Save the Moms!

So October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One fall during my junior year of college, my parents called me. My mom had breast cancer. She's been okay for long enough now that the chance for reoccurrence is pretty low. But now October is different for me now since it's impossible not to forget especially when I see things like this:

via Instagram
I concealed the user who shared this on purpose.

"Saving the Tatas" and "I [heart] boobies" things are my least favorite part of this time of year. My first thought when I see these slogans is that the people who made them up only care about my mom's breasts, my breasts, anyone's breasts! But not about the people themselves. I know that can't be right so I assume that most of the people who have things like this care about women and do not want people to die of breast cancer and just like saying risqué things. But, it still makes me feel uncomfortable because it does seem like the focus of this type of awareness is just on the sexualized nature of breasts.

I'm 27 and no longer breast feed so I could care less about my mom's breasts. But I care about my mom. My mom is a whole wonderful person and she would be still be my wonderful mom even if she had a double mastectomy and didn't have reconstructive surgery (this is not necessarily what happened to my mom). She would not be able to be my mom if she had died of cancer. So maybe another part of what distresses me is that these slogans obscure the real stakes when it comes to detecting breast cancer. It's not about about one part of your body--it's your whole life.

via Instagram
For some reason I found this one particularly galling.

I also am incredibly suspicious of corporations who seem to use Awareness to simply to promote their products. I don't really ascribe any motive to large corporations other than increasing profits. For example, I don't think companies that sell yogurt really care they just want me to buy their yogurt so they say they'll give some non-profit 10 ¢ for every cup of yogurt sold.

I am looking at you Lilly Pulitzer!
(I may end up buying this murfee but
that will be because I like the print.)

While, I don't ascribe the same motive to smaller companies that are run by one or a few people. It is still so odd to see people trying to get me to buy pink things to so that the company selling them can share profits with the American Cancer Society or the Komen Foundation or some other non-profit that is related to breast cancer. I would prefer to give my money directly to the non-profit organizations that help people with breast cancer or that raise awarness.

I'm sorry that I've been so cynical today. Like I said, I imagine that most people who want to "save the tatas" are genuine in their attempts to raise awareness about breast cancer and to raise money for research. It just rubs me the wrong way. And, I know different people react differently to different things so saying "lets save the tatas" might be comfortingly humorous to someone in circumstances similar to mine. I just needed to vent. Thank you for reading.

Update: I found this article on "Pinkwashing" at Sociological Images, the Lisa Wade does a much better job of explaining how this practice is sometimes problematic and she's found a couple of really egregious examples of pink washing.

Post Coming!

Due to technical difficulties (iPhoto not letting me edit) and me still being exhausted from the Red Sox's late game on Tuesday. Thursday's post will go up this evening after I get back from work. 

Until then, here's a doughnut:

Cathance River Preserve

It is fall! I could see the leaves turning from the highway on my way to work and I wanted to see them up close over the weekend. So me and Mr. Handsome went to the Cathance River Preserve and went for a long walk. I learned about it because I found a new site that will tell you where all the trails in Maine are!

I wanted to see the rapids and to get there we had to cross this very worn out looking bridge. I think I prefer the colors at the beginning of fall when there's an equal amount of green to balance the reds, oranges, and yellows and almost no brown.

Some Rapids

The leaves in the preserve were still mostly green however!

From the Top of the Falls

I regret only taking pictures with my iPhone. But I had my phone handy through the whole hike because the Preserve had it's own app that could tell you where you were on the trails! Even though the trails were well marked and the blazes were clear it was handy to have to settle disputes between me and my other half.

The still river was a mirror.

On our way out.

Eating Healthy

Yesterday one of my coworkers asked me where to go to get lunch. I bring leftovers almost everyday so I don't know why he asked me (I suppose I was just there). Then he said he'd want something healthy. And said he should go to the sandwich place near by. He looked at me oddly like I had said something crazy. But then I asked what he meant by that because I remember a conversation I overheard a year or two ago in in law school . . .

I was checking my email, waiting for class to begin, and eavesdropping on two men in my class. (I like eavesdropping) One was a tall, incredibly lanky guy who looked like a classic New Englander and the other was a husky frat guy from the upper midwest. And I found this conversation fascinating to over hear because I could not imagine that either of them cared about healthy food but that's what they were talking about.

They were talking about cashews (or maybe pistachios) I think and they said they weren't healthy. In my head I thought they were crazy since nuts are totally healthy, much more so than soda, oreos, or low-fat Doritos. They agreed on nuts cashews (or pistachios) being unhealthy and said it was because they had too many calories. I was thinking "no duh" that's the point of nuts they have all the nutrition needed for a little seed to start growing. But high calorie doesn't mean unhealthy. (While I am not a fan of rampant weight gain in myself.* I do not think high calorie food are unhealthy.)

Bacon is healthy!
By the why, Walker Bros

I guess I would call myself a member of the Michael Pollan school of thought regarding healthy food--traditional foods are healthy (regardless of calorie count) and mass produced industrial foods (like low fat salad dressing) are not. If you're interested in this concept I would read Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto I read it in college and I finished it before returning it to the library.

To illustrate! To me these things are healthy: homemade fruit pies; butter, bread, fruit, vegetables, cheese, olives, avocados, bacon, ham, crispy chicken skin, &c. I think these things are unhealthy: oreos, margarine, sandwich bread from the store (one of my favorite things about college was that I could have white bread and margarine at every meal), Doritos, Diet Coke, low-fat almost anything, &c.


On some of the other blogs I read, the bloggers talk about clean eating and I believe that most of them understand it to mean something very similar to what I've described thought it seems like they always choose lower fat options than I would. I'm at a healthy body weight right now and otherwise living a high stress life so I need to have joy where I can find it--like on the outside of a roasted chicken.

I do avoid certain delicious food that are generally healthy because of my specific health concerns. (I have alluded to this in my recipes where I say butter or olive oil.) I have high cholesterol (just the bad kind) and I do not want to take medication for it since I take so much for my allergies and asthma so I avoid butter and other high cholesterol foods.  But, just because its bad for me, I don't think it's bad for everyone. And, fat itself isn't bad since you need some to insulate your neurons and held absorb vitamins.


I'm interested to hear why you guys think of as being "healthy!" It had never occurred to me that there was such a range of opinion about this before a year or so ago.



*Mr. Handsome must be the skinniest man alive and I try so hard to get him to gain some weight to no avail. I feel like Mr. and Mrs. Jack Sprat when we're out in public together.

September OOTDs

At the Beach!
#vineyardvines #lillypulitzer #colby #llbean

On My Birthday! In Vineyard Vines
#lillypulitzer #lacoste #coach

At Work
#lillypulitzer #jonesnewjork #llbean #jackrogers

After Work
#talbots #lacoste

Mixing Patterns
#talbots

A Mint and Navy Work Day
#jcrew #lacoste #vaneli

At Work
#lillypulitzer #jcrew #jackrogers

After Giving a Presentation for Work
#talbots #katespade

After Court with Co-Counsel Mr. Crusher the Giant, Esq.
#macys #brooksbrothers

September was a busy month. So I did not take as many OOTD shots as I would like to have had. Thus, this post isn't the best of the best, it's just what I have decent pictures of. I really love looking at other's OOTDs so I hope you like this post too!