Last Sunday while watching football I was moderately surprised to see the players rocking pink gloves, wristbands and shoes…. but my confusion was quickly assuaged by repeated explanations that the “NFL was proudly supporting Breast Cancer Awareness…”
Being the graduate student that I am, I quickly got lost in thought about the symbolic meaning of football players wearing pink. Football players have been cultural markers of maleness and masculinity for decades now, so the irony of football being juxtaposed against the color pink (a cultural marker for femininity), wasn’t lost on me.
But nevertheless… I quickly started to think about how some diseases are more socially palatable than others…
When I was an undergrad I had a professor who used to say that the reason viagra, birth control and condom’s exist (and not female controlled mechanisms for std protection) is because men are not interested in studying vaginas. To date, we know almost everything there is about male pleasure and the prevention of pregnancy… but virtually nothing about how the vagina works.
I think that the same argument can be used to think about why we have yet to see any real progress on the study of HIV/AIDS. Foundations, Institutes, and Universities/Colleges (as well as national sports organizations) are not interested in studying, supporting or funding work around diseases that disproportionately impact poor/low-income, people of color and LGBT folks. In 2005 white women were diagnosed with breast cancer more frequently than any other group. In 2005, upwards of 18,000 black people were diagnosed with HIV (as opposed to 10,000 white people). To put it another way, 50% of all HIV/AIDS diagnoses were in the black population, despite blacks only taking up 13% of the total American population.
Because of statistics like these, HIV/AIDS (as it has always been), has been maligned as a disease of sexual deviants, poor people and racial outcasts. Even in 2009, despite the fact that we now know that HIV/AIDS is a disease that touches everyone, the stigma continues to prevent the type of necessary outreach we see around breast cancer, epilepsy and heart disease.
While breast cancer has become a couture disease, something that community members can take pride in raising money around. HIV/AIDS continues to be a disease that is only mentioned in fear-filled hushed voices about “getting tested.” While encouraging condom use and STD-testing is important and necessary work, it is nowhere near sufficient. Where are the discussions about living with the disease? Where are the discussions of equitable treatment for those living with the disease? Where are the discussions about raising money for vaccinations, cures and more effective management medications?
Now don’t get me wrong… I am not negating the importance of work around breast cancer (or any other disease)… after all, black women are more likely to die of breast cancer than any other demographic.
What I am saying is, is that we should push back on the intellectual and emotional ease with which we support, throw our money behind, walk/run for, etc… some diseases, and not others…
peace.
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This is my first time reading your blog, and I am definitely subscribing. I totally agree. I wanted to add a couple of unsolicited thoughts… being a marketing and advertising professional, from a social marketing perspective I believe it is easier to form a marketing campaign around breast cancer research, opposed to HIV/AIDs research. If I had to surmise why, it would probably be attributed to the stigma that accompanies HIV/AIDs and the assumptions that arise as to how one might have contracted the disease. Therefore, it becomes challenging to develop a creative fundraising campaign that promotes and encourages research and management, and far easier to talk prevention and launch “RAP it Up” campaigns because it is a preventable disease (even though it directly and indirectly affects innocent people). AND we've managed to identify ways to prevent it. Breast Cancer on the other hand, well, as you know, it doesn't discriminate nor does it respect your lifestyle. It attacks men and women of all races and classes.
The bottom line, marketing is a huge force between all businesses and causes. As cold as it may sound or be…HIV/AIDs research isn't marketable… Prevention and awareness is. Bottom line. You hit the nail.
Blessings,
Eunique