‘I Heart Survivors’

ANGELA YANG
Staff Writer

“I heart boobies.” There’s a great chance that you’ve seen this before on a bracelet to promote breast cancer awareness. Though these bracelets seem innocent and probably even beneficial, they are far from it.

The juvenile use of the word “boobies” isn’t the problem, but rather that these bracelets trivialize cancer. Breast cancer awareness is reduced to becoming a way to save
“boobies” rather than the patient. Rather than a proud fighter or survivor, these bracelets brand them only as a body part to be saved, not a person.

Breast cancer patients already go through a great deal of trauma- learning that their life may or may not end in a short period of time coupled
with having to fight it.. Most afflicted with breast cancer are women, who, in our society, have been repeatedly sexualized and objectified in ads, television, and movies. It is not healthy for the patient or for society as a whole to accept this blatant objectification of women. The widespread popularity of these bracelets has reached a point where anything short of an apology from the Keep a Breast foundation (the bracelet distributors) and a product recall would not stop this destructive message from becoming even more widespread.

However, this does not mean that new bracelets cannot be manufactured with a friendlier message, such as “I heart patients” or “I
heart survivors.”. With breast cancer as the most common cancer women suffer from in the United States (according to the Centers for Disease Control), more objectification in any way, shape or form that reduce cancer patients to sexual objects is not necessary, nor welcomed. These bracelets are ultimately more trouble than they are worth.