Pink thoughts

It’s October, and while most red blooded males would automatically think: “beer!” when confronted with the approach of the month (and natch, the Oktoberfest celebration that’s been relentlessly promoted by our breweries) it’s different for those of the opposite sex. For the fairer gender, October comes with it a flurry of activities devoted to only one issue: breast cancer.

 Yup, it’s all about breasts this month, and I have, in fact, no less than three must go-to bashes pending in my events section on my Facebook account, all intended to raise awareness (certainly not mine) as well as funds for this, the most common disease to strike women’s mammaries. 

 There are the usual fundraisers and charity auctions, and need I even mention it, the color pink making its vivid presence felt. (I guess this is the best time to plug the art auction I attended in Bacolod, where indefatigable volunteer Virna Ascalon-Tan sold works by her sibling artists, and also bought a Raymond Legaspi rendition of a bald woman swimming in the ocean.) There are fun runs and concerts, and many businesses come out with statements and corporate sponsorships, the big businessmen no doubt egged on by their wives who’ve gone through the ordeal.

 T-shirts, of course, is one of the best ways to make money as well as raise awareness, but in Arizona, that approach didn’t sit well with a conservative high school principal. Some students who were also cheerleaders in Gilbert High School had purchased pink t-shirts which proclaimed “Feel for lumps, save your bumps!” The girls had been planning to don these catchy tees during a football game, and then use the resulting attention to collect donations from the hopefully admiring crowd. But that plan, or rather, the slogan they sported, didn’t sit too well with their principal, and so the t-shirts had been banned.

 Over here, the few women I know who have bravely faced cancer and survived call each other “breast friends.” I used to cringe every time I heard that phrase, my strict Catholic upbringing reacting violently to reference to those fleshy body parts. But these women were mothers and had discussed their breasts with total strangers like doctors and each other, and for them, calling attention to each other’s breasts was of absolutely zero significance. And of course, how could they discuss breast cancer without involving breasts, right? (Which is exactly what one Gilbert High cheerleader had to say about the issue when critiquing her prudish principal.) So now breasts don’t affect me too much. 

 That’s the power of t-shirts, they can make people feel and act and react. In another conservative part of the US, a high school principal had physically attacked a student for wearing a t-shirt suggesting a gay club or organization in the school. I believe the slogan was something like “GSA, We’ve Got Your Back.” (GSA means gay-straight alliance).

 The student, Chris Stigler, had been warned by Principal Maurice Moser of Sequoyah High School in Madisonville Tennessee (oh what the heck, let’s name the bastard and give his full details) that his t-shirt wasn’t welcome, but the student had defied him. Ergo, the violence on the 17-year old, where he was verbally abused and his chest bumped. Naturally, the American Civil Liberties Union has raised a ruckus over this incident, and we now await what happens to Principal Moser. 

 Meanwhile, we are here in Cebu, where we see the Provincial Capitol and the Fuente Osmena landmarks bathed in pink lights, courtesy of organizer and tireless crusader Mary Ann Alcordo-Solomon. (Maybe next time the Governor will let rainbow lights play upon the Capitol’s façade?) It’s Think Pink month, not a hard thing for me to do, as I so love seeing men in pink anyhow, and so these thoughts are very welcome. 

But we do have to give credit where it is due, and all I can say is, hats off to Mary Anne, who has worked not just for breast cancer patients but also for children fighting other kinds of the dreaded C word. Without her, October in Cebu would probably be dull and gray - hardly pink.