Why is it that breast cancer is getting so much attention while people are still dying of other types? I know that it is a horrible disease, but so are the other kinds of cancer that kill people. Why isn't there a focus on getting rid of all kinds of cancer, and not just breast cancer?
Cancer - 5 Answers
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1 :
I disagree, I think Breast cancer isn't the only one getting supporty. Go online, there are thousands (and I mean thousands) of groups dedicated to preventing, solving and educating others on different types of cancer.
2 :
b/c women take 1st priority even though theres more of us than them,any decent man should agree
3 :
Because women feel the need to exercise any type of freedom they have, as they know men are better then them.
4 :
I think there are a number of reasons for this: Medical experiments have historically had male subjects, and from this they've generalized treatments for women. This has not always worked out for women, so they've organized on behalf of a common disease that predominantly afflicts women. Also, in our society, breasts are highly sexualized and people forget they are a milk delivery system for infants. Judging from the media, breasts seem to be considered far more important than the ovaries, pancreas, liver, brain and other organs. As for lung cancer, people don't organize around that b/c there's the attitude that all who get lung cancer are smokers that deserve it.
5 :
Breast cancer awareness campaigns, including Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October), were started by ordinary women to raise awareness so that people knew the symptoms, examined themselves regularly, attended their routine mammograms etc. Any group of people can start such an awareness campaign for any illness. There are other cancer awareness months, ribbons etc, for example there is a prostate cancer awareness campaign and a ribbon, but as men are generally less open and less willing to talk about their health and well, their prostates, it gets less publicity and support. Enthusiastic participation by women made breast cancer awareness grow into something nationally, then internationally, recognised - especially Breast Cancer Awareness month. And then big business cashed in. Now I have had breast cancer and I agree that there are extremely irritating things about Breast Cancer Awareness month, or Pink October as the more cynical of us call it. Support for a deadly disease that kills on average 1,300 women a month in the UK alone (and I believe well over 3,000 in the USA) has been turned into a marketing opportunity by big business, with around 1% of the cost of specially made pink stuff going to breast cancer charities, the rest into the retailers’ pockets. The pink fluffy stuff infuriates me, and I'm not at all 'tickled pink' by Asda's (Walmart's) trivialisation of an illness that may yet kill me. Magazines, especially in October, carry stories from cheerful survivors who claim to have the all-clear (there is no all-clear with breast cancer), and often say cancer has changed their lives for the better - very different from anybody I know who's had breast cancer. Also I believe that the marketing and fund-raising aspects of breast cancer awareness and in particularPink October, by trivialising a deadly disease, are leading people to believe that breast cancer is a) not very serious, certainly not as serious as many other cancers (many women with breast cancer have been told - by people who don't have it - that it's a 'good' cancer to get) and b) curable. (my neighbour said to me 'they've just about got breast cancer licked, haven't they?' Really? Why are they still cutting women's breasts off then?) And on this forum people often respond to those concerned about a diagnosis of breast cancer by saying ‘People don’t die of breast cancer any more’, or 'Don't worry, you'll be fine. Breast cancer is easily curable'. I've even heard it said that it's a ‘fashionable’ or 'sexy' cancer - my sexy prosthesis and sexy one-breasted body are evidence that it's no such thing. I agree with you that awareness needs to be raised about other cancers too, and while I hate 'competitive illness' I can see why there is some resentment about an imbalance in awareness raising and fund raising. Yes, other cancers need awareness campaigns (many have them as I’ve said, but they don't receive so much support - or have as much work put into them). But don't lose sight of the fact that breast cancer is a killer disease with disfiguring surgery, gruelling treatments and so far no cure, or that in the UK one in nine women will be diagnosed with it at some point in their lives, and I think that percentage is about the same in America
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