Recently, my 10-year-old pointed out a boy her age standing near us at the grocery store.   With a smile on her face, she whispered into my ear, “Look at his wrist.”  I casually glanced down and saw that he was wearing a pink, rubber bracelet with some sort of writing on it.  I was just about to go into my speech about how colors don’t belong to boys or girls and if he likes pink then he should wear pink when she stopped me.  “No, read it,” she said.

I did.  It said:  “I Love Boobies.”

Ah.  Breast cancer awareness paraphernalia.  Clearly, organizations like the American Cancer Society and the Susan G. Komen For the Cure have done a bang-up job raising awareness of this important women’s health issue.  I mean, even 10-year-old boys are spreading the word about how important it is for women to take care of their bodies.  Pretty awesome, huh?

Not really. With very few exceptions, I would be willing to bet that the attraction such bracelets hold for the average middle schooler has nothing to do with breast cancer awareness. The bracelets say “boobies” and that’s kind of silly and fun, right?

Maybe for some kids. But it’s also an inappropriate and, I would argue, ineffective way to promote awareness of a serious issue.  And despite the fact that some kids claim they are wearing them because they truly support the cause, lots of schools are banning them.

This, of course, has raised the ire of not only the students who have lost their boobie bracelets, but some of their parents as well.  As one 8th grader in California puts it, she didn’t think it was a big deal “because of the reason I was wearing it.”   Presumably, she means she was wearing it to raise awareness of breast cancer.  But I couldn’t help but notice that in the photo accompanying this article, she’s also sporting Silly Bandz, another trendy and problematic bracelet.

Do these bracelets actually help raise awareness about breast cancer?  I doubt it.  But that’s not really the issue when it comes to wearing them at school anyway.  There are literally hundreds of other ways to support breast cancer awareness that don’t offend, objectify or make anyone laugh or feel uncomfortable.  If a student is truly interested in the cause, then he or she will be happy to choose another way to spread the word.

Image: loserkids

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