Wednesday, October 6, 2010

"I like it on the..."

If you're as much of a facebook stalker as I am (and you're probably not if you're a healthy individual), you may have noticed women posting provocative statuses- "I like it on the floor"..."I like it on my kitchen table"..."I like it right on my bed"... etc. during the past few days. No, these aren't the locations where women like to have sex, it's an answer to the question "Where do you like to put your purse?"

I didn't know what was up with these statuses, so I googled the phrase "I like it on the facebook statuses" and quickly learned that these statuses were meant to garner attention because October is breast cancer awareness month. Sounds good in theory, breast cancer awareness is important. Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer in women (right after skin cancer) and 192,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. (2,000 men are diagnosed each year with breast cancer as well.) It's certainly important to get the word out there, but I think some of the statuses that I saw clearly missed the point of the whole exercise.

One girl's post (I think she was an "I like it on the floor" gal) got the attention of one of her male friends, and he asked what was up. She responded by saying something like, " hahaha I can't tell...it's a big world wide secret". I also noticed the status a friend's boyfriend-- "women are stupid". I checked out the thread and he explained that he was annoyed because women were posting these statuses and he had no clue what it was about. A male friend of his commented, "yeah, what is that all about?" and then he responded with something like, "I found out what it was...it was some stupid thing from sisterhood of the traveling pants of the yaya sisterhood or something". 

Hmmm...so clearly some people are missing the mark a little bit. If this is supposed to promote breast cancer awareness, shouldn't someone have clued these guys in? (Yeah, I suppose they could have googled it like I did, but not everyone is as nosy as I am.)

Also, is the best way (only way?) to get attention for a women's cause to sexualize it? Last year those participating posted the colors of their bras. Maybe I'm putting too much faith in humanity, but I think that just as many people would be interested in breast cancer awareness month as would be interested in the color of my bra or where I like to put my purse.

So, I think I've come up with a compromise. T-shirts that read (on front) "Feel your boobs...or someone else's!" (on back) " but make sure you ask first"  Provocative and sexualized enough to get some attention, but direct enough for everyone to know what the hell we're talking about. I mean, it is breast cancer AWARENESS month not Sexualized Cryptic Inside Joke on Facebook Status month. (That's in March.)


Click here
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2

By clicking, sponsors give money for mammograms.

No comments:

Post a Comment