I don’t want to pick on a charity but it is difficult to overlook this one when they’ve emailed me directly asking for a plug.
Though I have long supported breast cancer fundraising I increasingly have problems with the broader fundraising initiatives of the Pink Ribbon campaign. This particular campaign, being run by PartSelect is a good case in point. It is nice that PartSelect is contributing to breast cancer awareness and fundraising, but like other corporate sponsors of charities they also benefit from access to a key market for their products.
Entry into the PartSelect competition involves painting a pink ribbon on a household appliance (ladies’ toys?) in your home and sending a photograph of the result in to PartSelect. Perhaps you will want to replace your household appliance after disfiguring it or maybe you will simply be drawn to PartSelect for your next purchase on the basis of goodwill. Either way, what is in it for you? By entering this special pink ribbon competion you can win one of three prize packages. What, you wonder? Little lady, I’m glad you asked. A kitchen mixer set (including silicone heart-shaped pan and apron), all in pink. Of course.
Breast cancer fundraising and its cult of pink knows no bounds in its endless steroetyping of women.
blue milk 
Boy, I couldn’t agree with you more about the widespread corruption of breast cancer fund-raising that lies under too many “rugs” carrying the pink ribbon.
Let me give you one glaring example: the Susan Love Army of Women, funded by the Avon Foundation (1.5 million dollar grant to get it off the ground last year), supposedly to “find the causes of breast cancer and promote prevention” – except that if you check out the Susan Love Army of Women website, and poke around just a little, you find that:
1. There seems to be NO FUNDING listed that is either investigating the causes of breast cancer or working to prevent the disease, and (furthermore)
2. It appears, from the “fine print” that the Susan Love Army of Women has permission to “sell” the registrants’ information to other organizations, like pharmaceutical companies, for clinical trials. Even though the “big print” leads the reader to believe that this will never happen, the fine print allows it. . .and who really knows how the money is changing hands.
As the Founder and Director of the Breast Health & Healing Foundation, whose mission is explicitly to “discover the specific causes of breast cancer and use that knowledge to prevent the disease” I am mindful that I have a responsibility to society to actually work diligently and faithfully to fulfill that mission. To wit:
I have written and published two books this year: one that directly discusses one of the possible causes of breast cancer (The Pink Virus), and one that actually provides women with recipes using those ingredients that are shown to reduce the risk for breast cancer (A Woman’s Companion). This week I will begin my third book, one that will be available FREE: Athena’s Guide to Breast Health and Healing: How You Can Reduce Your Risk of Breast Cancer by Applying the Scientific Data Already at Hand.
It’s not always easy, being a lone female breast surgeon with a new foundation and a website and a mission and a vision, especially when there are extremely well-funded giants on the pink field. But I press on, and applaud your comments:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
Many kind regards,
Dr. Kathleen T. Ruddy
breasthealthandhealing.org
Please repost and retweet.
In response to Dr. Ruddy’s comment, we here at the Love/Avon Army of Women would also like to reiterate in addition, to Marc Hurlbert’s post, that the sole mission of the Army of Women is to enlist one million women to participate in breast cancer research.
The Army of Women is dedicated to representing ALL women in breast cancer research so that the research results will apply to ALL women. We need women who have had breast cancer and women who have not. We need African American women, Asian women, Caucasian women, and Latinas of every age, faith and lifestyle to be involved.
Heading the Love/Avon Army of Women is Dr. Susan Love, a distinguished breast surgeon, a trusted breast cancer authority, a best-selling author on breast cancer and women’s health, and the President of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. The mission of the Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit breast cancer organization, is to eradicate breast cancer and improve the quality of women’s health through innovative research, education, and advocacy. The Foundation works to identify the barriers to research and to then create new solutions.
We strongly believe that the Love/Avon Army of Women is truly unprecedented. We are enlisting healthy women to partner with researchers (our goal is ONE MILLION women) to move research from the lab to real women, and from investigating treatment and cure to seeking prevention by studying what happens before cancer occurs and what causes it. In short, we are inviting all women to be “one in a million” and help prevent breast cancer.
The Army of Women also serves an unmet need that few think about…but Dr. Love did! Currently there is no timely, efficient system for assisting researchers in securing the volunteers they need — it can take up to 18 months — and most researchers have access only to women with cancer, not healthy women. Or they do research without using human subjects. We are changing that paradigm and helping advance research to go “beyond a cure.”
By signing up for the Army of Women, women are NOT AGREEING TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY STUDIES YET. Signing up for the Army of Women just allows women to HEAR about upcoming studies. Once a woman is entered in the Army of Women database, she will start to receive emails letting her know about new studies. If she meets the criteria and is willing to participate, she can rsvp directly from the e-blast. If she doesn’t want to participate or is not able to for whatever reason, she can simply decline or forward the information on to someone she knows who might be the right fit or who may be interested.
To reinforce what Marc Hurlbert already confirmed, The AOW will not sell, rent or lease your personally identifiable information to others. The AOW will not use or share the personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above without letting you know beforehand and offering you the opportunity to withhold your consent for AOW to use your information in this way. The AOW is committed to ensuring the security of your information. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. This includes the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts the information you submit to keep it secure during transmission.
For more information regarding the Love/Avon Army of Women and to view Dr Love’s appearance discussing The Army of Women on “The View” and “Good Morning America”, please click the links below:
http://www.armyofwomen.org
http://www.armyofwomen.org/presscoverage
For more information about our current studies, please click the link below:
http://www.armyofwomen.org/current
I totally agree. Besides the whole corporate feel-good and make money thing, another aspect that really peeves me about the pink ribbon campaigns is their focus on Finding The Cure….not prevention. I am a breastfeeding advocate, and fully aware that breastfeeding isn’t possible for every woman, but it’s a really good way of reducing the risk of breast cancer.
[…] The problem with the ‘pink’ charity […]
I must respond to Dr. Ruddy’s inaccurate post. Dr. Ruddy, I am surprised that you are confused about the Love/Avon Army of Women given the numerous meetings and conversations you and I have had about this project. And, the fact your advisor Dr. Pogo has benefited directly in her virus studies from breast milk collected via the Army of Women.
The primary focus of the Love/Avon Army of Women is on understanding the causes of breast cancer and how to prevent the disease.
Our first few projects focused on prevention and causes of breast cancer and are listed below. The projects are studying environmental chemical exposures, viruses and bacterial infections, and lifestyle factors that might play a role in the causes of breast cancer. And some projects are looking at prevention strategies including dietary interventions like grape fruit and overall diet and exercise regimens for prevention. The Army of Women is working to build a robust pipeline of prevention research projects. Until the pipeline is built, we have also allowed project that will benefit women who have survived breast cancer and 45,000 survivors have joined the Army of Women. It will take all of us to come together and put an end to breast cancer.
Prevention research is an area not widely studied because more scientists focus on developing the next wonder drug or treatment. The Army of Women was established to encourage more scientists to expand their focus to include prevention research. The Army of Women welcomes all scientists working in the area of cause and primary prevention of breast cancer to submit studies in need of volunteers.
Regarding privacy, the Love/Avon Army of Women will never sell, rent or lease your personally identifiable information to others. You are able to remove your name and information from the Army of Women at any time. http://www.armyofwomen.org/useragreement
http://www.armyofwomen.org/Closed_Studies
Project Title: The Sister Study: The Sister Study is looking at the environmental, lifestyle, and genetic factors that may make some women more likely to develop breast cancer. Researcher: Dale Sandler, PhD, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Project Title: The Milk Study: Using Breast Milk to Screen for Breast Cancer and Assess Breast-Cancer Risk. Part 2: Examination of the role of viral and bacterial infection in breast cancer etiology; Researcher: Kathleen Arcaro, PhD, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project Title: A Breast Cancer Prevention Study to Evaluate the Effects of Diet and Exercise Programs on Healthy, Postmenopausal Women in Los Angeles; Researcher:
This pilot study is investigating the effect diet and exercise may have on the risk of developing breast cancer or having a cancer recurrence.
Project Title: Grapefruit, hormones and postmenopausal breast cancer risk; This study at the University of Southern California is investigating whether eating grapefruit affects the hormones of postmenopausal women.
In response to Dr. Ruddy’s comment, we here at the Love/Avon Army of Women would also like to reiterate in addition, to Marc Hurlbert’s post, that the sole mission of the Army of Women is to enlist one million women to participate in breast cancer research.
The Army of Women is dedicated to representing ALL women in breast cancer research so that the research results will apply to ALL women. We need women who have had breast cancer and women who have not. We need African American women, Asian women, Caucasian women, and Latinas of every age, faith and lifestyle to be involved.
Heading the Love/Avon Army of Women is Dr. Susan Love, a distinguished breast surgeon, a trusted breast cancer authority, a best-selling author on breast cancer and women’s health, and the President of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. The mission of the Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit breast cancer organization, is to eradicate breast cancer and improve the quality of women’s health through innovative research, education, and advocacy. The Foundation works to identify the barriers to research and to then create new solutions.
We strongly believe that the Love/Avon Army of Women is truly unprecedented. We are enlisting healthy women to partner with researchers (our goal is ONE MILLION women) to move research from the lab to real women, and from investigating treatment and cure to seeking prevention by studying what happens before cancer occurs and what causes it. In short, we are inviting all women to be “one in a million” and help prevent breast cancer.
The Army of Women also serves an unmet need that few think about…but Dr. Love did! Currently there is no timely, efficient system for assisting researchers in securing the volunteers they need — it can take up to 18 months — and most researchers have access only to women with cancer, not healthy women. Or they do research without using human subjects. We are changing that paradigm and helping advance research to go “beyond a cure.”
By signing up for the Army of Women, women are NOT AGREEING TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY STUDIES YET. Signing up for the Army of Women just allows women to HEAR about upcoming studies. Once a woman is entered in the Army of Women database, she will start to receive emails letting her know about new studies. If she meets the criteria and is willing to participate, she can rsvp directly from the e-blast. If she doesn’t want to participate or is not able to for whatever reason, she can simply decline or forward the information on to someone she knows who might be the right fit or who may be interested.
To reinforce what Marc Hurlbert already confirmed, The AOW will not sell, rent or lease your personally identifiable information to others. The AOW will not use or share the personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above without letting you know beforehand and offering you the opportunity to withhold your consent for AOW to use your information in this way. The AOW is committed to ensuring the security of your information. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. This includes the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts the information you submit to keep it secure during transmission.
For more information regarding the Love/Avon Army of Women and to view Dr Love’s appearance discussing The Army of Women on “The View” and “Good Morning America”, please click the links below:
http://www.armyofwomen.org
http://www.armyofwomen.org/presscoverage
For more information about our current studies, please click the link below:
http://www.armyofwomen.org/current
Since women are the only ones who have breast cancer we should do this up right. Chicks love pink right? What if we paired that with something else they love? KITCHENWARE! Yeah that’s the ticket!
In response to Dr. Ruddy’s comment, we here at the Love/Avon Army of Women would also like to reiterate, in addition to Marc Hurlbert’s post, that the sole mission of the Army of Women is to enlist one million women to participate in breast cancer research.
The Army of Women is dedicated to representing ALL women in breast cancer research so that the research results will apply to ALL women. We need women who have had breast cancer and women who have not. We need African American women, Asian women, Caucasian women, and Latinas of every age, faith and lifestyle to be involved.
Heading the Love/Avon Army of Women is Dr. Susan Love, a distinguished breast surgeon, a trusted breast cancer authority, a best-selling author on breast cancer and women’s health, and the President of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. The mission of the Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit breast cancer organization, is to eradicate breast cancer and improve the quality of women’s health through innovative research, education, and advocacy. The Foundation works to identify the barriers to research and to then create new solutions.
We strongly believe that the Love/Avon Army of Women is truly unprecedented. We are enlisting healthy women to partner with researchers (our goal is ONE MILLION women) to move research from the lab to real women, and from investigating treatment and cure to seeking prevention by studying what happens before cancer occurs and what causes it. In short, we are inviting all women to be “one in a million” and help prevent breast cancer.
The Army of Women also serves an unmet need that few think about…but Dr. Love did! Currently there is no timely, efficient system for assisting researchers in securing the volunteers they need — it can take up to 18 months — and most researchers have access only to women with cancer, not healthy women. Or they do research without using human subjects. We are changing that paradigm and helping advance research to go “beyond a cure.”
By signing up for the Army of Women, women are NOT AGREEING TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY STUDIES YET. Signing up for the Army of Women just allows women to HEAR about upcoming studies. Once a woman is entered in the Army of Women database, she will start to receive emails letting her know about new studies. If she meets the criteria and is willing to participate, she can rsvp directly from the e-blast. If she doesn’t want to participate or is not able to for whatever reason, she can simply decline or forward the information on to someone she knows who might be the right fit or who may be interested.
To reinforce what Marc Hurlbert already confirmed, The AOW will not sell, rent or lease your personally identifiable information to others. The AOW will not use or share the personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above without letting you know beforehand and offering you the opportunity to withhold your consent for AOW to use your information in this way. The AOW is committed to ensuring the security of your information. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. This includes the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts the information you submit to keep it secure during transmission.
For more information regarding the Love/Avon Army of Women and to view Dr Love’s appearance discussing The Army of Women on “The View” and “Good Morning America”, please click the links below:
http://www.armyofwomen.org
http://www.armyofwomen.org/presscoverage
For more information about our current studies, please click the link below:
http://www.armyofwomen.org/current
I support breast cancer awareness and research (although I wish prevention in all health issues was focused on more than “What magic pill w/dangerous side effeccts can I take to make it all go away until my next health problem surfaces?”), but I get annoyed with the ‘pink’ charity just for what they’ve done to the color pink. I am a bald woman and I don’t have cancer. It’s bad enough that in our society it is assumed I do have it just b/c I’m bald, but when I wear pink, especially my favorite pink ball cap (that has nothing to do w/pink charity–it’s just PINK), forget it. I even had a coworker tell me once that I shouldn’t wear pink b/c it just makes it harder for people to know “what’s going on w/you.” Sorry, I know this has nothing to do w/the interesting research-minded posts–just came to mind.
Neither Dr Ruddy or the Love/Avon army of women mention breastfeeding as a way of preventing breast cancer on their websites. There is some really good research to show that this is the case.
I think the post by the Love/Avon army of women and Dr Ruddy just proves a sad point that they both want to use your website to promote their “brand” rather than desiminate the information that is already out there. If they really wanted to prevent breast cancer, their websites would at least mention breastfeeding as a prevention, and be part of the culture change that needs to happen in order to help women achieve their breastfeeding goals.
Perhaps it’s because human milk is just a little on the blue-tinged side, and they are blindsided by all that pinkness.
I just wanted to address your blog post briefly.
PartSelect decided recently to launch a fund-raising campaign for breast cancer research. The campaign was designed so that each photo entry results in a $25 donation to breast cancer research. Plus, as an incentive to get people to enter we decided to offer prizes. The prizes are not appliances we sell. Yes, we do sell things on the internet but PartSelect is an appliance parts retailer and unfortunately appliance parts don’t make very good prizes. Most people only want appliance parts if their appliance is broken.
We are not attempting to sell appliances to anyone after they “disfigure” their appliance with a pink ribbon. We thought this was a fun way to raise money for a good cause. We painted some of our own appliances with water-based paint and the ribbons we painted came right off with a little soap and water.
We wanted to use the pink ribbon as it is a symbol of the search for a cure for breast cancer and since we were asking entrants to paint pink ribbons we thought the pink mixer and accessories would make logical prizes and tie the whole fund-raiser together. This was not meant to stereotype women, only to raise money and bring awareness to a serious issue.
Sincerely,
Jane Moore
PartSelect.com
Jane Moore – I am glad you made a comment here on behalf of PartSelect, and I apologise for singling this particular endeavour out.
The day a competition for prostate cancer is run where men are encouraged to paint on their washing machine or dishwasher for a prize is the day that we will know women aren’t being stereotyped.
I am a breast cancer survivor of 9 years. I have two sisters that are also breast ca survivors of 9 years and 6 years. We each breastfed two children each. So the reader who said that breastfeeding prevents breast cancer had better do some more research.
We have three other sisters who have not had this disease and they also breastfed their children.
I was in a clinical trial during my treatment. We have all had the BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 genetic tests and they were negative.
I believe Dr. Susan Love’s Army of Women is moving in the right direction. I have found at least one trial that I would have loved to have been a part of but it was too far from where I live to participate. I am open to clinical trials. If we don’t participate we slow down the process of finding cures and preventive measures.
Dr. Kathleen T. Ruddy must be new in the field, if she isn’t familiar with Dr. Love’s work. It appears that she is only promoting her books.
The person that commented that women only get breast cancer needs to know that men get it as well. I had a male friend that died of it 35 years ago when he was only 25.
Please don’t condemn organizations that are legitimately doing the right thing for prevention and cures. I know there is a ton of pink ribbon fluff out there using the cause as an excuse to market their pink items. It is up to the buyer to beware.
Dr. Susan Love should be commended on her dedication to
finding people to participate in these trials.