Disappointed in The Beacon's name change

Why are the BCNA taking so long to respond to this issue?im actually really surprised to be honest. And I still can’t see any response as to why they have to change it??  And why at the very least hasn’t Christine Nixon responded to the letter sent to her by @traveltext ? That’s a bit of a shame. Why can’t we start  a post on suggestions for a name and logo change then? That seems fair doesn’t it ? Margie. Xx

Hi all
As you will see from earlier posts Traveltext and I have been involved in this discussion from
the get-go and you will see the final of two letters we sent to Christine voicing our opposition to the proposed name change. To her credit she did respond to the first letter and mentioned it was part of the corporate theming.
I like others thought the Beacon was a symbol of light and hope and I certainly don’t feel the publication “Pink Lady” is something I will be pursuing in future.
This approach by BCNA is so
disheartening after all the work they did in supporting the inaugural Male Breast Cancer Awareness.
I am left totally perplexed

The user and all related content has been deleted.

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''.

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   

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.  

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.

 

@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!

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.  

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?

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.

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.