Updated April 28, 2015.

Pink ribbons are worn in many ways to promote breast cancer awareness. Every October, you'll see pink ribbons on everything from gym equipment and jewelry to pillows and potato chips. You may even get a case of Pink Fatigue! Even though pink ribbons are meant to celebrate breast cancer survivors and raise awareness and funds to find the cure, many people dread the annual arrival of Pink Ribbon October.

Let's cut through all this Pink Ribbonalia and see what's behind it.

Pink Symbolism

Pink communicates youth, peace, femininity, purity, love, a sense of calm, and health. Think of the phrase "in the pink" which describes good health, or "the very pink of perfection" as it refers to a person being the embodiment of some good quality. Yet, pink has a darker side. In the Nazi regime, homosexual men were required to wear a pink triangle for identification, but it has since been adopted as a symbol of Gay Rights. The term "pinko" was first used in 1936 to label those with leftist or mildly communist (red) political opinions. On a lighter note, a "pink elephant" is an item that nobody wants, but all are eager to give away! And finally, pink has become the international color for breast cancer, a disease that affects women as well as men.

Triumph Of Pink Ribbons

The original pink ribbon was a one-woman grass-roots political effort to alert the government to spend more on breast cancer prevention.

Later that year, the pink ribbon was picked up by the Estée Lauder Company and given out at makeup counters nationwide. That was in 1992, and now we have pink ribbons everywhere, raising funds that benefit both non-profit organizations and for-profit businesses. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, author Barbara Ehrenreich felt bombarded with pink ribbon culture, calling it, "a new American religion just for women, replete with traditionally feminine symbolism, ritual and doctrine." The pink ribbon has become a marketing triumph, instantly recognizable and identifiable with breast cancer.

Pink Ribbon Medicine

Cancer treatment is big business. The National Cancer Institute reports that we spent more on female breast cancer - $13.886 billion in 2006 - than on any other form of cancer. Since 1974, our 5-year survival rates have risen, along with new cases of breast cancer. We have National Breast Cancer Awareness Month courtesy of AstraZeneca, a global pharmaceutical company that gives us Tamoxifen and Arimidex, to name a few. In her well-researched book, "Pink Ribbon Blues" Gayle Sulik writes about the relationship between patients' needs and giant oncology companies. Sulik says that there are "financial incentives that keep the war on breast cancer profitable." If the war ends and the enemy is vanquished and banished into oblivion, the profits of that war end, too.

Pinktopia Evokes Mixed Emotions

My first encounter with pink came with my first mammogram. My 38-year old breasts were smashed between plastic paddles, zapped and then the technician handed me a dripping long-stemmed pink carnation and wished me a nice day. Even though I like getting flowers, I didn't really want that one. Eight years later, when a mammogram confirmed a suspicious breast lump, I was given all kinds of pink items. I kept some of the pink gifts and passed along some of the others to new survivors. While pink isn't my favorite color, I'm not averse to it either, unless it appears plastered all over products that seem trite or that may cause cancer. Readers of this site have said that they "hated getting pink stuff," "resent all the pink products," and very clearly "hate the color pink" because it reminds them of breast cancer. Other readers say that "pink is a great color," but be sure that your purchases rake in a high percentage of real donations, and that "pink ribbons remind us of early detection."

Share Your Pink Thoughts

Since we still don't have cures - and still don't know the causes of breast cancer - we may be stuck with the pink ribbon for some time yet. The National Breast Cancer Coalition wants to set a deadline of January 1, 2020 to end breast cancer. Even though it would put me out of a job - that sounds good to me! I'd like to know what you think about all this pinkness. What does pink mean to you?

<sub>Sources:

Costs of Cancer Care - Cancer Trends Progress Report - 2009/2010 Update, National Cancer Institute, NIH, DHHS, Bethesda, MD, April 2010. http://progressreport.cancer.gov</sub>