You’ve probably noticed it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month in Australia this October and here at LIV, we couldn’t think of a more important topic to raise awareness of.
Second only to skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer amongst Australian women, but the good news is that if you catch it early, your chances of survival are really pretty high. The stats for those surviving five or more years beyond diagnosis now stand at 89% so it’s crucial you look out for any changes in that area and get it checked straight away by your doctor.
However, there is one thing that’s been slightly bothering us about Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we’ve noticed it all over our social media feed and across the branding for the campaign.
It’s the colour pink.
Now, we don’t find pink offensive in itself. In fact, we have a lovely shade of it at the top of LIV’s website, but it has brought up some heated discussion here at LIV HQ around gender stereotyping and why this even takes place in the year 2017.
Are we making any progress in gender equality?
On planet Earth, it’s fair to say we are making some strides forward in terms of equality. For example, women have the right to vote in most countries, the gender pay gap is decreasing in the developed world and women are even allowed to drive now in Saudi Arabia.
While there is still a long way to go, there is greater awareness than ever before of the rights of people that can’t, or don’t want, to be pigeonholed with the label of heterosexual male or female.
So why is it that we still revert back to pink being for girls and blue for boys? It’s traditional, sure, but it reinforces the stereotype of girls liking glitter, dolls and unicorns. Often they are steered away from “boy activities” like playing with trains, going out and getting muddy in the back garden or playing with their plastic toolbox.
It’s the same with adults too – TV ads for fast cards are frequently aimed at men, while supermarket offers are more often than not tailored to females.
If we want to promote true equality amongst men, women and those who choose not to identify with a specific gender, then we need to let people pick their own path, and colour scheme, from the day they’re born.
We know that Breast Cancer Awareness has been synonymous with pink for a long time now and it’s great that it makes the campaign so easily identifiable, from everyone wearing the colour on a fun run to raise money, to cricketers being decked out in pink accessories in support of the McGrath Foundation.
So we’re happy to support everything Breast Cancer Awareness Month is trying to achieve, but we urge you to challenge your own stereotypes next time you pick out a pink babygro for your friend’s new baby girl or a dinosaur toy for their little boy.
Let’s take a step forward into the brave new world and allow everyone to be comfortable in their own skin.
Do you think gender stereotyping is an issue in today’s society? Or is it all just a big fuss about nothing? We’d love to hear from you below or via our social media channels.