Breast Cancer on Facebook

Recently on Facebook a lot of people have been posting the phrase "I like it on...", and then a location, referring to where they leave their handbag (only it's funny, cos it sounds like sex!). This is all for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is a very worthy cause. However, I have a LOT of issues with this campaign.

The logic behind it is non-existent. It's making an in-joke out of a scheme to raise Breast Cancer awareness. I usually find awareness is much better when, you know, people are BEING MADE AWARE, as opposed to being kept in the dark. Why not post a link to, say, Cancer Research UK (you can even just click here). That way, everyone knows what you're talking about, and maybe some of them might even donate. They are certainly more likely to do so after being directed from a link than with an obscure reference to where you leave your handbag.

For some reason that I haven't fully worked out, breast cancer seems to hold a special place amongst terminal illnesses, in that it's the only one that you're allowed to find sexy. Yes, I know they're breasts, but if you're getting turned on by a mammogram then there is something wrong with you. Try doing that with any other serious illness or condition -- if you made a sexual innuendo about AIDS, for instance, people would rightly deem it in poor taste (at best). I appreciate that dwelling on the details of cancer might not be best suited to Facebook, but there is a huge gulf between doing that and sexualising something that, I am sure, a huge percentage of your Facebook friends have seen affect or take a loved one.

All this, and I haven't even mentioned the fact that there is no link between cancer and handbags. Demonstrably. The only link is that it involves breasts -- like what girls got -- and handbags -- like what girls got. The word "Tenuous" probably covers that connection best, and only then if we assume strict gender binaries: that all women have a handbag, and all men don't (and we then forget about the 1-2% of cases affecting men).

So don't post this status. It's ridiculous. It really is no better at awareness raising than the chain e-mails that used to spam Bebo and the like, and certainly much worse than donating, or even telling people about it plainly. Or clicking this link, which directs you to a site where each hit earns someone a free mammogram. Much better.

(Thanks to Charlotte Bennett, whose Facebook comment helped lead to this blog)