A view on the Social Aspect of Breast Cancer Awareness
Though I am not a medical person to throw any light on the
physical and mental aspects of breast cancer, I'd certainly like to see what
Breast cancer awareness means under our social lens. With the National Breast
Cancer Awareness Month arriving in October, I thought of sharing a few thoughts
with you here.
Breast cancer has impacted the lives of millions of women as
well as their families, friends and societies since past many years. According
to a the earliest most statistics that I found about the illness - more than
175,000 women were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the year - 1999,
and around 44,000 died of the disease. These statistics were quite stupefying
and since then every year have drawn a great deal of attention towards the
illness.
The painful physical and mental experience of the patients
who go through the treatments has lead the disease to take a very significant
social meaning.
Generally, when it comes to dealing with a woman suffering
from breast cancer, the first thing that comes to people's mind is examining
the patient's experience of illness. A breast malignancy may lead to the
removal of a woman's breast or a part of it, resulting in the loss of a body
part that has been affected by disease. However, this loss usually involves
much more than just the loss of a physical body part.
Right from the early growing years, a girl learns to
identify with what it means to be a female, and innumerable messages from the
society, parents and everyone around her suggest, how she should view herself.
She starts seeing herself from the eyes of the society and expects herself to
be what a woman should be - physically attractive, sexually inviting and
maternal. Female breasts play the most important role in determining these
expectations more than any other body part.
So, getting cured at a loss of this essential part often
leads to a feeling of loss of identity and self worth which can make a huge
impact in her relationships with near and dear ones and her future life.
Because of the most basic and profound impact of this
illness and the mass number of people getting effected in all the aspects,
there has been a mass awareness about this illness, diagnosis and cure, since
past couple of years.
The month of October is considered as the Breast cancer awareness month every year.
Many corporations also fund to the research work and charity
for the same. Various mass events like walks and fund raising shows get
organized in major cities of the world, where people showcase their support and
help spreading mass awareness by participating in them and wearing breast cancer tshirts with creative slogans written
on them. The breast cancer foundation has been doing a stupendous job in raising the awareness and helping the affected ones in their treatments.
A pink ribbon is considered to be a symbol of breast
cancer awareness. It can be worn to honor those who have been diagnosed with
breast cancer, or to identify products that the manufacturer would like to sell
to consumers that are interested in breast cancer.