Goodies // Random Awesomeness I Encounter

Randall Munroe, creator of the webcomic xkcd, criticized the campaign in a post on Google+^[6] on September 11th, 2011.

The frustrating thing about the “Save the Boobies” campaign and similar things (like the “Booberday” meme going around G+) is that they get it exactly backward. Often, the point of breast cancer treatment is to destroy some or all of the boobies in order to save the woman.

Saying that we should work to cure this disease because it threatens breasts is really upsetting. For starters, it suggests that women are worth saving because they’re attached to breasts, rather than the other way around. But worse, it tells any woman who’s had a mastectomy to try to save her life that she’s lost the thing that made people care about her survival. What a punch in the stomach.

On September 13th, 2011, Jezebel^[3] published an article about the controversy surrounding the fad, and cited the Scoble post as one of the first instances to inspire a backlash. The article referenced the bra status updates fad as another breast cancer related social networking meme:

As we’ve learned from previous social networking memes, mentioning breast cancer means you can post all the silly and smutty content you want and pretend you’re just a sensitive guy who’s concerned about ladies’ health.