BC.... The " sexy " cancer

primek said:

I took it as saying "sexy" as popular. We are unfortunately popular ...as breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths for women behind lung cancer. And unfortunately for us breast cancer doesn't discriminate... young, old, thin, fat, healthy, unhealthy, children, childless, breastfed or not...makes no flippin difference. We don't seem to be able to predict or prevent, for the most part we can't avoid. ..it's just a lotto with horrifying high chance of being picked. And that my fellow bc sisters is why we need so much funding. And fortunately what is learned for bc helps our male partners fight the  horrible stats for prostate cancer as well. So yes ...sexy, popular...if it brings on the cash for no deaths for women with breast cancer ...then bring it on...I'll flash my scars if it helps. Kath x

Yes, that's what they mean: popular. This has become one of those marketing buzzwords to describe things that will get a lot of public support though using it in the context of cancer is extremely distasteful.

I also want to highlight that although it's true that breast cancer now gets a lot of attention and funding, this is a fairly recent phenomenon. Up until the 20th century, breast cancer was feared and hardly talked out. There was a lot of stigma around it and women often suffered in silence and alone.  And it was women, and the feminist movement, that changed this through years of very hard work. I could go on and on about this...

Another problem with these kinds of articles is the assumption that government pours a huge amount of money into breast cancer. There are about 50,000 charities in Australia and they're all after government dollars. We get a very tiny slice of that pie. BCNA's work is made possible by the generous support of our partners and the community.