Nowadays, breast cancer has been defined as a common disease in the US. “About 1 in 8 American women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime”(Breast Cancer Org., 2019). In this week’s material, it talked about the mainstream breast cancer culture and it also discussed about the blind spot of breast cancer research so far. There are a lot of research, data analysis and theory have been explored by many professionals through the years. The risk factors of breast cancer should be found and it helps people about prevention and interference. The good thing is the development of people’s awareness and cognition largely educated and some parts of prevention of breast cancer in public health also proved its effective. 

In 1999, the central focus of breast cancer research is about “biomonitoring” and originally earmarked 15 million dollars for a study that explored environmental factors in regions with high breast cancer was removed to other projects. The one thing that surprised me is the mainstream breast cancer culture did not focused the blind spot of risk factors of breast cancer. Most of breast cancer research and funds spend limited money on understanding the relationship between environmental toxins and the development of cancer(Lay, 2009). As a college student, most of my knowledge and awareness about breast cancer came from the media, books, and discussions with people around me. When we pictured breast cancer, most people viewed it as a pink ribbon. In Lay’s article(Lay, 2009), she also mentioned that 99% of breast cancer cases happened in women and it has been treated as a feminist terms for a long time. The positive effects is that “pink ribbon” movement build up the foundation of mainstream breast cancer and the spreading of “pink ribbon” has been seen as a meaningful image for the public. Just like I said in the beginning, many people, including me, educated and build awareness about breast cancer. However, the weakness of “mainstream breast cancer” is about the hindered blind spot of breast cancer research and it may obstruct people to fight blindfolded. Lay(Lay, 2009) only emphasized environmental toxins as a risk factor is not fairly attach importance compared to genetic factors. I believe there are more risk factors waited for exploration and need more funding support from breast cancer organizations.

The negative influences about mainstream breast cancer also included opaqueness of people’s funds. When people give their money to a breast cancer organization, contributors don’t know where their money went and there are people with impure mind about this large amounts of money and swindle money for their own purpose. 

I also found the attention about breast cancer cases for men is also missed in mainstream breast cancer culture. The related research and study also is rare compared to women. Media and policy has received little attention from men in the first place, fixed thinking lead to psychological stress and public argument among male patients.

Overall, I think the main question is how people should open mind about breast cancer cases in general. People should be aware about the blind spot that be ignored by mainstream breast cancer culture.

Work cited:

Breast Cancer Org.(2019). US. Breast cancer statistics. Breast cancer organization.Retrieved from https://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics

Ley, B. (2009). Chapter 5:  The Cultural Politics of Sisterhood. In From Pink to Green.