So, today on facebook.com, women were encouraged to post the color of their bras. This in and of itself wasn’t remarkable, but you could see the pattern. One woman would post a color. Inevitably, there’d be a comment stating “Huh?”. This would be followed by a rejoinder from the poster about how it was for “breast cancer awareness”. This would be followed by either, “oh.” or the other personal putting their color in the comment.
Sadly, I have not learned one new thing about breast cancer today. I have learned that my female friends who are on facebook have a wonderfully vibrant spectrum of undergarments. Yea, verily, it has been a rehash of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, except in text form. But, it still doesn’t address the core issue that Linus so wisely put to Charlie Brown: “What Have We Learned?”
Well, for one thing, internet memes will spread like crazy given the oddity of the request. For another, I still don’t know any more about breast cancer. It doesn’t just affect women, I know, but what is the likelihood one of my friends will catch it? Is it hereditary? Is there anyone describing the self-check steps for women? What can I, as a guy, do in this?
The Komen organizations of the world do a great job publishing and pushing their message about breast cancer, but I don’t know if they’d call this a success in terms of getting the message across.
The other thing that worries me is that this will inspire stupid analogous efforts. “Post the color of your feces to support prostate cancer awareness.” EWWWWW. “Post the color of your underwear to support jock itch awareness.” SQUICK. “Post the color of your kneepads to support awareness of ACL tears.” In all of these cases, has the post done ANYTHING except reveal a bit too much information?
Now that we’ve opened that door, who knows what’s next? It’s not your outfit nor your “equipment”. It’s what you know. And that’s what matters most of all.