Synopses & Reviews
Since its introduction 1991, the pink ribbon and even the color pink itself have become a ubiquitous symbol for breast cancer awareness. Pink ribbon paraphernalia saturate shopping malls, billboards, magazines, television, and other entertainment venues. Thousands of everyday products have been produced in special pink ribbon editions, with some proceeds going to various awareness foundations. The pervasiveness of the pink ribbon campaign leads many people to believe that the fight against breast cancer is progressing, when in truth it's barely begun.
In this compelling and provocative work, Gayle Sulik shows that although this 'pink ribbon culture' has brought breast cancer advocacy much attention, it has not had the desired effect of improving women's health. It may, in fact, have done the opposite. Breast cancer is not becoming less prevalent, nor are we gaining a better understanding of its' multifaceted causes. Every year, there are nearly 200,000 new cases of breast cancer, and 40,000 more women die from the disease; yet, there are still no guaranteed modes of prevention or treatment.
Based on eight years of ethnographic observation, analysis of advertisements and breast cancer awareness campaigns, and hundreds of interviews with those affected by the disease, Pink Ribbon Blues examines the hidden costs of the pink ribbon as an industry. More importantly, though, it analyzes the social impact on women living with breast cancer-- the stereotypes and stigmas they face when their experience doesn't fit the idealized portrayals of breast cancer survivors. Sulik discusses the organizations that are making a real difference, analyzing their alternative policies and practices in hopes to provide a new agenda for the future.
Review
"Treads an interesting middle ground between the academic and the journalistic as she analyzes giant hunks of information and opinion, and also interviews patients to illustrate her points." --Abigail Zuger,M.D., New York Times
"In this provocative and eye-opening critique, medical sociologist Gayle Sulik, Ph.D., makes the case that breast cancer culture is increasingly frivolous and commercialized-with patients paying the price." --Catherine Guthrie, Better Homes and Gardens
"Given the pink ribbon's symbolic success, what's wrong with it? Sulik argues that pink ribbon culture focuses attention on the wrong things and does it in a way that is not really contributing to progress toward preventing and curing cancer. It buries medical controversies, ignores environmental causes of cancer and insurance problems, and does not increase access to treatment for underserved populations. Most of all, she is critical of the collusion of pink ribbon culture with what has become a multibillion-dollar cancer industry. I highly recommend Pink Ribbon Blues to anyone interested in medical issues, the social construction of patienthood, gender, and the body." --Judith Lorber, Gender and Society
"Gayle Sulik takes us behind the pink curtain to a peculiar culture where sentimentality takes the place of scientific evidence, personal transcendence fills in for political action, and lofty platitudes replace actionable goals. Pink Ribbon Blues is the Frommer's travel guide to the country of breast cancer." --Sandra Steingraber, author, Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment
"Gayle Sulik has written an excellent book that sheds new light on the construction and implications of breast cancer culture in American society. Her extensive research and thought-provoking analysis challenge current beliefs of what breast cancer means for diagnosed women, survivors, and advocates. This book is a must-read for all players in the breast cancer culture and anyone interested in women's health."--Kathy Charmaz, Professor of Sociology, Sonoma State University
"In Pink Ribbon Blues, Gayle Sulik has brought sociological, feminist and media theory together for a deep and broad analysis of the consumer world of breast cancer. She has complimented all of that with a deeply humane and personal engagement with the women who are living with breast cancer in a world where the pink ribbon culture constantly needs disruption and questioning. BRAVO!!!!!"--Janet Gray, Director, Program in Science, Technology and Society, Vassar College; Board Member, Breast Cancer Fund
"In this thoughtful, eye-opening and searing examination of the pinking of breast cancer, Sulik shows how pink culture lurches from selflessness to selfishness, giving new meaning to the ferocity of survivors and she-roes."--Devra Davis, National Book Award Finalist, author of Disconnect: The Truth about Cell Phone Radiation and Your Health (2010), and The Secret History of the War on Cancer (2009), Founder, Environmental Health Trust, and Visiting Professor, Georgetown University
"It's about time! We've been needing this book - a smart, critical, thoughtful analysis of pink ribbon culture and the damage it is doing. Thank you Gayle Sulik!"--Barbara Katz Rothman, Professor of Sociology at the City University of NY, most recent book, with Wendy Simonds, Laboring On
"Provocative..." --Library Journal
"Breast Cancer Awareness Month has become a distracting sideshow, a situation that sociologist Gayle A. Sulik explores in compelling depth in her new book, Pink Ribbon Blues."
--Katherine Russell Rich, Slate
"You may never think pink again about breast cancer after reading Sulik's sobering and lucid critique of what she calls 'pink culture'... Sulik's call to 'take a road less pink' demands to be heard." --Publishers Weekly
"Many of [Sulik's] insights are striking and she pulls together a wealth of historical material and data... Recommended." --Choice
"This is the first book to provide a comprehensive ethnographic analysis of breast cancer culture in American society. It presents a thought-provoking and probing argument against the industry of awareness-raising and describes real ways to help breast cancer patients and their families. This book will be valuable for all those interested in breast cancer management and in women's health." -- Anticancer Research
"For Sulik, it is clearly time to 'rethink pink.' Well-written and extremely well researched, Pink Ribbon Blues demonstrates how pink consumption has transformed breast cancer from a stigmatized disease and individual tragedy to a market-driven industry of survivorship. Using a broad interdisciplinary approach and a range of examples, personal stories, and health statistics, Sulik traces the linkages between the disease and the 'pink culture' that has arisen around it. As well as being of interest to those with breast cancer this book would be useful for both academic and clinical audiences, in addition to serving as an excellent discussion text for courses in medical sociology and anthropology."
- Sukari Ivester, Sociology of Health and Illness
Synopsis
Pink ribbon paraphernalia saturate shopping malls, billboards, magazines, television, and other venues, all in the name of breast cancer awareness. In this compelling and provocative work, Gayle Sulik shows that though this "pink ribbon culture" has brought breast cancer advocacy much attention, it has not had the desired effect of improving women's health. It may, in fact, have done the opposite. Based on eight years of research, analysis of advertisements and breast cancer awareness campaigns, and hundreds of interviews with those affected by the disease, Pink Ribbon Blues highlights the hidden costs of the pink ribbon as an industry, one in which breast cancer has become merely a brand name with a pink logo. Indeed, while survivors and supporters walk, run, and purchase ribbons for a cure, cancer rates rise, the cancer industry thrives, corporations claim responsible citizenship while profiting from the disease, and breast cancer is stigmatized anew for those who reject the pink ribbon model. But Sulik also outlines alternative organizations that make a real difference, highlights what they do differently, and presents a new agenda for the future.
About the Author
Gayle A. Sulik, PhD is a medical sociologist and was a 2008 Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities for her research on breast cancer culture.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: What Is Pink Ribbon Culture?Chapter 2: The Development of Pink Ribbon Culture
I. The Breast Cancer Movement
a. Medical Consumerism
b. Aesthetics and Normalization
c. Investment in a Women's Health Epidemic
d. Solidarity, Fundraising, and Publicity
II. Unintended Consequences
Chapter 3: Mixed Metaphors: War, Gender, and the Mass Circulation of Cancer Culture
I. The Masculine and Feminine Ethos of American Cancer Culture
a. LIVESTRONG and the Masculine Ethos
b. Gilda's Club and the Feminine Ethos
II. Pink Femininity
a. Pink Femininity in the PRC
b. The She-ro
Chapter 4: Consuming Pink: Mass Media and the Conscientious Consumer
I. The Special Role of Women's Magazines
II. The Breast Cancer Audience
III. Branding and the Niche Market of the Socially Aware
IV. Warriors in Pink
V. The Breast Cancer Brand
a. Fear and the Pink Menace
b. Hope and Faith in Breast Cancer Awareness
c. Goodness, Fundraising, and the Pink Lifestyle
VI. Komen's New Logo
Chapter 5: Consuming Medicine, Selling Survivorship
I. The Breast Cancer Industry
II. Disease Classification
III. Medical Technology
a. The Benefits of Mammography
b. The Risks of Mammography
c. Cost/Benefit Analysis
d. Screening Programs and the Makers of the Machines
IV. Big Pharma
V. Industry Ties to Advocacy
Chapter 6: Optimism, Selfishness, and Guilt
I. Ruby's Story
II. "Becoming" a Breast Cancer Survivor: Learning the Rules
III. Feeling Rule 1: Optimism
a. Incorporation of the She-ro
b. Rejecting the She-ro
IV. Feeling Rule 2: Selfishness
a. She-roic Selfishnes (i.e., Rational Coping Strategy)
b. Selfishness as Confessional
V. Feeling Rule 3: Guilt
a. The Inadequate She-ro
b. Embodied Social Stigma
c. Family Disruption
Chapter 7: The Balancing Act
I. Taking Care of Myself
II. The Balancing Act
a. Setting Boundaries
b. Accepting Help
c. Asking for Help
III. Balancing the Sisterhood
IV. Final Thoughts
Chapter 8: Shades of Pink
I. The Limiting Nature of Words
II. Narrating One's Illness
a. Realism and Transcendent Subversion
b. The Picture Outside the Frame
c. The Terrible Stories
Chapter 9: Re-Thinking Pink Ribbon Culture
I. "Not Just Ribbons"
II. "Think Before You Pink"