Because When I Think Par Three, I Think "Healthy Boobs!"
I needed to buy golf balls yesterday. The guy at the shop pulled a box off the shelf and asked, "Is pink alright?" In a hurry, I just glanced at the box and saw it was indeed pink. But I said "sure," because it doesn't really matter what color the box is. Then I got them home and realized that the balls themselves are pink. Great. Someone's getting snickered at at the driving range this weekend. Turns out a portion of the sale goes to breast cancer research. I of course support the cause, as I have two very interested parties attached to my upper torso, but I still think it's kind of funny when the purchase of things like a golf ball, a kitchen mixer, and a cocktail shaker raise money for scientific research. By the way October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So do your part and go buy an $8 cookie.
posted by Brunch Bird at Tuesday, October 03, 2006
4 Comments:
I'm just glad they aren't selling blue balls.
...they aren't, are they?
Sounds like someone would make an excellent fundraiser for testicular cancer awareness...
Have you read Barbara Ehrenreich's "Welcome to Cancerland"? It's got some pretty good stuff about the whole culture of Pink for those with breast cancer. Also another fave blogger, Twisty Faster, has some tart comments on the same subject: http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com
Haven't read that BE book, but I love her other reporting. And Twisty's blog post on this is fascinating (hadn't heard of her before so I just went and found it.) I'm always hesitant to slag a company for donating only a certain percentage of their profits for a cause, because hey, it's better than nothing. But it does seem that this is in danger of becoming about moving product through exploitation of a disease, not scientific advancement. Although I suppose corporations do have a keen interest in their customers not dying.
A former editor of mine had a little girl with cystic fibrosis. It used to drive him crazy that there were these mammoth groups like Susan G. Komen and American Heart Association that, he said, were like vacuums for charitable giving, at the expense of other groups with less "marketable" diseases to try to fight.
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