3 Inches :( Preventing Breast Cancer One Sexual Innuendo At A Time

As the entire medical community keeps going back and forth on their guidelines for mammograms, the social media inclined are starting up a new viral meme to remind us in an extremely far fetched way that breast cancer is dangerous. Last time, women were asked to naughtily write where they liked to keep their handbags in their Facebook status. Those who were intrigued by the succession of “I like it on the floor” variations in their newsfeed would then ask what it meant and the women would answer “Breast Cancer Awareness!”

In this latest version, you need to write your shoe size followed by the word “inches” and then a sad face emoticon to get something like this: “5 inches : (“. To the unaware, you might come off as a snarky bitch publicly complaining about your new boyfriend’s penis size but you will know that you’re actually doing it for the noble cause of preventing breast cancer.

The only thing these viral messages do is maybe give a few people some laughs and remind people that breast cancer exists. But they direct you nowhere to tell you how to prevent it, how you could donate to help those who need treatment or how you could do a self-exam to see if you have any abnormal lumps in your breasts you should get checked up.

They use the novelty of individual women seeming to be openly sexual supposedly to get the men hooked and possibly joining the cause when a much simpler fact could probably garner their support much more effectively: they can get it too. It’s rare, but it happens.

Breast cancer may be better treated now than ever but it’s still a deadly disease. While it’s not necessarily useful to systematically threaten people with death in awareness campaigns, the subject deserves more attention than can fit in a status update.

Contact the author here: sedera@morningquickie.com