Pink For October

October 2, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi Jones

For a second year, HeatEatReview.com is going pink in October to help raise awareness about breast cancer. Also, Lean Cuisine is hawking those lunch bags again. After they sold out last year, approximately 18,439 people send me emails asking where they could get the official Susan G. Komen Lean Cuisine Breast Cancer Lunch Tote. Well, you can get it at Lean Cuisine’s lunch bag site.

Go, buy it now instead of bugging me when they sell out. There’s a little note on their site that says that the actual design you receive may vary, so I just decided to use last year’s lunch bag image. This year’s lunch bags probably look slightly different, though I’m sure that they’re also pink.

You know, you’ve really got to feel sorry for those causes that haven’t already snatched up a symbolic ribbon color. While typing this I thought “Wikipedia must have an entry on awareness ribbons.” I was right, they do. Check it out so that you can quiz your friends and question the reasonableness of a ‘Puzzle Ribbon’.

How to Help: There are some good suggestions about how to help on the Pink For October Official Site. Here are HeatEatReview.com I am going to donate a dollar to Breast Cancer Research and/or Survivor Care for each thousand visits that the site gets in October. We average about 100,000 visits a month, so it will likely be around $100.00. But if you tell your friends and family members about the site, maybe I’ll be writing a bigger check.

Video Update: I finally found the Kid Cuisine meal, so now I can make the video. Yes, it took me months to find a single frozen meal. I could make a video just about the search for Kid Cuisine Fish Sticks. But I won’t.

comments

13 Responses to “Pink For October”

Crow on October 2nd, 2007

Men demand equal time and money for prostate cancer.
Abi Jones on October 2nd, 2007

Breast cancer affects everyone, including men.
Crow on October 2nd, 2007

I know, that wasn’t my point, exactly. Women are far more likely to acquire breast cancer than men. Basically, the marketing is pretty much targeted completely towards women (pink, ribbons, females in print and TV). The statistics are far greater that I will one day suffer prostate cancer instead of breast cancer. Prostate cancer for a man is far worse than breast cancer, psychologically and sexually speaking. So saying that men can get breast cancer is something of an aside, and not an actual argument from a cost-benefit ratio perspective. I know cats can acquire mammary cancer too, although that is less of a probability if the cat is neutered or spayed.
MaryAnne on October 2nd, 2007

“Prostate cancer for a man is far worse than breast cancer.” Crow, you can’t be serious. There is absolutely nothing to support your ridiculous claim. Just plain ignorance…

But anyhow, I’m excited for your Vlog, Abi! I want to see exactly what the expression is on your face when you take the first bite of a mouthwatering fish stick.
bloglily on October 2nd, 2007

Hey Abi — Those are pretty nifty lunch bags! As for the pink thing, as a woman who’s had breast cancer, I’m always touched that people participate in things like this. That doesn’t mean that they don’t care about Burma, or prostate cancer, or the fact that lots of kids are hungry and badly parented right around the corner from where you live. If every single one of us did what we could to make one problem a little better, then more parts of this sometimes too-sorry world would improve. There are a lot of us, and each of us should do what we can, where we can, led by our passions, and our strengths. xo, Lily
Megan on October 2nd, 2007

Thanks for the link! I ordered one for me and one for my mom.
Crow on October 2nd, 2007

I think the fact that everyone else on the thread so far is female rather bears out my point. It’s a gender-specific need to “do something” to boost self-esteem. Is it even possible breast cancer awareness more than it already is? No. Are any of us medical professionals, have we closely studied the morphology of breast cancer? Would any of us know if avenue X is more promising than avenue Y? How would you or I know who to fund, and who to ignore? Should we donate to a cause we support irregardless of method and organization? As it is, people are throwing loads of cash at a marketing machine selling fear and tragedy, without any clue as to likelihood of any benefit emerging. The progress so far, and the peculiar specificity of breast cancer, not simply cancer, makes me wonder. There is such a thing as too much funding, and not enough scientific clarity and precision.
Abi Jones on October 2nd, 2007

Crow, I think everyone else on this entry is female because most of the people who comment on HER, period, are female. Or at least, they claim to be female. You never can tell her on the Internet.

I never said that I was gender neutral on this. I’m a woman and I want a cure for breast cancer. If I was male then I might have a different viewpoint, but you know what? Pink for October was started by a man, not a woman.

Sure, if you had prostate cancer that might be worse than if you had breast cancer. I can’t be the judge of that.

What I don’t appreciate are your blanket statements regarding the efficacy of unnamed organizations. If there’s a spending scandal out there, then tell us!

I consider apathy a terrible enemy to human lives. You’re right, we don’t know about the likelihood of a benefit emerging, but that doesn’t mean we should all sit back and not do anything. It means that each of us needs to do what we can to make this world a better place regardless of the cause or issue. If prostate cancer research is really important to you, please go and do something about it!

How about starting with a website that features George Bush making a ridiculous face and have text that says something like

–Whether or not you agree with the President, you have to admit that at least he’s smarter than X percentage of men in the U.S.: He got a prostate exam.

Two simple tests can save your life. What are you waiting for?–

And then get people to Go Blue, which shouldn’t be that hard because half of the websites on the Internet are blue already.
Crow on October 2nd, 2007

“What I don’t appreciate are your blanket statements regarding the efficacy of unnamed organizations. If there’s a spending scandal out there, then tell us!”

I don’t know if there is or not. I gather none of us have really looked into these things. That can be counter-productive to the stated goals. I was more concerned that they were spending money on unpromising, but politically popular, modes of research.

“And then get people to Go Blue, which shouldn’t be that hard because half of the websites on the Internet are blue already.”

I’ve always preferred turquoise.

I am involved on a more than weekly basis with politics, so not as if I’m ignoring issues important to me. I just can’t get excited about very narrowly tailored issues, or those that give the appearance of utilizing exploitive identity politics. Sometimes, knowing a little about something, and then running out to change the world based on a small foundation of interpreted knowledge, can backfire.
Crow on October 2nd, 2007

Wait…they’re selling…fashionable shopping bags?
Joe Lencioni on October 3rd, 2007

@Crow: grow a moustache for November or get a blue wristband. With your line of thinking, what about tobacco, obesity, or alcohol abuse awareness? They are, afterall, the leading causes of preventable deaths. My point here is just because some people are trying to do something for a change, doesn’t mean that they are trying to take away from other causes. Instead, why not just keep things positive? If you can’t do that, then as a male reader of HER, I’d like to kindly ask you to take your negativity somewhere else where you can troll out with like-minded individuals.
Julie on October 3rd, 2007

“Prostate cancer for a man is far worse than breast cancer”

Why don’t you go tell that to my mother. She’s 6 feet underground dead and buried and gone because of breast cancer. At age 63 no less. I never dreamed I’d never see my mother again in my mid 40’s.

And it doesn’t affect men???? MY DAD TOOK CARE OF HER 24/7 SO SHE DIDN’T HAVE TO SPEND HER LAST DAYS IN AN INSTITUTION. He kept her in the living room of the house I grew up in on a hospital bed and stayed by her side day and night and he held her hand when she finally left this world.

So why don’t you talk with my dad about how it didn’t affect him. Pfft.
tom on October 16th, 2007

I’ll buy a bag if you go back to green. You’ve completely removed my ability to browse this site at work. Someone catches me reading a pink blog, and I’m going to have to find a new job or face torment on a daily basis.

Or are you trying to scare away the last of your (straight) male readers?