Yesterday, one of my daughter’s friends posted: ‘8 inches. 25 minutes:)’ on her Facebook status. The boys in her class kept commenting and trying to figure out what it meant and with every comment, the girl just slyly said, “Nope, that’s not it:)”. I mentioned it to my daughter and said it was a raunchy thing for a 13 year old to post on Facebook. “You just don’t like her,” she said. “I did it, too. It’s for breast cancer awareness.”
HUH!!!
“The breast cancer people tell you what to post,” she added.
“That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard,” I retorted back. “How does that make you aware about breast cancer?”
“You Google it to try to find out what it means and then you find out it’s about breast cancer,” she said as if that made any sense.
“Why not make your page pink? How about posting the words “Breast Cancer Awareness” on your profile?”
“I guess,” came the obligatory teenage response. “Why do you care so much?”
” I FREAKING CARE BECAUSE IT IS DUMB!” The conversation quickly went downhill from here. I tried to find out who “patient zero” was, the first person to suggest the post, but I couldn’t find anything and it did not come from “the breast cancer people.” What I did find were angry blog posts and comments from women about the absurdity of using this kind of viral tactic to bring awareness to breast cancer.
I did find this one thing of interest from our GIRLFRIENDS over the ocean:
“A spokeswoman for the Irish Cancer Society says the messages are unrelated to the ICS, Breast Cancer Awareness month or the Pink Ribbon Appeal.
“I can assure you that these emails do not come from the Irish Cancer Society and almost certainly do not originate with any cancer charity. This is simply a chain email, probably started by someone as a misguided game, which takes advantage of genuine cancer charity supporters to carry on the chain.”
So there you are so now – STOP IT! Not only is it demeaning to whoever posts it, it degrades the brutality of the disease and turns it into a viral joke that gives girls power (I guess) because boys are paying attention.
