Tag: for the love of breasts

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Student Life

To donate or not to donate?

The little black dress, animal print, black pumps; there are some things that simply never go out of style. However there is a new trend the fashion industry has embraced, one that is not necessarily sartorially related.

Throughout the month of October some major industries, be they fashion, sports or automobile, take on the role of leading breast cancer awareness campaigns. Anything that can be made pink or have a pink ribbon printed attached is manufactured and sent out with the company’s logo plastered on it.

“Often these types of campaigns start off with the truest intentions of simply raising awareness and raising money for the cause,” said George Dassios, marketing faculty member and part-time professor at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business. “Eventually, as the momentum builds, it becomes one of those events where, as a corporation, you have the social and moral obligation to jump on board.”

When a company is highly influential it seems only natural that they would pursue these causes.

“Certainly, if you are a big organization that is in the spotlight and is part of a community, you have a social obligation to be active in one form or another through funding or sponsoring events or creating events that would, in one way or another, make that community better,” said Dassios.

Buying a shirt from Ralph Lauren’s Pink Pony campaign or that pretty bracelet from Michael Kors may make you feel like you’re doing something good, but it’s important to remain wary of where exactly your money is going once you pay.

“There’s always going to be an element or portion of the proceeds that will go to cover cost and some of the costs include [things not directly related to the cause],” explained Dassios. “To isolate it just in terms of the corporate community would be ignoring what goes on in every other organization.”

And while it is difficult to find a company which donates all of its proceeds to the fund being advertised, it is more important to watch out for organizations who are notorious for making money under the guise of fundraising.

According to “Think Before You Pink,” a Breast Cancer Action project, it was in 2010 that Dansko, a shoe company, was selling clogs with pink ribbons on them, in an effort to raise money for the Susan G. Komen foundation. However, it was discovered that Dansko was planning to donate $25,000 regardless of how much money was raised through clog sales, rather than give a portion of the purchases made.

These harsh realities should not dissuade you from donating money; they should inform us that there are scams out there and it is important to ask where your money is going if you do decide to donate or buy items for breast cancer awareness or research. The only sure fire way to make sure your money is going to help those with breast cancer is to donate directly to hospitals or research societies.

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Student Life

For The Love of Breasts #2 – Is the pink ribbon discriminatory?

Graphic by Jennifer Kwan

We have all come to know and love the famous pink ribbon. When October rolls around, we see it plastered everywhere and the city becomes tinted with the ‘more feminine’ shade. Although the ribbon and its colour seek to represent the majority of those affected by breast cancer, there is still a demographic few know can also be diagnosed with the disease: men.

“The way our society is today with the media always associating breast cancer with women, like using women in awareness campaigns, the pink ribbon, ‘I love boobies’ bracelets, it makes it seem that it is a cancer that can only be found in women,” said Robert-Jun Corpus, a second-year accounting major at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia.

“It’s rare,” explained Sonia Nanda, a certified genetic counsellor at the Familial Breast Cancer Research Unit at the Women’s College Research Institute in Toronto, Ontario. “But it does happen […] because men do have breast tissue.”

The reason why women are more susceptible to it than men is still unclear but Nanda was able to provide some insight.

“It might be hormones, a lot of cancers are hormone dependent as well,” she said. “Women produce a lot more hormones and then there are a lot of other things: we have children, men don’t, we menstruate, men don’t, so there’s a whole bunch of factors.”

In 2012, according to a statistic put out by the Canadian Cancer Society, “an estimated 200 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 55 will die of it.”

And while survival rates for both genders are close, men often do not pick up on the signs and end up being diagnosed too late. Though women know performing breast exams on themselves and having mammograms is essential for their bodies, how many times have you heard a man telling his friends he’s due for a breast checkup?

Compared to the number of women afflicted by the illness – 22,700 Canadian women in 2012 – it is not hard to see why breast cancer in men is put on the backburner. However, this is no excuse.

“Right now, there is almost nothing pointing towards men being able to be diagnosed with this disease, but a little awareness would promote support from both sexes,” suggested Corpus.

In an effort to raise awareness for men battling this type of cancer, Marvel Comics has teamed up with Susan G. Komen for the Cure in printing eight pink-coloured limited editions of their most popular comics in order to shed some light on the topic of breast cancer in men. This is a great initiative seeing as comics might appeal to men than a pink ribbon.

While colourful awareness causes may seem like the right thing to do, considering the general population is left uninformed about breast cancer and its effects on men, it seems the money is being used to spread a message we are already very familiar with. At the end of the day, cancer doesn’t discriminate and neither should these campaigns.

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Student Life

Beauty and the bra: The facts and falsities of wearing a bra to bed

She kicks off her shoes and drops her bag on the floor. She pauses and takes in the silence. After a long day of classes – or work, perhaps – being home, she releases the weight off her shoulders, however, not entirely. She makes her way to her bedroom where she throws her pants and shirt onto the chair in the corner of the room.

She looks at herself in the mirror. Her hands reach behind her back where she undoes the clasp of her bra. She exhales a sigh of relief.

Taking your bra off at the end of the day may not be as dramatic as described above, but you have to admit it feels damn good. While some choose to free themselves, so to speak, others opt for a full-time commitment to their bras. Most notably, sleeping while wearing a bra has sparked debates, rumours, and falsities about its repercussions.

In 1995 Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, the authors of Dressed to Kill, proposed a link between bras and breast cancer. They claimed that underwire bras constricted the lymphatic systems causing the accumulation of your body’s toxins in breast tissue.This simply is untrue.

“It’s a mutation in particular genes that can cause a woman to develop breast cancer,” explains Sonia Nanda, a certified genetic counsellor at the Familial Breast Cancer Research Unit at the Women’s College Research Institute in Toronto, Ontario. “You’re born with the mutation.”

However, that is not to say this is the only way breast cancer can occur.

“The majority of cancer is not due to genetics, they’re due to other factors,” says Nanda.

However, there has been no scientific proof either way regarding breast health and wearing a bra while you sleep.

“We know there are things that you can do to try and lower your overall cancer risk but has anything been definitively proven? I don’t really think so,” reiterates Nanda. “All physicians or all healthcare professionals in the field will say the typical things – don’t smoke, exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, [and] everything in moderation.”

On the other, less deadly, hand, the ‘bra while you sleep’ theory has brought about the idea that it will improve your breasts’ appearance and prevent the irritating effects of gravity. Unfortunately, this is also false. It is none other than your microscopic ligaments that keep your breasts in place; ligaments that unfortunately stretch and weaken with age. However, working on your pectorals is a good way to strengthen the muscles in your chest, giving the appearance of a firmer and tighter, thus perkier, bust.

In the end, sleeping with a bra on is all about preference. If it is something you have always done or are accustomed to, you have no reason to stop. For those who forego wearing a bra overnight, you should not stop either. Living an unhealthy lifestyle or being born with a mutation, as Nanda mentions, may result in breast cancer. And as for the shape of your breasts, they cannot be permanently altered by wearing an item of clothing. If this was the case, Victoria’s Secret would be out of business.

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