Feb. 01, 2012 - Issue #850: Godot
Pink Ribbons, Inc
Tough questions
» A brutally honest examination of a championed cause
The false comfort of the pink ribbon campaign seems harmless enough when you see thousands getting together to walk, run, row, jump out of planes or what have you for breast cancer. Fitness, solidarity and speaking openly about disease are hardly objectionable acts, but these acts are also meant to raise money—big, big money—for research. But what kind of research? The film suggests that the research being undertaken all over the world by various uncoordinated groups seems to possess little safeguards against redundancy, while precious little of this research is geared toward prevention. And why would it be, given that so many of the corporations wrapping themselves in pink as a way of attracting consumer dollars are themselves selling products that contribute to the spread of breast cancer, from the carcinogenic cosmetics of Revlon to the carbon-emitting cars churned out by Ford—whose workers breathe in estrogenic plastics on the factory floor—to the bovine growth hormone-laced dairy products of Yoplait?
Even if these products weren't selling us shit that might kill us while telling us that they're "fighting" breast cancer, Pink Ribbons, Inc. does a little simple math for us with regards to the efficiency of campaigns such as Yoplait's "Save Lids to Save Lives." If you ate three cups of Yoplait yogurt a day for a month and sent every one of those lids back to Yoplait so that they can then send 10 cents to some mysterious agency that we're to assume is spending those cents usefully, you'll have given a whopping $34 bucks to this research and have spent far, far more money just on postage. As activist Barbara Brenner, one of Pool's most compelling subjects, suggests, why not just write a cheque? Better yet, why not focus your energies on demanding accountability for those research dollars? I'm only skimming the surface of the many smart questions addressed in Pink Ribbons, Inc. So do yourself a favour: before you buy your next pink bucket of chicken or pink Mustang, see this movie.
Fri, Feb 3 – Thu, Feb 9
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