People can expect annual breast cancer awareness campaigns around the same time the leaves start to change and crisp up and pumpkin flavored items come out every October. I understand and support the identification of breast cancer awareness campaigns each year, however,  I am not so sure I am equally as supportive of each campaign. Some are blatantly more harmful than beneficial. 

Some campaigns sexually objectify breasts by ‘saving the ta-tas’ rather than focusing on saving the patient themselves. They promote sales of their products by donating part of their profits to breast cancer research while their product itself causes breast cancer, or they  associate their campaign with the ‘feminine’ color pink. However, I am going to leave those for another time and discuss the campaigns that are cissexist and gender-essentialist. 

Before doing so, I want to say that I myself am cisgender, someone who identifies with the gender that coincides with their born sex, therefore I have no personal experience with cissexism, nor  am I in any position to fully proclaim what it is  since I  am not oppressed in that way. My goal is to raise awareness to my surrounding peers, mainly others who are also privileged, cisgender people, who are unknowingly contributing to these harmful campaigns and disregarding and disrespecting the feelings of the people who are affected by breast cancer but are not acknowledged.

Many campaigns promote awareness about breast cancer but only to a certain demographic, excluding numerous people who are still very much affected by it. 

First and foremost, breast cancer generally gives off  the notion that breast cancer only affects women and cisgender woman at that.  Cisgender men can still be affected by breast cancer. Although statistically a cisgender man’s risk of developing breast cancer in his lifetime is about 1 in 1,000 according to the American Cancer Society, that does not disregard the fact that it does happen. 

With many campaigns focusing more on women than anything else, that leaves out people who don’t associate their gender with their one assigned at birth, such as transgender or non-binary people. 

Not all women have vaginas, nor do all women have prominent breasts or actually identify as women who have breasts. Some simply do not have these attributes, but that does not mean they are not sill affected and should not be given the same recognition or quality treatment if they are affected by breast cancer.

To annually devalue an individual’s experience or potential experience with a deadly disease is dehumanizing. To equate womanhood and gender with a secondary sexual characteristic such as breasts is close-minded, inconsiderate and cissexist. To misrepresent and marginalize a group of people who are still affected by a deadly disease is inhumane. To continue to do so when it is known they are commonly less likely to receive quality treatment because of this factor is unsympathetic and borderline sadistic. It’s very important to not only be aware of breast cancer, but also be aware of how you and others support its awareness. This October, continue to support breast cancer, but aim to support it by also educating and sympathizing with the entirety of the disease in mind. Every person affected by breast cancer deserves to be heard and recognized.