Race For The Cure Symbols

“Race for the Cure” is considered to be the most known and largest breast cancer organization in the United States. When visiting the “Race for the Cure” website, you will notice the pink ribbon. The pictures that are located in the websites shows numerous volunteers wearing pink accessories. The reason for this is that the color pink is considered the color for breast cancer awareness. The Susan G. Komen Foundation handed out pink ribbons to participants and since then, the pink ribbon has been associated with breast cancer. For these reasons, events like “Race for the Run” do contribute to symbolic healing by being associated with the pink ribbon. Just like the yellow ribbon supports our troops, red ribbon supports people who are battling AIDS, the pink ribbon supports breast cancer

individuals who are either fighting breast cancer or for the people who have lost their lives to it.

Just like shamans and clown doctors attempt to alleviate their patients' distress with weird costumes and music, “ Race for the Cure” uses the color pink and the pink ribbon to help alleviate people battling breast cancer. Pink is consider the color for compassion, hope and love. When you see the color pink, it calms you down and it inspires a positive outcome. Even though many individuals are against the pink ribbon, others see the pink ribbon as a sign of hope. Just like the shamans and clown doctors use symbols to make their patients feel better, “ Race for the Cure” uses the color pink to make breast cancer patients and survivors feel better.

In a reading by Sontag, called “ Illness as a Metaphor”, Sontag discusses her disapproval of the use of metaphors to discuss a disease. She believed that “the most truthful way of regarding illness —and the healthiest way of being ill—is one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking” (Sontag, pg.1). Sontag argues that the use of metaphors surrounding certain illness, like cancer, are judging the patients, making them suffer from negative stereotypes associated with these kinds of diseases.

For these reason, “ Race for the Run” does contribute undesirable metaphors around breast cancer. When someone finds out they have cancer, the first thing they think about is death. Cancer is seen as a death sentence since there is no cure for it. It is because of this that metaphors like “Race for the Cure” and “The fight against cancer” were created. However, these metaphors don’t really help out cancer patients. For example, when a patient hears the metaphor “The fight against Cancer”, he might think of his body as a war zone. The patients might see himself as a soldier that needs to fight cancer for the rest of his life. The same thing with “ Race for the Cure”. Are patients going to find a cure for cancer if they participate in racing? The answer to this is no. Participants that participate in these walks fundraise money that goes to finding a cure to cancer. Participants are hoping that by walking and buying supplies with the breast cancer logo on it, it might help find the cure to cancer. Once cancer is well understood and treatment for it is discovered, the use of metaphors for cancer will not be needed. However, until that discovery, the use of metaphors around breast cancer should stop. It is tough not using metaphors because some individuals find strength and solace in them, yet other do not. Throughout the years, the view of cancer has not change much. Many individuals like the ways campaigns or club come up with metaphors that make cancer seem not so bad. Others like to think of cancer as a disease that has no cure.