Handbags, Bras, and Breast Cancer

A couple of weeks ago, I logged onto Facebook to find my news feed littered with provocative statuses. One read, “I like it on the floor!” Another declared, “I like it on the kitchen table!” As I soon learned from my inbox, this was an unofficial, Facebook-based movement to raise awareness about the dangers of breast cancer—“the game has to do with where we put our handbag the moment we get home. Let’s see how powerful we women really are!!!” I forgot about the phenomenon until a little later, when I encountered a display of hot pink bras in front of the science center commemorating Breast Cancer Awareness Week. Nearby, a table run by the Harvard Cancer Society was selling pink shirts that read “Save Second Base.” Putting the two together, I realized why Facebook statuses declaring “I like it on the table!” bother me so much. Breast cancer is not a sexual issue. It has nothing to do with femininity or female sexuality. In fact, around one percent of breast cancer patients are male. Raising awareness about breast cancer by displaying hot pink bras and joking about where we place our handbags not only demeans the experience of males and non-gender-identified people suffering from breast cancer but also equates breast cancer with sexual activity or sexual allure. This association could make many women uncomfortable, especially those enduring cancer themselves. Furthermore, a campaign to “Save Second Base” may be a humorous and provocative way to generate discussion about breast cancer among college students. However, it does so at the cost of dignity and accuracy. Breasts do not exist for the purpose of providing sexual pleasure to men or to women, and it is not appropriate to depict them as primarily sexual in function. In fact, this is not only inaccurate but also propagates the objectification of the female body already pervading college culture. Harvard culture would never allow a Safe Darfur campaign to be advertised with the slogan, “Save hot black women!” While many women suffer as a result of genocide, Darfur relief efforts need no sexualizing. A movement to save “second base” is no different. Similarly, an analogous campaign for testicular cancer awareness that sold shirts advocating “Save Home Plate!” would be considered offensive and distasteful. Why, then, should there be a double standard allowing women to sexualize their bodies for the sake of gaining attention to an otherwise “unattractive” cause? I am sure that the organizers of the Facebook campaign and the women and men of the Harvard Cancer Society did not intend for this type of discomfort, and they certainly found an effective way raise discussion about breast cancer among college students. However, displaying bras or posting suggestive Facebook statuses fails to support breast cancer victims and instead subtly hints at the sexual availability of Harvard’s women.