Pink Ribbons Inc. (trailer)

[zazen]

3. I reject the "breast cancer survivor" identity

but it was heresy to bring up how icky I felt about all of this during my own diagnosis and treatment six years ago. It's good people have woken up to it. Honestly, there a few women in the support groups who had become professional breast cancer survivors. They went to conferences, handed out bling, were on speaker circuits, were part of PR stuff. I guess that's how some women cope, but turning that into my identity felt self-indulgent as well as like I was being used as a fake way for people to say they cared about women's issues.

I wish people were half as compassionate about mental illness.