Before today, I had never thought about the possible negative effects of the breast cancer movement. Reading through Ley’s article, I can see where a lot of these issues may come into play. One that really struck my attention was the point of calling those who had breast cancer but entered remission “survivors.” I see the positives and negatives to this. It empowers the woman who made it through the terrible disease, but it also gives the impression that breast cancer and the treatment of it is a race that you have to run. That surviving or not is up to the patient. It diminishes the death of those who didn’t make it, almost making their deaths sound like they simply did not run the race hard enough.

Also, looking at how breast cancer research is often focused on how to better treat it and how to detect it as early as possible instead of how it is caused. Yes, it can be caused by heritability but there is suspicion it is also caused by different environmental factors. Ley discusses how different groups promote breast cancer awareness and funding for research and, only recently, have started bringing attention to the environmental breast cancer problem.

Ley attended and race in Washington D.C. where she saw what she expected to see. There was a lot of advertisement for detection and treatment and research for a cure. There was not a single thing about prevention. At the beginning of the article, Ley called breast cancer a major health issue in America. And she is right. Major health issues are usually caused by something. It is interesting that it has always existed, but is growing in the number of people, specifically women, it impacts. It does not seem to be on many peoples’ minds what could be causing it. Instead of looking for a cure all the time, do not get me wrong that is still important, but we should also be looking on how to prevent it. I am not saying that breast cancer patients are at fault, that is not at all what I am saying. I am saying that there are unknown causes that are causing the surge. There may be things in our environment that are directly causing breast cancer or are making us more susceptible to getting it.