Pinkwashing Turns on Itself with Breast Cancer Awareness Gun [1]
Submitted by Anne Landman [2] on
October was Breast Cancer Awareness month, and the group Breast Cancer Action [3] seized on the opportunity to promote its Think Before you Pink [4] campaign to raise awareness of how companies are increasingly exploiting breast cancer as a marketing device to sell products -- some of which are actually harmful to women's health. Pink ribbon campaigns are offering up some bizarre, albeit benign products like a breast cancer awareness toaster [5] and a breast cancer awareness floating Beer Pong table [6]. But the most bizarre item yet to have a pink ribbon slapped on it must be Smith & Wesson's Pink Breast Cancer Awareness 9 mm Pistol [7], promoted by a woman named Julie Goloski [7], Smith and Wesson's Consumer Program Manager and a sharpshooter herself. Goloski is promoting S&W's breast cancer awareness pistol on her Facebook page [8], saying "October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness M&P’s are shipping to dealers. I am thrilled to have my name associated with such a worthy cause and one of my favorite firearms." According to a 2008 report [9] from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control [10], firearms are the second most common cause of violent deaths of women, accounting for 29.2% of all violent deaths among females in the U.S. in 2008.