Opinion

Olubukola Ayodele: Don’t be part of the pinkwashing, rather, choose to be part of the change many women/men so desperately need.

Photo from Olubukola Ayodele/LinkedIn

Sep 23, 2023, 19:53

Olubukola Ayodele: Don’t be part of the pinkwashing, rather, choose to be part of the change many women/men so desperately need.

Olubukola Ayodele, Consultant Medical Oncologist at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, shared on LinkedIn:

“As we approach October, the wave of pinkwashing has started. Pinkwashing is a time when companies release pink versions of their products or slap on a pink ribbon on their products to appear charitable or give a small donation to breast cancer awareness. While it may seem harmless, pinkwashing can have very real and negative consequences.

For instance, when messaging about breast cancer is overwhelmingly pink, the disease itself becomes associated with the feminine, when we know that breast cancer affects people of all genders. Pinkwashing can lead to misconceptions about the disease and our needed responses to it.

I was at a restaurant the other night and on the wine list, they had a pink ribbon next to one of the bottles and said if you buy this bottle of wine, we will make a donation to a breast cancer charity. While I certainly appreciate donations to good causes, as an oncologist who treats breast cancer, this kind of ticked me off because alcohol can increase the risk of breast cancer.

It is easy to become like sheep to marketing. The question to ask is; how much money from this pinkwashing is going into actual breast cancer research? A lot of these companies are only giving very little or not at all to the breast cancer cause.

Being an oncologist, I have the opportunity to relate with patients on a daily basis. For those on treatment, they don’t really care about October, they just need the energy to survive that day. Many cancer survivors actually dread October. The pinkwashing is a constant reminder of the struggles they have endured, the anxiety of recurrence, and the friends they have lost.

Many adverts use smiling faces on bald women but neglect to show the pain and suffering. The truth is that this suffering continues for years after the treatment ends. It is not just a problem in October. It is 365 days a year, something a lot of people don’t understand.

The commercialization of breast cancer has contributed a light-hearted approach to awareness and advocacy that very often centers on fun-filled activities in the name of breast cancer awareness. This often trivializes breast cancer and limits the public’s ability to comprehend what it is like to face the disease, live with medical uncertainty, and accept the difficult realities of risk, recurrence, treatment, and even death.

While awareness campaigns stimulate interest in breast cancer as a trendy social cause, they do little to promote knowledge about breast cancer. It is alright to have breast cancer awareness products but it needs to be backed up by tangible information about the disease to help educate the public. It is also important to highlight that funding breast cancer research is a key step in eradicating this disease.

So with October around the corner, let’s remember that the support needed for breast cancer is beyond this month! Don’t be part of the pinkwashing, rather, choose to be part of the change many women/men so desperately need.”

Olubukola Ayodele: Don’t be part of the pinkwashing, rather, choose to be part of the change many women/men so desperately need.