Tag Archives: breast cancer awareness

#HoldACokeWithYourBoobsChallenge

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I’ll begin this post with two links. One, there’s a ‘social media campaign’ going in which ladies are invited to hold a bottle of coke, in whatever ‘imaginative’ ways they can, between their boobs. And two, criticism of the same campaign.

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As is often the case, social media appears to be the natural home for anything moronic, a place that I hope history will record as a brief phenomenon belonging to the narcissistic and shallow.

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‘Cock in a sock’, ‘no make up’ and maybe the most idiotic of all, the ‘Ice Bucket challenge’, the latter even tipping over into SL, and which we blogged about previously, these are things people indulge in.

Yes, I’ve heard the arguments that some were ‘in a good cause’, but eventually the money or awareness raising elements of them were bypassed for no other reason than people wanted to act like ‘good sports’ or ‘idiots’ on their chosen social media.

The instigator of the hashtag  is quoted as saying “We never thought it would take off like it did. But it did. And then people started posting it was for charity and it was for breast cancer awareness. We had never plan [sic] on that nor thought of it. But since that’s what people want to do it for, we said why not do something good with this. So we went with it. They can ether [sic] do the challenge, donate to their favorite charity, or both. It’s up to them. Let’s face some real facts. Not every woman does their exams or goes and gets a mammogram. Several people are on the mind set it will never happen to me, I’m to [sic] young or old for it to happen to me, my boobs are too small… and so on and so on…We tell people to get their mammograms and to donate to any breast cancer charity they want too [sic].‘

OK, so it didn’t start as a ‘charity campaign’ but as a bit of fun. Fine. And it seems that those doing it have turned it into a charitable event (maybe). Also fine. The instigators are now, in retrospect, telling people to get checks or donate to charities because a bit of fun has gone viral in a way they never anticipated. Equally fine.

But it doesn’t get away from the fact that it’s certainly exploitative of young women (again!) who may regret their participation in events like these in later life. Or maybe their narcissism and shallowness is such that these sort of things are, sadly, key highlights in their lives.

I expect the first ‘hold a coke with your boobs’ pose to turn up in SL within a week…

 

Ella

edited to add: One Mum with breast cancer goes full on about the meme in the UK’s Daily Mirror newspaper today.

Further edited to add: The bottle cap nipple pasties as displayed in the top photograph are already an SL Marketplace item. This is not a criticism of the designer (and they look to be an item that pre-dates this current internet meme). SL designers and builders merely reflect or, in this instance, pre-empt what RL sometimes does.

There are also Coca Cola cans widely available in SL, and I assume it would be relatively easy to replicate the meme’s style by choosing to attach these to the avatar’s chest or spine rather than attaching them to the hand.

Walk the (Bra) Walk

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We’re keen supporters of breast cancer charities here at SLN, and it’s SL charitable events throughout the year where we’ll dig deepest into our pockets to support these, both financially, and by blogging about the events. No, they’re not naturist events, but it’s important to support awareness about breast cancer, encourage women to check their breasts regularly for any lumps and bumps, and to seek medical advice at the earliest opportunity should such abnormalities make themselves evident.

In different formats, the UK is gearing up for a summer of walks to raise money and awareness for breast cancer charities, with Edinburgh and London already holding them in June & July respectively, and Belfast holding one under the name of the ‘ Moonlight Bra Walk’. Inverness is having one under the name of Bra Nicht (this is a play on words and the Scottish accent: there’s a familiar Scottish saying that runs ‘it’s a braw bricht moonlicht nicht the night’, translatable as ‘it’s a bright moonlit night tonight’ and popularised by music hall entertainer Harry Lauder). There are probably others, but these were the first that turned up in a Google search for info on the walks.

I know that there’s no bra walks going on in SL right now, but Maai have a group gift out that will be totally suitable when breast cancer awareness events commence in SL later in the year.

A substantial amount of pink is in the lingerie set (available for L$0, no group join fee), and I was made aware of it by Malgorzata, an SL friend of maybe 4-5 years standing. When I first started blogging on Emmanuelle’s now defunct blog Malgorzata was the ‘poses, swimwear and lingerie model’ on the blog and old habits die hard 🙂

Still a keen collector of swimwear and lingerie, it’s my old friend (below) who is modelling this Maai group gift. Grab it for your ‘pink ribbon’ events later in the year!

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Ella

 

I love boobies!

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Hooray for the US Supreme Court.

The story is essentially that students were given suspensions from school for wearing ‘I love boobies’ bracelets sold by a US breast cancer charity. The school had determined the bracelets to be ‘lewd’.

So the two students took the school to court, and won their case.

163222-0007In SL many groups, sims and individuals do much for breast cancer awareness, and donate cash from their various campaigns to real life cancer charities. I’ve given freely in the past to these events, paid for pink-hued T shirts and donated, because breast cancer can be a killer. It can also be readily survived with early detection and treatment. The word isn’t ‘lewd’, the cause isn’t ‘lewd’.

Educators have a responsibility to not only teach children the names of American Presidents, English Kings and Queens or whatever. They’ve a responsibility to teach history, English, math(s), science….and the development of a moral compass.

We have to teach our educators that facts and figures isn’t enough, but morality and social responsibility are equally important components of a proper, rounded education too. Young women need to be educated as much to do regular breast checks as they educated in chemistry or geography or art or music.

These girls have given to a charity (the Keep Abreast organisation) to buy the bracelets in the first place, so the charity has benefitted. Each one bought may just be the few cents required to save someone’s life.

Really, what those in charge of education in Pennsylvania need to be doing now is reading that organisation’s web pages, and then tackling the issue in its schools (and elsewhere around the globe). They need to be learning, from their students, that it’s an important issue and young people, male and female, need to be made as much aware of this issue as they do Newton’s Third Law of Motion (‘for every action there is an equal reaction’). Oh, maybe they learned that through the US Supreme Court! Maybe they learned that if they stopped burying their heads in the sand, stopped focusing on the apparently ‘lewd’ nature of a word, and got stuck in to saving women’s (and men’s, too) lives in Pennsylvania, the formal education they handed out to some women might just turn out to be a full life, rather than a life cut short by ignorance.

Ella.