Disappointed in The Beacon's name change
Comments
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Waiting for BCNA to explain the reason behind the change and who was consulted !1
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Lol @Zoffiel you are fuckng hilarious as always. What about “sunrise” coming out of the darkness makes sense too for a name or horizons could be another one? Why are they needing to change it?.. anyway Can you imagine if you and I were in charge of the beacon name change!, between my “titty mag” suggestion and your pink bits we would have heads turning for sure:):):)!!1
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Chances are that someone has had an overview of BCNA's branding and feels that the Beacon is not consistent with the overall look and feel. Which, I agree, it isn't. But then again I don't care much for the whole pink look. Always was much too girly and My Little Princess for my taste!!
I appreciate the work BCNA does, but I am not running the show, so it's not my decision and the people who are running the show must think the pink branding works. Possibly have stats to back that up. So I don't mind them making a decision, don't mind them not asking, just don't imply broad consultation with members if there hasn't' been any.
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I'm sure there are some very solid marketing strategies behind this: the pink lady logo is instantly recognizable and BCNA has to compete for scarce funds and donations. That makes perfect sense and we all reap the benefit of those strategies.
I guess I don't see the Beacon as the frontline when it comes to fundraising. Yes, it serves a purpose of informing stakeholders and showing what the organisation is doing but, for me, it is a community newsletter and shouldn't do anything to exclude members who already feel they are under represented. As you say, @Afraser we are not in charge.
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Just thought I would add my 50 cents worth, I agree that a consultation process would have/should have been in order,
perhaps we will get some feedback from bcna soon as to why this is happening.
wendy55
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How do our male members feel about this change?
@traveltext
@PeterB
@Chester80$$
Males diagnosed with breast cancer represent 1% of those diagnosed... We the women of this forum want to be inclusive of them in all that BCNA represents.
How do you men feel about this ?5 -
If I was one of the men who has breast cancer and received a newsletter in the post/ online that was called Pink Lady, I’m pretty sure I’d be unsubscribing. The whole bright pink colour for me has always been an issue. I do understand the importance of it for advertising etc. Perhaps it’s time to set up a support group that’s less female focused and has men’s needs at the heart of if. They could call their newsletter ‘Blue Man’ (or a more appropriate title because gender stereotyping is outdated).2
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Great discussion on this important topic. Thanks SoldierCrab for the head's up.
Chester80$$ and I have been on to BCNA since the get-go on this topic and we're as horrified as other members here to find the pink lady moniker applied to Beacon.
Here is the text of our last letter to CEO Christine Nixon, sent in late November. We've have not yet received a reply.Dear Christine,
Many thanks for your reply and for explaining the background to the decision.
We well understand that men are not the prime target for BCNA and certainly don’t want to hog more than our fair share of the limelight. What we do want to do, however, is further raise public awareness that men get this disease too. While ever BCNA and other BC charities are fixated with pink and feminine imagery, we remain at a huge disadvantage. Why condemn us to continued later diagnoses and poorer prognoses?
The time to freshen up the magazine should also be a time to re-think the BCNA logo. Many organisations with an outdated logo have gone through this process and decided not to be sentimental when the logo is so obviously discriminatory. The more this corporate position is promoted, the more it becomes entrenched in the Australian psyche that breast cancer is a disease only affecting women. The reality is that no matter how BCNA continue to position it, explain it, promote it, and justify it, a pink lady does absolutely nothing to promote awareness that men get this disease too. The logo is so obviously about women that it is disingenuous to suggest otherwise.
With 80% of men (Ref) not aware that they could even develop breast cancer, and the majority not able to identify any symptoms of male breast cancer other than a lump in the breast, there certainly needs to be change. Compare this to the 0% of women who aren’t aware they can get this disease, because they have constant public reminders, and enjoy the obvious benefits of early detection through a huge public screening programme.
We fully appreciate and welcome the work and your staff have done for men to date, but with this decision BCNA loses the opportunity to truly make a more meaningful difference; to grasp a watershed moment that breaks the shackles on the reliance on a corporate identity that simply continues to promote sexual stereotyping of breast cancer. We implore you to reverse this decision and consider a name and logo that is more inclusive.
Yours etc,10 -
Beautifully put @traveltext; you have raised some really pertinent issues here. Rebranding would be wonderful.
Here’s hoping these comments will contribute to establishing a more inclusive organisation. Perhaps more consultation with men, such as yourself, will help initiate the changes needed.
The Cancer Council have a lovely gender neutral yellow. There are quite a few other colours to choose from. I look forward to a change in the title of the newsletter.2 -
@traveltext
Thank you for posting the letter that you have sent to BCNA. I gather there was some consultation way back that we the users of the forum are oblivious too! Tardy in reply is not a good thing or are they taking it as comment only? What happened to a polite acknowledgment and you comments will be passed along to the board for discussion? Manners in correspondence!
It sounds like a board room decision and the staff are to implement and overlooked the stakeholders called the Forum! Maybe I am wrong.................anyhow, the relevance of the bright pink lady as the main logo across everything is lost on both genders.................Does their strategic plan include the forum as a stakeholder I wonder?Zoffiel said:I guess I don't see the Beacon as the frontline when it comes to fundraising. Yes, it serves a purpose of informing stakeholders and showing what the organisation is doing but, for me, it is a community newsletter and shouldn't do anything to exclude members who already feel they are under represented.
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Zoffiel, I don't recall any public consultation on the Beacon name change. Chester80$$ just noticed the reference to this in the last Beacon. That's when we took up the issue with BCNA management. I'm really heartened by the comments here and thought this might have just been blokes complaining.
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I went looking for a strategic plan on BCNA website and found this - gives us an understanding of the overview of the direction of the organisation.
https://www.bcna.org.au/media/4531/bcna-2017-business-plan.pdf
We all certainly appreciate and benefit from the work of BCNA.
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Hi Boys, thank you for responding to my tagging of you in this post I now know we are correct in our thoughts regarding this decision and I will continue to approach the BCNA management on behalf of forum members who are asking about this.
For BCNA to be promoting Men's breast cancer awareness day and then changing the Beacon to "the PINK Lady" is just totally counter productive to being inclusive of the men of this country
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Still waiting, BCNA.
Please do not forget the men in all this as they, too, are members and should not be forgotten - besides, guess who is often left to donate money to the BCNA in memory of their ''pink lady''.5
