viz.

October is breast cancer awareness month, so you may be seeing pink ribbons and products more frequently. While the pink ribbon is a powerful symbol of breast cancer awareness, "pinkwashing" (exploiting consumer grief or guilt to sell products, such as pink hair dryers or nail polish, with minimal donations to breast cancer organizations) has been the target of much critique, in part because it allows consumers to feel that consumption of material goods is a solution to a widespread health problem. The SCAR project, which takes and exhibits photographs of young breast cancer survivors, offers a different visual argument for cancer awareness. Depending on your office environment, the images after the jump may be NSFW.

Image: David Jay, The SCAR Project

SCAR stands for "Surviving Cancer: Absolute Reality," and the images the project produces clearly offer a counter to the disembodied pink ribbon. SCAR's strategy is not entirely new; campaigns raising awareness for other issues have often used images of injured or otherwise physically affected individuals to further their cause. These images, however, avoid falling into overwhelmingly sentimental appeals to pity, guilt, or shock. The women pictured are self-selected, volunteers who chose to show their bodies to help fight breast cancer. While absent or reconstructed breasts may be shocking to some viewers, the comfort that the composition projects steers the images away from pure shock value. Looking directly into the camera without fear or shame, these women do not seem to need help; rather, with knowing expressions, they are here to help you. 

Gathering support for a cause is difficult, and I certainly wouldn't discount the effect that pink ribbons have had on breast cancer awareness. However, the SCAR project seems an important counter to "thinking pink." At the nexis of tragedy and hope, these images seem to balance between the incessant positivity that Barbara Ehrenreich critiques in Bright-Sided and an apocalyptic sadness. These women are survivors, but they aren't unharmed; getting better and being strong does not have to (and often should not) mean hiding the marks of what happened to you. That complex message, spelled out with these women's bodies, may not always be apparent in the more common iconography of breast cancer.