Recently Dina Goldstein's photo essay struck at the Disney princess myth by exposing what the series called Fallen Princesses. This particular photo shows Rapunzel as a very youthful cancer patient...and is strangely accurate, as documented by David Jay's Scar project. Thirty year old women with no family history of breast cancer, began showing up at the oncologist's office. Goldstein's image is successful without being sexualized as are many of the images in Pink-tober ads to promote breast cancer awareness.
"Rather than being playful, which is what these campaigns are after," Peggy Orenstein writes, "sexy cancer suppresses discussion of real cancer, rendering its sufferers--the ones whom all this is supposed to be for--invisible. Moreover, while a month-long breast cancer awareness campaign or Pink-tober gets promoted by various cancer charities and purveyors of popular cultural,it is widely called pinkwashing, its basic denial as clear as the cigarette makers disputing the now accepted truth that smoking causes cancer. Just as with the tobacco manufacturers, the breast cancer industry represents governmental agencies and big business, including the pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies, and those in various medical communities.
Unwillingness to own up to having aborted a child was supposedly the reason given for denial of the ABC link (abortion-breast cancer). Such "recall bias," would lead healthy women to cover up an abortion.
It's thus hugely significant that a meta-analysis examining a whopping 36 studies of induced abortion and cancer risk was just published in China. Abortion is not stigmatized in China, where 40 abortions occur for every 100 live births. As a result, there is no reason to conceal a history of abortion, and "recall bias" is in this case irrelevant. Endorsing the conclusions of the previous studies, Dr. Yubei Huang, et al. report that induced abortion presents a 44% increased risk of developing breast cancer.
The medical community agrees that childbirth improves a woman's odds against cancer, because the maturation of milk-producing cells in the breast helps to resist cancerous agents. While pregnancy is a period when a woman is vulnerable, live birth gives the breast cells time to mature. Think about it. Cutting short the protective action of breast cell development makes induced abortion a risk factor for breast cancer. In other words, the physiology of the breast itself suggests that induced abortion increases vulnerability to breast cancer.
It's thus hugely significant that a meta-analysis examining a whopping 36 studies of induced abortion and cancer risk was just published in China. Abortion is not stigmatized in China, where 40 abortions occur for every 100 live births. As a result, there is no reason to conceal a history of abortion, and "recall bias" is in this case irrelevant. Endorsing the conclusions of the previous studies, Dr. Yubei Huang, et al. report that induced abortion presents a 44% increased risk of developing breast cancer. The medical community agrees that childbirth improves a woman's odds against cancer, because the maturation of milk-producing cells in the breast helps to resist cancerous agents. While pregnancy is a period when a woman is vulnerable, live birth gives the breast cells time to mature. Think about it. Cutting short the protective action of breast cell development makes induced abortion a risk factor for breast cancer. In other words, the physiology of the breast itself suggests that induced abortion increases vulnerability to breast cancer.
Several credible peer-reviewed epidemiological studies, the physiology of the breast, and experimental studies done in mammals all show there is increasing evidence of the ABC (abortion-breast cancer) link. While any study can be seen to have some flaws, the mounting scientific evidence lends factual support to the claim that abortion serves as a predictor for breast cancer.
In light of this increasing evidence, Pink-tober seems less designed to get at the real causes of cancer than to sell cancer-awareness merchandise and to titillate and protect sex rather than the lives of women. Rather than standing in line to buy more pink stuff, we need to acknowledge, as Dr. Denise Hunnell points out, that hormonal contraceptives and induced abortion are "leading etiologies." Since these are both largely avoidable by behavioral changes, Dr. Hunnell suggests aiming our efforts on prevention. In the face of damning evidence of the ABC link, the million dollar abortion industry and its supporters hunker down to demand more treatment options.
Young women in our culture are being fed a fairy tale all right, but it's not Disney's doing; this is the outworn feminist fairy tale of free love. You know, the Woodstock era endless "Summer of Love" Seventies that brought you the pill and abortion in return for a golden life of equality.
Now that myth has been dispelled by the old person's disease becoming the young women's epidemic, maybe the spell of feminism will fall away. Here's a better lingo for our times: Rather than simplistically "think pink," we need to recognize the ABC Link.
In light of this increasing evidence, Pink-tober seems less designed to get at the real causes of cancer than to sell cancer-awareness merchandise and to titillate and protect sex rather than the lives of women. Rather than standing in line to buy more pink stuff, we need to acknowledge, as Dr. Denise Hunnell points out, that hormonal contraceptives and induced abortion are "leading etiologies." Since these are both largely avoidable by behavioral changes, Dr. Hunnell suggests aiming our efforts on prevention. In the face of damning evidence of the ABC link, the million dollar abortion industry and its supporters hunker down to demand more treatment options.
Young women in our culture are being fed a fairy tale all right, but it's not Disney's doing; this is the outworn feminist fairy tale of free love. You know, the Woodstock era endless "Summer of Love" Seventies that brought you the pill and abortion in return for a golden life of equality.
Now that myth has been dispelled by the old person's disease becoming the young women's epidemic, maybe the spell of feminism will fall away. Here's a better lingo for our times: Rather than simplistically "think pink," we need to recognize the ABC Link.
"Maybe the witch thought she was protecting Rapunzel, not punishing her."
--Alyssa B. Sheinmel, The Beautiful Between
