Note: I started writing this piece almost four years ago, in March of 2008. I had thought it lost when my machine crashed in the middle of writing it. I rediscovered most of it in my auto-save folder a few weeks later, but decided to take the crash as a sign and let it rest.
But no longer. Recent events have convinced me the time had come to dust it off and finish it. I have chosen to retitle it from the original Breast Cancer Awareness: Why It Sucks to more encompass the entire Greedbitch Foundation (Susan G. Komen had nothing to do with the organization, its founding, and certainly not its current actions, so I refuse to see her name attached to it more than is necessary.)
Also remember that this piece was originally intended for the late lamented WhyTheySuck.com, and is a lot more obscene and combative than my usual posts. But these people deserve it.
- Pab, February 2012
Look at this shit:
This is an example of something that somehow found its way home in this household’s grocery bags. It’s a bag of pink M&M’s “for the cure” of breast cancer.
Yes, once again my life has been needlessly barraged by one of the greatest guilt scams ever foisted off on people: the Susan G. Komen Foundation and “breast cancer awareness.”
I have now officially had enough. Anyone who looks at me with a straight face and says the words “awareness,” “…for the cure,” or wears anything even remotely resembling a pink ribbon risks getting surgery, needed or not, delivered by me using only my car keys as a tool and a can of Red Bull as anaesthetic.
Why do I hate these pricks? Shouldn’t I applaud cancer awareness? Don’t I want to fight cancer? Yes on both counts. But you know what?
The people behind this “breast cancer awareness” shit DON’T GIVE A FUCKING RAT’S PUSTULENT BUBOE ABOUT CANCER!
I’ve lost good friends and family members to cancer. I have other friends and family who count themselves as multiple-time survivors. Cancer has had a very deep and painful impact on my life and the lives of people I love. And these self-righteous hosebags who feel the need to paint the entire world pink and martyr themselves on the altar of the mammary gland haven’t done shit to help them. This includes my friend Dawn who died from, and stepmother Jeannie, who survives, Breast Cancer. Susan G. Komen For The Fucking Cure did jack shit for these two women, yet because they suffered from a particular version of The Dreaded C Word they are deified. Fuck that noise.
First off, let’s get a few basic points straight:
First, “Awareness” is bullshit; being aware of breast cancer does not prevent you from getting it.
Being aware of smoking related illnesses can prevent you from getting them – by not smoking. Being aware of HIV and AIDS can prevent you from getting them – by avoiding high risk activities. Being aware of the hazards of shoving a spindle up your ass and lighting your clothes on fire while smacking people in the face with a hot waffle iron and singing “Kumbaya” in a falsetto voice… well, you get the idea. Prevention is the key reason for awareness.
But there is no way to prevent breast cancer. There’s no single cause, or list of contributing causes, for breast cancer. A woman can live a healthy lifestyle and still find herself a victim of breast cancer. All the “awareness” in the world won’t help you.
Of course, the secret to any cancer is quick diagnosis and treatment, but that’s not what the ribboneers are talking about. This brings me to my second point.
Second, this is not about cancer.
About 12% of women in any given year will develop breast cancer, if the Susan G. Komen people are to be believed. But you know what? In that same 12 month period, 18% of men will develop prostate cancer.
That’s right. More men are likely to develop prostate cancer than women are likely to develop breast cancer. They’re twice as likely to die from it, too, mainly because there’s shitloads of money being given to breast cancer treatment research and next to nothing being given to prostate cancer research. Of course Susan G. Komen, an anonymous woman who was unwittingly pushed into martyrdom by her self serving bitch of a sister (more on that later) makes a much more attractive trademark for research into a disease than, say, Frank Zappa, who died of prostate cancer.
But this isn’t about cancer. It’s about women. More specifically, it’s about radical feminists with a complete and total antipathy towards anything with a penis or any organ or gland obliquely connected to it (read: prostate). Breast Cancer Awareness martyrs push their agenda because it’s specifically a woman’s BREASTS. And people buy into it wholesale because it’s all about breasts.
When KFC starts selling chicken in blue buckets and donating percentages to The Prostate Cancer Foundation or red buckets and donating percentages to The American Lung Association then come talk to me. Until then shut up.
Third, Susan G. Komen had nothing to do with it.
Susan G. Komen was a nobody who died of breast cancer in 1980. She didn’t start the foundation or campaign for awareness of her disease. Two years later her sister, a Republican politician named Nancy Goodman Brinker, decided to start a charity dedicated to breast cancer. Knowing that people were less likely to give to a women’s charity run by a political operative for the most anti-woman organization since Our Gang’s He-Man Woman Haters Club, she deflected attention from herself by naming it after her dead sister, Susan Komen.
Since then, there is one thing that the foundation has proven good at: making Nancy Goodman Brinker rich. In its 2009-2010 fiscal year, nearly $41 million of the $365 million that people gave to the organization went into “administrative costs,” mainly salaries for people like Nancy Goodman Brinker. Brinker herself got half a million dollars of that $41 million. That same year, the foundation spent $731,303.00 on mammograms through the now-severed relationship with Planned Parenthood.
With what the Foundation spent on “administrative costs” alone, they could have paid for 140,000 more women to get screened for breast cancer. Brinker’s salary alone could have paid for 1,500 women to get screened. But she has more important things to do with that money. For example, in 2000 she spent nearly half of what gullible donors stuffed in her pocket that year to help elect George W. Bush as President.
That’s right. If you bought a cup of pink-topped Yoplait in 2000 thinking that it was going to fund mammograms, there’s a good chance that your money actually went to putting George W. Bush in the White House.
Fourth, they’re theives who are trying to use the law to stop other people from doing what they did.
In 1991, Visual AIDS created the red-ribbon design to help encourage AIDS awareness. When Jeremy Irons wore a red ribbon at the Tony Awards that year it became an immediate hit. Of course, Nancy Goodman Brinker and company saw a good thing and immediately decided to steal it. They started handing out pink ribbons to participants in their “race for the cure” and started using it everywhere to promote their fundraising efforts.
Sadly, this went against the intent of Visual AIDS, which specifically wanted to “keep the image copyright free, so that no individual or organization would profit from the use of the red ribbon” and that it “should be used as a consciousness raising symbol, not as a commercial or trademark tool.” Nancy Goodman Brinker and company has not only trademarked the ribbon design, they are now actively going after people who use pink ribbons or the words “for the cure” for efforts that don’t specifically line their pockets. Never mind that some of these organizations might be spending more money on actually fighting cancer than the Brinker Cabal, which in 2009 spent 20.9% of what they brought in on research and only 5.6% of what they raised on actual cancer treatments.
Fifth, it isn’t working.
In 1969, the death rate from cancer was 40%. Last year, it was 42%. A smaller percentage of women were getting mammograms in 2008 than were in 2000. They aren’t helping cure the disease and it looks like their “awareness” efforts aren’t helping either.
So what good does the Brinker Cabal do with the money you send them? Promote themselves (39.1%), line their own pockets (11.3%), and raise more money (10%). They used to spend 13% on screening services, but that stopped this week when they ended their partnership with Planned Parenthood. So out of every dollar you give them, a quarter and two pennies now actually goes to helping fight cancer.
No wonder they haven’t made any progress. Unless their goal was to make Nancy Brinker and the other “executives” rich. Oh, and help elect Republican politicians. If that was the case, it worked beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.
In conclusion.
If you’re serious about fighting breast cancer, spend your money where it’s going to do the most good. Give to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, who are actually trying to find a cure. Give to The National Breast Cancer Foundation, who are actually helping women get screened for the disease.
If, like me, you think that breast cancer is just one small piece of the bigger pie, then give to The American Cancer Society. I already provided links up above for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and American Lung Association, both of which deserve your money as well.
But the next time you see a food product colored pink with a ribbon and the name “Komen” anywhere near it, pass it on by.
Right on Pab. My only wish is that you had completed this four years ago when you started it. SGK is a crooked organization the may have finally gotten their comeuppance. I hope their efforts at damage control fail. People really need to know this information. I wish this great piece could be read by everyone.
Thank you so much for this. I have been thinking this for at least 2 years now! Bravo! My boss even mentioned recently that he doesn’t think SGK is what its supposed to be and he will not be supporting all that cancer pink BS either. How about all those pink kitchen counter appliances, mixers, blenders etc? Yikes! Does SGK get a piece of that action as well? I betcha they do! It’s Pink, so yes. How about Victoria’s Secret? They have an entire “Pink” like, it’s logo is the same sickening pink that SGK subscribes to. Does SGK get any of that action? Hmmm…I have bought alot of stuff that says “Pink” on it w/o even thinking. As gifts. PINK all acorss a girls ass could be the best advert yet! Does SGK see that money? I will puke if they do. Please tell me NOOOO!!!! I cannot find anything about it online. Gawd, if they do
What a scam! Pretty soon all the pretty Pink crayons in the Crayola box will have to be licensed as well. & include the dumb pink ribbon the box. How about the Molly Ringwalk movie, “Pretty in Pink”? Uh hu! Yep, soon that will have a pink ribbon label on the DVD box, the RedBox that rents it or the Netflix streaming movie will have a Pink ribbon advert lead-in. Oh yes. I think they missed that one! The pink M&M’s, pullleeeez! Are ya kiddin’ me? I like M&M’s but jeez. Just buy the Valentine ones. They have pink ones in them. OH! I see, SGK figured they were missing out on that lovely chocolate pink M&M cash! I am afraid to wear pink in public (I never would anyway) for fear of being sued for wearing it w/o the written consent of the SGK blah-blah-blah. Or w/o writing a check for said pink clothing to them 1st. OH! NO! Pink baby clothes, blankets, Pink babies in general. Will they soon also be a licensed product for the SGK to cash in on? How about Pink the singer. She’s pretty awesome, think they’d hit her for back pay? Yea, she’d hit them back! LOL! Pink haircolor, wigs? Ouch! Pink wigs! For cancer patients? I can see it now! This is making me in need of some Pepto. OH! NO!!!! PINK PEPTO!!!!!!!
Many typo’s. Sorry. Can I fix them? Ringwald, across…so sorry.
Dr. Samuel Epstein did a scathing report on the American Cancer Society. It’s not about cancer, as you say, it’s about MONEY!
Mike Adams wrote articles on Breast Cancer Deception and I hope you read that as well.
EARLY DETECTION is NOT PREVENTION. You have to HAVE it to detect it. Why don’t we hear about a SAFER option THERMOGRAPHY, as a screening tool? It was approved by the FDA in 1982. Mammograms are dangerous. If you research documents in the FDA, you will read that chemo/radiation may lead to OTHER cancers. If a woman has breast cancer and then gets brain cancer and dies, the stats will show she was a ‘breast cancer survivor.’
Most associations/societies are just like Komen’s.
My friend died of stage 4 cancer and Susan B. Koman didn’t do jack sh*t for her. I asked her if they helped her and she said NO! They had no money to give her!
What a sham! What a joke!
Both of my parents died from Cancer; one ovarian the other skin cancer. The charity you mention does not exist (as far as I know) in the UK yet what annoys me is the organisation of charities in general. I always say that you can tell if a charity is genuine by seeing what sort of car the head of the organisation drives around in. (This goes for most, if not all, “charitable” concerns.) I cannot offer any evidence but I’m sure a lot of money disappears in the name of “administration costs” and “advertising”. The more “in your face” a charity is, the more money gets “lost”. To whom are these people accountable?
By the way: men can get breast cancer, too.
I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer one year ago, I was then fired from my job because they felt i would miss too much work for treaments and such. I called the Susan G “help line” looking for some answers, some help anything what I got a\was a woman who used Google to find resources in my area and then told me to call the American Cancer Society. First of all I am fully capable of using Google myself, Second, Susan G advertises that they “help” women. Help? Not a fucking chance. In my opinion they are the most worthless “charity” for breast cancer that there is. With all of the money they have collected in the name of Breast Cancer they damn well should have a cure by now, but that certainly wouldnt line their pockets. There is no incentive for Susan G Komen “for the cure” to find a cure, because then they would be out of business !!!!! If you want to donate for breast cancer find someone locally, a REAL person in your area who needs help and help them!!! Skip the stupid walks, and pink products. BOYCOT Susan G Komen “For the Cure” CURE THEIR GREED!
Great comments- I would not donate to a charity where the CEO makes 100X my salary. How can I? makes no sense. Also the whole breast cancer thing- well my true belief is that the “survivors” are the ones who survive because they have the cancer they call “in situ” which is encapsulated and will not turn into cancer if left alone. However they treat those as full blown cancer and do the whole treatment on it.I believe these people survive IN SPITE OF the toxic “treatment” they are put thru. I am 55 and have had one mammogram in my life and I won’t have any more, ever. And what is this race for? It seems that there are survivors out there-haven’t they been cured? I thought they are still racing for a cure? Why is there no talk of toxic shit in our environment that causes cancer. Better to have an organization pulling in millions of dollars year after year after year-they don’t want to cure cancer.
Amen! I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 31, and I absolutely fucking hate that this is my ribbon. So many of my friends have other cancer – Hodgkins, leukemia, multiple myleoma, sarcomas…the list goes on. Yet it’s the tits that get all the attention. I now deem Komen to be the godmother of the Pink Ribbon Mafia, and since I had breast cancer, I will damn sure rant and rave to anyone who is foolish enough to ask me to donate to the cause.
The SICKEST thing about this foundation is the millions of donation’s they took, then used it to fund a POLITICAL party that has had a HUGE hand in the destruction of our Great country!!!
It’s all about the money! To get enlightened, read “When healing becomes a crime”,
the story of a cancer healer!
The Komen foundation tried to take over my 200 year old neighborhood of small, one-way streets with their 20,000+ person “Race for the Cure” because a neighboring facility offered its premises for free. When I showed up at a community meeting to protest and said that I, too, was a cancer survivor (ovarian) — they looked at me as if I had three heads. There is no room in their agenda for other cancers, even “female” ones.
Cure cancer and Komen goes broke. So run your legs off if it makes you feel better but no cure in our lifetime. Komen has to pay her pool guy, you know.
Komen on Oprah interrupted someone who began mentioning using diet for prevention with, “we have to find a cure… ” Komen jumped right in and shut her down when prevention was brought up. Then the “applause” sign was lifted and the audience clapping wiped out any more words the other guest had about prevention. It is so disgusting , dishonest and I hang up on anyone who calls asking me for money to “find the cure.” Yeah, right.
http://www.bcaction.org The Bad Girls of Breast Cancer
You should add information regarding the money spent on legal fees stopping smaller non-profit organizations use any of their 200 trademarked things…like “for the cure” or ribbons. Gosh, they suck! Here’s an interesting link pointing you in the right direction.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/komen-foundation-charities-cure_n_793176.html
A cure for cancer? Nope. There probably could’ve been cures for these diseases decades ago, but big pharma won’t permit that. Treatments and drugs yield big $$$$$. Cancer and heart disease are the two biggest courses of treatment in today’s hospitals and clinics. Think of it, if there were cures guess who’d be out of business?????
The only reason the cancer survival rate has increased some is because of early detection. However, how much have we advanced in the treatment department aside from some newer (and pricey) cancer meds? Cemo and radiation both of which have been used for half a century.
down with pink
Wish I had known about the money going to funding republican candidates before I donated my hard earned $50 this summer. GAG!!! Never again!
I always knew this somehow. Same with United Way. Big scammers. I am watching football today (10-7-2012), and players have pink shoes, pink ribbons, pink everything. I went on a rant to my husband, saying if I ever get breast cancer, I will stay as far away from the color, pink, as I can! I don’t know how these people sleep at night for all of the scams they pull. GREAT ARTICLE!
I always wondered, if they are raising awareness and supporting for research why are the volunteer walkers/runners REQUIRED to raise a certain(SO MUCH) amount just to participate? I believe in giving directly to those in need; the families you may know directly who are now faced w/ insurmountable hospital/lab/doctor bills.
exactly. there are soooo many kinds of cancers killing people. there are soooo many kinds of illnesses that are killing people. it’s time any money donated is used solely for research for ALL people with ANY sort of terminal illness, to help find cures. and it’s time that we citizens hold our legislatures accountable for allowing so called “management” to pocket monies intended for this purpose. shame on us for letting it go on so long.
be careful who you donate to. research the researchers. but don’t stop donating. until this world ends, fight for a cure for ALL peoples – for ALL illnesses.
Kudos- thanks for substantiating my beliefs, Watching the NFL today in pink really chaps my hide knowing that the money is misappropriated. Boooo SGK
And yes, I saw these M&Ms and I bought the pack without the pink ones because home girl don’t play that.
While I agree with most of what you wrote, there is one mistake. The “pink” ribbon was originally a creation by an elderly woman named Charlotte Haley to raise awareness of breast cancer. It was originally a “salmon” color. Estee Lauder loved it, and wanted it, but Charlotte said no way to them, and didn’t want it to become some commercial propaganda. Well, Estee Lauder decided to take the ribbon, and simply change the color from salmon to “pink”. That’s the real story behind the ribbon. Assholes.
I agree with a lot of this. My mom died of cancer in 2006. Since then I started supporting SGK and any cancer fighting organizations, but I haven’t heard of one cure yet or what strides that have been made from all of the donations and funding. I haven’t found on one of the many websites how much was taken in and of that a % went to whatever research and the progress that research has made. I have to admit. I’m feeling a little played by SGK.
If one really wants to help, there are various scientists doing research at the University level. These individuals need to be funded directly. They are not associated with Susan B Koman, or large pharmaceutical companies and are doing this research on their own. If a cure is to be found, it is there.
And here I thought I was alone in my disgust for the pink ribbon. I am sick of pink ribbons! I do not feel any disease should be assigned a color. That just adds to the vibrational power of the disease. If we must assign colors, how about choosing a universal color symbolizing HEALTH. I never had a good feeling about SBK foundation and that has now been substantiated on a number of levels. I choose to give to local centers who are directly assisting cancer patients with treatments and much needed servicres above and beyond anything insurance covers. Thank you for writing on this subject.
Thank you so much for an excellent article. I hope more people read this article and learn just what a rip-off this “charity” truly is. I feel it is nothing but a Super-Pac for the GOP and for the upper management’s own greedy interests. How much money did they spend on Mitten’s campaign, I wonder?
Pab – You pretty much lost me at the “radical feminists” crap. Go read Barbara Ehrenreich’s takedown of breast-cancer charities, written shortly after her diagnosis. And then go back further and read the late Molly Ivins’ takedown of the same (written IIRC between her first and second, fatal bout with the disease.) Neither of these two is/was shrinking violets.
This ain’t men vs. women. (Or wimmin, or womyn.) This is people vs. corporate BS. Learn the difference.
Pab: I apologize unreservedly, not for the factual points, but for the tone of the preceding post. It was rude, and angrier than it needed to be. All I can say is that I hit your original after several others of similar vein on other topics, and the straw broke the camel’s back.
Again, my apologies.
Although you make valid points on the money being brought in to fund ” the pool boy” I have to Disagree with the outrage against the Pink ribbon. It is what it is. It gives us a feeling of a little hope. I dont say this going over my boundries as I am 2 years in remission myself. I cant say You all dont make valid points againts where the money is going, BUT leave the ribbon alone. I mean come on whats next we cant wear shirts that say ” survivor” ??? because someone will get ” offended” to who the money is going to? I think people can spend there money on alot of other not ideal things.
No reseach foundation has ever! found any help in cancer of any kind. RESEARCH PAYS BIG BUCKS! Cures mean out of a job! The only tests and treatments on the market to date has been done by the major pharmacuticles. Women that have little to no insurance can not get one penny of help from the fraud fund raisers. Would love to post the email I got from them when I asked for help. It said we dont do that! So many cancer research places produce false information so they dont lose funding, causing more damage then good. The Mayo clinic was set back 10 years in research alone because of false data. There has been cures for cancers many times but the cure gets crushed by the big money making industries. Only idiots and saps donate.. If you really want a cure quit giving!
Actually, there are foundations that have moved the ball forward in a big way in medical research. I’m speaking specifically of Rockefeller University in NYC. It was orginally funded as part of it’s namesake’s attempt late in life to rehabilitate his image and/or save his soul. Many life saving technologies from the first decades of the 20th Century were discovered as a result of funding the research hospital. I recieved free experimental medicine there in the late 1990s and learned about it. If memory serves, pennicellan an the polio vaccine were discovered/perfected by it’s scienctists, and more importantly, it sparked a wave of philanthropic foundations funded by the American aristrocracy that dramatically increased the the length of life of the average American. I surmise sponsoring health research has particular appeal to the type of person (men mostly) who are in the position to give hundreds of millions dollars away… They can do something grandly “good” to make up for the guilt they often feel for either being a ruthless barron of indusrty or for inheriting obscene wealth. There’s buildings to named, and possibly a bit of immortality in discoveries both because of the help to generations to come, and also maybe even in more concrete and litteral terms. It would be easy to gripe about the self serving nature of it all… but it is at least better than trying to hoard as much as possible and fighting every step of the way to keep as much as possible for their heirs- which is of course what many do. What stinks is that our system has become warped by the success of those early foundations; that let’s the government off the hook from funding the basic research as fully as it should, and worst of all, allows CREEPS like this CEO and other upper level leeches to fool millions of kind hearted, steadfast Americans to line their pockets with money meant for helping our brothers and sisters in need! I had no idea Komen was SO warped! We need laws limiting the percentage of funds that can be diverted to Administration and fundraising by foundations with tax exempt status. I’d say for all administrative groups involved in medicine, also, but I realize that’s controversial.
But surely there could be consensus that the head of ANY charity shouldn’t be earning half a million dollars a year!
Thank you! I thought I was being heartless because I have been suspicious of the organization. I had a mother-in-law who passed away from breast cancer, I had a Grandfather who passed away from prostate cancer. I also have a Grandmother who passed away from leukemia. It should not be about a focused cancer. They should pull all their resources together to find a cure for all cancers. I am concerned that they truly don’t want to find a cure. I hope that is not the case.