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.
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