Wisconsinites are taking part in Breast Cancer Awareness Month through nonprofit and private fundraising partnerships in local communities and government initiatives once again this October.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an annual international campaign to promote the necessity of regular breast screenings, warn individuals of risk factors and symptoms related to breast cancer and raise funds for research, according to the Breast Cancer Organization.
University of Wisconsin health rhetoric expert Jenell Johnson explained how Breast Cancer Awareness has come to the forefront of health campaigns in the U.S.
“The campaign to raise attention for breast cancer has really been one of the most spectacularly effective [health campaigns],” Johnson said. “It’s had tremendous staying power.”
The visibility of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is largely due to major advocacy efforts of Susan G. Komen Group as well as local grassroots work from organizations like After Breast Cancer Diagnosis, Johnson said.
ABCD, located in Milwaukee, is a leading Wisconsin-based Breast Cancer Awareness nonprofit. The group partners with over 100 corporations, healthcare organizations and community groups throughout the year, according to ABCD.
ABCD is continuing its partnership this October with local Milwaukee restaurant Saz’s State House for their annual “Buy a rack, save a rack” promotion, according to its website.
Customers can buy a full rack of baby back ribs and/or the strawberry margarita, and a portion of the sale will be donated to ABCD throughout the entire month, Saz’s director of festivals and community engagement Hannah Kitzerow said.
“[ABCD being a] local nonprofit is something that we really appealed to,” Kitzerow said. “It’s a little bit more meaningful, and money goes a longer way when it goes to these organizations that have smaller teams but have a huge impact on our community.”
ABCD has grown into an international nonprofit dedicated to providing one-on-one care to those diagnosed with breast cancer, according to its website.
As a nonprofit whose demand continues to expand daily, ABCD credits its steadfast partnerships with local corporate and community entities for the success and sustainability of its project, according to its website.
Saz’s sets itself apart from most businesses in the area because a cornerstone of their work is community engagement and giving back, Saz’s director of marketing Ana Cook said. This allows for a unique symbiosis between Saz’s goals and ABCD’s needs.
“For us, it is really important to be able to highlight these different organizations and their missions,” Cook said. “We’re really trying to figure out a way that we can use our platform to help boost others.”
Another one of ABCD’s local partners is the Wisconsin Breast Cancer Coalition, an organization centered around speaking out about breast cancer through legislation, education and collaboration, according to WBCC.
This year, WBCC is hosting a variety of fundraising, advocacy and support-oriented events for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, according to WBCC. The organization is known for prioritizing well-rounded projects that fit their motto of “beyond the pink ribbon.”
The iconic pink ribbon attached to breast cancer was introduced in 1992 by SELF magazine for their Breast Cancer Awareness Month edition, alongside Estee Lauder’s senior vice president and breast cancer survivor, according to the BCO.
The pink ribbon has been stunningly effective in creating recognizable branding for breast cancer since its introduction, but it hasn’t gone without its critiques from those impacted by breast cancer, Johnson said.
“A lot of the stories that we tell about breast cancer that are gendered, products and messages have a kind of infantilization built in there,” Johnson said. “There are places for these critiques in terms of the way we drape meanings on these conditions.”
The pink ribbon, though embraced by many breast cancer survivors, has also been accused of leading to the “pinkwashing” of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, according to BCO.
Pinkwashing refers to corporate and political rebranding to pink within their company under the guise of supporting Breast Cancer Awareness month without meaningfully giving back to the cause, according to BCO.
“During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I can go to the store and pick out my water bottle, or I can pick out my pink water bottle,” Johnson said. “The way that we think about the meaning of breasts is very strongly tied to cisgender ideas of what the body is.”
Nonbinary and transgender individuals have spoken out about the isolation and negation of their identity when experiencing breast cancer due to the heavily cisgendered perspective of breast cancer for BCO and Living Beyond Cancer.
Cisgender men can also be diagnosed with breast cancer, although this fact is largely disregarded by the pink branding and many awareness efforts, Johnson said.
Despite the criticisms the pluralism of pink and breast cancer has received, there is no doubt that the visibility their succinct branding has afforded them wouldn’t be the same without the pink ribbon, Johnson said.
As Breast Cancer Awareness Month solidified its campaign branding, the cause generated more funds and raised greater awareness than ever before regarding prevention and treatment, Johnson said.
“There has been a tremendous amount of money raised for research, and a tremendous amount of awareness, particularly for self exams,” Johnson said. “You can’t deny that they have been spectacularly effective and saved peoples’ lives.”
Wisconsinites between ages 35-65 interested in preventative care more advanced than self-exams have access to the Wisconsin Well Woman Program, which provides breast cancer screenings for little or no cost without insurance.
Experts recommend self-exams primarily to familiarize oneself with their breasts to better detect a future change, rather than to determine if breast cancer is present, according to Mayo Clinic.
Wisconsinites have a plethora of resources and events to take part in to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but that doesn’t take away the importance of raising awareness and education one-on-one with the people in one’s life, Johnson said.
“Be open about talking about things like self-exams,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t just raise awareness, it raises action that can have a very significant life-saving potential.”
