Taboo
I have been meaning to write this post for three days now but I didn’t have time. I want to send two messages out by this post.
The year 2010 started with one of the most controversial breast cancer awareness campaigns. If you are a regular user of facebook, you might have seen the status updates of some of your female friends. They are colourful; white, back, nude, pink, and … you name it. I refuse to believe that so many women were choosing fun colours for their bra but that is not the point I want to make. Some people find this campaign useless and they can’t see any association between the colour of the bra and its benefit for cancer research. I, on the other hand, have different opinion. The fact that you know people are writing about it, reminds you to do your breast self exam (BSE). I take my two friends everywhere I go but it’s so easy to forget to do my monthly BSE and I am sure that is true for other women as well.
As someone who has been exposed to cancer research and read many research articles about cancer, I have to say that this is a very complex issue. First, the researchers have not uncovered all the reasons that contribute to cancer development. Second the cause of cancer is so varies that finding an ultimate cure for that seems unlikely. But what is possible these days (thanks to cancer research) is the cure for those cases that are diagnosed early. A reminder for BSE or encouragement for having a mammogram has been the best way to increase the rate of survivorship when it comes to breast cancer. Sadly, I do not believe in “To End Breast Cancer” slogan but we should not give up increasing the number of women who fight breast cancer successfully.
Another thing I want to mention is I was surprised by the way some of my Iranian friends reacted to my support to this campaign. If my grandmother would say that I was not supposed to publicly announce the colour of my bra, I would have understood. She belongs to a different generation with different ideas and expectations. But I didn’t expect to be hushed by some of my friends who claim to be very open-minded. They are talking about democracy and freedom of speech in Iran but I am not supposed to write about my bra on Facebook because a good girl does not talk about this sort of stuff publicly. It seems that they are still imprisoned by old traditions. Talking about the colour of your bra does not really make a guy to fancy about you. One of my honest guy friends was saying that these days by the way some women are dressed you can pretty much guess the size, shape, and whatever. Having one additional information does not make that much a difference. I wish some people (men and women) would grow up to realize that breast cancer is not something that you should joke about.
Anyway, whether you have Facebook account or not, whether you like to talk about the colour of your bra or not, do your BSE now and inspect for any lumps. I do wish that no one losses a mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife, or a friend to breast cancer.
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