It's October first.

It's breast cancer awareness month; a month when companies show their heart and donate some of the profits of their newly pretty-in-pink items to some sort of breast cancer related organization or another.

Hairsprays, cosmetics, batteries, candies, sneakers, athletic wear, jewelry, phone cases, toys and more are all suddenly rosy or branded with a pink ribbon. If it can be made, it can be made with pink. Billions of dollars in sales during the month of October drive billions of dollars in donations by these companies each year.

Except they don't. You're being lied to.

Pink-Washing is a unique and particularly scumbaggish sales tactic that companies use to convince you to buy more and pay more for it. These corporations know that breast cancer touches the lives of a huge portion of their consumers. When a person is diagnosed with breast cancer, the disease doesn't affect just them.

*Note, I said person since I feel it's important to acknowledge that women are not the only ones who can have breast cancer. If there is breast tissue, there can be cancer so anyone of any sex or gender expression can get it.

Anyway, this group-affect is true for all cancers, but breast cancer is unique in that it's the kind of cancer that seems to have the best P.R. department. Have you ever wondered why that is?

It's certainly not because it's any more horrific than other kinds of cancers. The mortality rate for breast cancer is low as compared to some other kinds. All cancers are horrible and all people with cancer and their caretakers deserve an outpouring of love and support. So what's with the breast cancer push?

Corporations have figured out that breast cancer tugs at the heartstrings because it commonly strikes the people we see as nurturers. Unfortunately, those corporations are counting on consumers to feel a desire to help when those heartstrings are being plucked.

Breast cancer can, and does, affect fathers, brothers and sons. It can touch our friends, our colleagues, our creative spirits. I can't even say it's a cancer that belongs to all humans because animals get it, too.

Corporations have framed this cancer as a disease of mothers, grandmothers, sisters and daughters. Our society encourages us to see those people as the ones who "care for us" and therefore the ones who most need and deserve our protection.

Those feelings make pink-washing easy and that framing erases and isolates any breast cancer sufferers who doesn't identify as a woman.

So what is pink-washing, exactly? Pink-washing is the flood of pink-packaged products that hit our shelves every October.

The assumption by the consumer is that, by purchasing these items, they are indirectly donating to some breast-cancer related charity or foundation. If you buy the box with the pink ribbon on it, it's OK if it costs 25 cents more than it normally does, because that money is going to be given towards the research or treatment of this disease that so commonly affects our nurturers and caretakers.

Perhaps your friend, neighbor, mother, niece, etc. was recently diagnosed. Of course you'll pay a little bit extra for the product that will help them.

The problem, though, is that these companies are under no obligation to donate a single cent of your purchase to any foundation or group at all.

Many don't.

Even the ones that specify "a percentage of the proceeds of this purchase will go to benefit X foundation for a cure..." don't actually have to donate anything. Once again, many don't.

Look at that wording carefully. The phrase "a portion of the proceeds" means SOME of the PROFITS. That company can very easily then turn around and say:

"It cost us a lot of money to redesign our packaging to be pink. Sorry, but we don't have any profits from this particular purchase to donate. Oh, the profits our accounts clearly show? Those were from another product, we never said we were donating anything from that."

or

"We have a profit on this product of $3000 for the month of October. We're going to donate 8 cents."

They said a portion, never said HOW MUCH of a portion was being donated and so that's perfectly legal.

Before writing this I hopped onto the website of a popular retailer and typed "breast cancer" into the item search bar. I came up with TWENTY FIVE PAGES of results. Each page had 40 items.

That's about a thousand products (I didn't check page 25 to see how many things there were there) that this one retailer has for sale that are directly related to breast cancer. There were pink ribbons all over everything.

I checked each item on pages 1-8 and did not find a single mention of any donations being made with the sale of any of these products.

Four years ago I had the pleasure of working with a chemist who taught me a lot about the science behind health and beauty products. One of the most valuable lessons he taught me was to carefully read labels and to understand that the beauty industry is built on a foundation of first creating a problem and then selling you a solution.

Not sure what I mean? I mean a lot of the beauty items you use contain ingredients that specifically cause the thing you're trying to treat. Let's walk through an example.

I have full lips and so the product lie that hit me hardest was lip balm. Most lip balms contain ingredients that provide short term moisturizing but actually cause dehydration in the long run.

To say it another way, most of the lip balms you buy in a store actually dry your lips out. You put it on, feel relief right away, and don't realize that later on when your lips feel chapped again it's because of the ingredients in the lip balm.

So what do you do when your lips are feeling chapped? You put more on, obviously, because it made your lips feel better and that's what you purchased it for. You use more lip balm, which makes you feel better but actually dries your lips out, which makes you feel like you need more lip balm.

You are unwittingly creating the problem that you are trying to solve.

That chemist taught me how to make lip balm (among other things) myself without those drying ingredients. I'm lazy, so I don't often do it, but I know what those ingredients are and will only buy lip balms that don't include those things.

I told you that story to create a framework for you so you will understand that what I am about to tell you isn't me being a super granola, "everything is awful", "jet fuel can't melt steel beams" conspiracy-theorist, dirty hippie chick.

There are products for sale at your local store right now that are covered in pink and sprouting ribbons all over the place that contain ingredients known to cause breast cancer.

No I didn't e-stutter but I'll say it again.

Your local store has products filled with ingredients known to cause breast cancer and the corporations that make those products had the audacity to package those products in pink and put breast cancer awareness ribbons on them this month.
Those corporations are helping to create a problem and then hiding behind a cute little ribbon in a show of faux-support.

The FDA has determined that the carcinogenic ingredients are present in quantities small enough to make the risk "acceptable" with recommended use, but yes, it's very aware that cancer-causing ingredients are present in these products. These ingredients are in your soaps, body washes, moisturizers, baby shampoos, deodorants, etc. It's the deodorants and antiperspirants that particularly upset me this month.

Walk down the aisle and you'll see package after package with breast cancer awareness ribbons or a new pretty pink design for October. Not only do almost none of these companies ever donate anything from the sale of these items, but these products contain ingredients known to cause cancer.
You put these products on your armpits, which is part of the breast tissue, when you use them according to their "recommended use." That's where they're designed to be used. You often do it right after you shower or shave (or both), when your skin is doing its most absorbing.

So, the product that contains ingredients known to cause breast cancer and that is specifically designed for use on breast tissue is now packaged with a breast cancer awareness ribbon? Is that supposed to make us feel better?

How about, instead of putting a pretty sparkly ribbon on it, the companies adjust the formulas to do away with those ingredients? Maybe that wouldn't be profitable since it would cost a lot of money to reformulate.

Oh no wait, it wouldn't. See, most of these products have completely different formulas they use in Europe and Asia.

In the United States we have just over 30 ingredients that are banned from use in our health and beauty products. Europe and parts of Asia have a list closer to 1,400.

So... about 1,370 ingredients suddenly no longer cause harm to the human body once they cross the US border?

That's what several manufacturers of health and beauty products would have you believe.

The truth is that it's just cheaper to do this way.

It's like they're shrugging and saying:
"Yeah, my product will probably cause breast cancer for some people who use it down the line, and yeah I could make the product in a safer way - I do it other places in the world- but I'm not going to make it safer for YOU because your government isn't forcing me to. It decided the risk was 'acceptable.' Oh, but don't worry because look I put a cute little ribbon and a fancy butterfly on the package this month!"

THAT is pink-washing at its worst. It's a bold lie to your face that counts on you, the consumer, being uneducated and not catching it. It's just one more pointless ploy in the already-ridiculous landscape of women-centric marketing (I'm looking at you, razors with scented handled and "ladies ballpoint pens") and it's an insult to all consumers, but to none more than those who have, or have had, breast cancer.

Some of you might feel like I am "shitting all over everything" by writing this. I'm not trying to. I'm trying to inform so that we can collectively do some actual good.

The corporations who pink-wash their products are counting on you wanting to help; it's what makes you a good target for this sales pitch. I know you want to help. I do, too. That's why I was so angry when I realized what a con this had become.

The answer isn't in expecting a corporation to take action for you. The answer is in direct responsibility. Donate directly to a local foundation or charity.

You, person reading this, directly help someone whose life has been changed by cancer.

Be directly active and available.

You are not "doing your part" by purchasing the adorable pink AA batteries at your checkout lane. Those pretty pink razors are pretty, and pink, and razors, but they're not saving lives.

Do your part by taking whatever skills or abilities you have and putting them to direct and immediate use.

Volunteer your time.

Cook a meal.

Clean a house.

Make a joke and give the gift of a smile.

Be a shoulder or a hand or a safe place to break.

Drive someone to treatment.

Give food to a food bank.

Donate money to respected organizations if you have the means to do that.

Intention is lovely. Thoughts and prayers are a nice gesture if that's your thing. Intention, thoughts and prayers are empty without action, though.

So stand up. Be active. Do something.

**Oh, and to you - you know who you are - there has been no greater show of strength than the display you're putting on for those of us watching you. Every time I see your smile or hear your voice - particularly your laughter - I'm reminded that superheroes do walk among us.

Some show on Animal Planet once said the most powerful creatures in Moosebekistan were orca, polar bears and bull moose.

False. It's you.