Remember what you're racing for

I love that our town hosts the Nashville-area Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K.
The survivors and supporters who show up to walk, run and raise money for cancer research are truly uplifting.
I do not love the way segments of the breast cancer campaign have turned the focus from the person to the body part.
Nowadays bumper stickers and T-shirts urge us to “Save the Ta-tas.” Well-intentioned supporters hold up signs or wear rubber bracelets that say, “I heart boobs.” Even though the Komen website does not sell such items, across the U.S. Komen 5K races are full of race teams with sassy names like The Tough Titties and Save 2nd Base.
But I think “the movement” has reached a sophomoric point where it’s achieving awareness while losing the meaning in the message.
Take the T-shirt that urges women to “Feel Your Boobies.” With a wink, it promotes early detection of tumors through self-exams.
And we all know that “Feel Your Boobies” gets attention through titillation. After all, boobies are way more fun to think about than self-exams.
See, it’s co-opting a word that once was naughty. Tee-hee!! Boobies! That’s right, I said, “boobies!”
Focusing on the body part rather than the disease trivializes the woman attached to it. If women spent the last half of the last century convincing men to look in our eyes when they talk to us, why step backwards into meaningless stunts like posting our bra colors on Facebook?
I always wonder how the survivors who’ve had mastectomies feel about the focus on ta-tas. For those who had preventive mastectomies, the choice between “saving their titties” and saving their lives was not really a choice at all.
What about the nearly 400 men who will die from breast cancer this year? They probably appreciate “racing for the cure” more than “jogging for jugs.”
Sure, there are only so many ways fundraisers can use a pink ribbon. Still, the “Save the Ta-tas” group is not a charity but a business that has raised a little more than $500,000 for research since 2004.
I understand that this kind of campaign also brings a little humor to a very serious situation. Some people think any attention, even attention brought on by controversy, is welcome if it brings donations.
This method hasn’t caught on with the other cancer support groups, though. Nobody “hearts” ovaries, the cervix or colons because, well, they aren’t as provocative as breasts.
I can’t imagine the day when guys will run through Maryland Farms wearing scrotum-shaped hats. Perhaps the testicular cancer organizations might get more money for research if they print T-shirts that say “I Heart Balls.”
The Komen foundation does raise millions of dollars for cancer research; it’s also very good at marketing. From grocery products in pink packaging to football players donning the most feminine of colors during October, there’s no doubt that we are aware of breast cancer. And awareness is one of the movement’s most prevalent catchphrases.
But its real goal is to save lives, not boobs.
I’m afraid that goal is in danger of getting run over by the boobie bandwagon.