Pinkification pukification here we come. Yes tomorrow marks the onslaught of putrid pink things because you know breast cancer is so pink and frothy and light, right? Like fuzzy bunnies, Barbie, and cotton candy,right?

I hate #pinktober. The world gets coated with a putrid pig pinkness designed by marketing gurus to make a buck or two off of breast cancer. And how much actually goes back to true breast cancer research, education, and funding for women who need financial assistance during treatment? The answer is not much compared to percentage of profits and isn’t that true?

Someone said to me today that they worry there will never be a cure for breast cancer because marketing and advertising folks would never allow it. Yes, it was jaded and tongue in cheek but seriously, do you need your greasy take out chicken in a pink bucket? Does your cheap liquor taste better with a pink label? And does pink plastic nonsense make recycling more fun?

Already the hyper-sexualized images of big boobs peeking out of pink and white and just pink bras are popping up. Gee do we think the models are actual survivors?

When discussing the onslaught of Pinktober already in September a friend and survivor said to me:

“I think you have touched on something very important… I remember feeling left out of all the pink activities even while I was in the battle phase … Then there are folks that make doing the big walk sound like a bigger deal than having the disease ( trust me I am grateful) folks want to raise money and educate .. ) finally , I feel like people have heard so much about breast cancer that there is a “well it’s just breast cancer” feeling out there – the context now seems as if it is missing ; understanding of treatment and risk is missing. People who are planning these events should make an effort to know what helps and what hurts.”

One thing this year I am more conscious of is the marketing of Pinktober in schools. And it seems less about real breast health education and awareness and true fundraising and more about pink spirit wear.

I noticed this at my own kid’s school when the school’s publicist posted something in a school group page about a pink dress down day.

Her message said in part:

I am all for increasing knowledge, raising awareness , breast health education and so on, but where is that here? They have some charity they are partnering with which is based out of the Washington DC and Virginia area but I can’t see where any money raised here is actually going to go. And when I pulled up the charity’s 990 I found yes they are a real non- profit, but wow, what huge overhead!

The problem I have with supporting some of these types of organizations which are often not local to where you live includes their overhead. I applaud anyone wanting to make the world a better place, but as a survivor, I have to say again there are several fine breast cancer charities to get involved with. And these are people that give money to research, education, low-cost mammograms, and so on.

Maybe I am too serious for all of you when it comes to things #pinktober but as someone who had the surgery, the treatment, and who lives on breast cancer meds , I am VERY sensitive to the charities and what they do.

All I am saying is consider charities in the future that are a little more educational. Education is very key to battling breast cancer. What schools are doing is nice, it brings people together, they wear pink clothes but what have their students actually learned that can help keep them and family members healthy?

Breast cancer is serious stuff and serious business for pink themed marketing campaigns. Every year I find myself slightly aghast at all of the pink gear….especially when the articles come out regarding the fine print of what actually goes to education, research, and so on….versus profits and pink themed expenses and overhead.

I think if we are going to teach the future generations, educating them beyond what goes with pink is kind of important.

This is why, once again as Pinktober is about to puketober all over us I am going to mention Taking Care of Your Girls a website and book by my radiation oncologist Dr. Marisa Weiss.

This is the kind of stuff we should be educating with, not pink soup, pink fried chicken, pink temporary tattoos, and cutesy pink spirit wear. We owe the future generations more than that.

I will close with an article from the Wall Street Journal a few years ago which understands why the right kind of education on breast cancer is important:

WALL STREET JOURNAL: HEALTH JOURNAL Girl Talk: Early Education Eases Fears of Breast Cancer
Elizabeth Bernstein
Updated Sept. 2, 2008 11:59 p.m. ET

Two years ago, when she was nine, Jamie Margulies noticed a lump on the left side of her chest, behind her nipple. She was scared, since her mom had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. “I thought that since she had breast cancer, I would definitely get it,” says Jamie, a 6th-grader who lives in Gladwyne, Pa.

To reassure her daughter, Jamie’s mother took her to see her oncologist. The doctor examined her and set her mind at rest: The lump was not a cancer, but a breast bud — a sign that her breasts were starting to grow.

“That made me feel a lot better,” Jamie says.

Her doctor, Marisa Weiss, says she has witnessed a growing fear of breast cancer among young girls, as information about the disease permeates the media. She also has noticed that girls are either uninformed or misinformed about breast health.

“They are still young girls, without the dialogue skills to ask the questions, air their concerns and replace the myths with facts,” says Dr. Weiss, director of breast radiation oncology at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, Pa., and founder of Breastcancer.org, a nonprofit educational organization.

Together with her teenage daughter, Isabel Friedman, Dr. Weiss co-wrote a new book “Taking Care of Your ‘Girls’ “, which hits stores today. Written for girls and teenagers, it offers information on topics such as breast development and size, choosing a bra, how to stand up to teasing and what healthy foods to eat during this time of growth. Throughout the book, Ms. Friedman, who is 18, gives advice and tells stories from a peer-to-peer perspective.

Dr. Weiss’s book is an extension of an educational program that she and her daughter have been presenting in schools to girls in grades 5 through 12 and their mothers. ……Dr. Weiss then gives the girls medical information. She explains that breast cancer is exceedingly rare in girls under 20 and that only one in 10 cases of breast cancer is thought to be due to an inherited genetic abnormality. She describes the steps girls can take to reduce the risk of getting the disease, such as keeping a healthy weight, exercising and not smoking. She also advises them to maintain a healthy diet, including limiting consumption of red meat and fried foods.

It’s especially important that girls receive this information at ages eight to 18, she says. “That’s when they are using food, water, beverages and the air they breathe as building blocks for breast tissue. They are laying down the foundation for future breast health.”

…..Information about breast health and breast cancer can be found at http://www.breastcancer.org, and people can ask their own questions at http://www.takingcareofyourgirls.com/main/contact.html.

Ladies and gents…please…think before you pink.