the number of women who get the disease, showed such a dramatic increase over the past few decades? The pink brigade tends to be silent on that, and instead, the whole movement is focused on the elusive cure. A world without breast cancer, they say. Well, that world isn’t going to happen until we take a serious look at the causes (and many are known but its safer just to ignore them) and address it.

The safe causes, which are often cited by rote, are the increased used of mammography, more women delaying childbearing, rising obesity rates and perhaps the popularity of hormones to treat symptoms of menopause. I will agree, these factors could have added to it, but do not show the whole picture. Take for example, this chart, from 2004.

Note: numbers are per 100,000.Source: J. Ferlay, F. Bray, P. Pisani and D.M. Parkin. GLOBOCAN 2002. Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence Worldwide. IARC CancerBase No. 5, version 2.0. IARCPress, Lyon, 2004.

Note the position of the U.S. on the chart. The highest incidence of breast cancer. Not the highest death rate, but certainly, these numbers should give one pause. Why is the incidence of breast cancer so high in this country? Certainly other industrialized nations are grappling with the usual suspects, ie, delayed childbearing, increased use of mammography, rising obesity rates, and hormone use. So what is it about the U.S. that gives us the distinction of almost being the breast cancer capitol of the world?

But hey, we’ve got pink ribbons and bon bons. And women with breast cancer can even get pink teddy bears and all sorts of cutesy items.

There is a really good commentary in the Guardian about pink month, and her disappointment in the lack of real discussion about breast cancer.

October is breast cancer awareness month, and the breast cancer industry is in overdrive. You can buy a plastic duck with swirling eyelashes from Cancer Research UK, exclusively designed by Twiggy. Or you might purchase a pink product from Next, which will donate 10% of proceeds to Breast Cancer Care. Breast cancer is indeed the darling disease of the corporate world. And it has lodged itself in the national consciousness in a way that HIV/Aids once did, but this time without the icky wrong-sort-of-sex connotations.

Imagine that, a duck with swirling eyelashes, all in the name of breast cancer. I have a better idea–instead of wasting money on pink objects you don’t want, have no use for, or paying 10 times the amount of what they’re worth–why not just donate money to the breast cancer charity of your choice? It’s a better bet for your buck.

In her excoriating essay Cancerland, the American writer Barbara Ehrenreich describes induction into the pink and perky world of breast cancer, following her own diagnosis in 2001. “In the mainstream breast cancer culture, one finds very little anger, no mention of possible environmental causes, few complaints about the fact that, in all but the more advanced, metastasised cases, it is the treatments, not the disease, that cause illness and pain.” She begs: “Let me die of anything but suffocation by the pink sticky sentiment embodied in that [ribbon-branded] teddy bear.”

Infantilising merchandise aside, Ehrenreich correctly identifies the unspoken in the breast cancer discourse. Disease rates have increased by more than 50% over the past 20 years in industrialised countries. From the preservatives in our lipsticks to the flame retardants on our sofas, little is said about the possible link between everyday chemicals and breast cancer. The majority of money raised goes to treatment rather than prevention. And, meanwhile, car and cosmetics manufacturers continue to appropriate the (untrademarked) pink ribbon to boost their image with consumers as they boost their bottom line.

I couldn’t say it better myself. So while finding effective treatments for breast cancer is certainly a priority, and we have done a very good job in prolonging life and curing the disease, the unspoken needs to become the spoken.

Pink somehow washes the disease, making it seem less ominous. Pink is a sweet color. So should we all be good girls and not question the powers that be, and just dutifully wear our pastel bracelets and run for the cure? And tiptoe around the unspoken causes, because someone’s feelings (and profits) might get hurt?

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