Nothing to Report
January 10, 2010 by Barbara
Filed under Barbara Schwartz, Bloggers, Voices of Xenia
If you’re my Facebook friend, you might have noticed my status update on Friday afternoon, in which I vaguely reported:
OK, fine! Nothing, there’s no color to report. Happy? (sheesh!)
I’m probably not letting any cat out of any bag if I actually reveal what I was talking about. Yes, I gave in to the many many (many!) inbox-forwarded suggestions that I write the color of my bra in my Facebook status. Without explanation whatsoever, just the color. And, of course, most of my female friends blithely posted their colors, ranging from “black lace all the way” to “beige” to “tiger striped.”
My report, I might add, got me kudos of all kinds, from my male friends who (rather salaciously, I might add) applauded my report, and from my female friends who congratulated me for being so bold for being honest that I was going au naturale.
To be honest: I spent the entire frigid morning snuggled under blankets in my pjs and with my laptop, working on PhD applications, and I simply hadn’t gotten dressed yet. So what, exactly, is so brave or titillating about truthfully stating the state of (un)dress I find myself in for at least a third of every day? Trust me when I say that the only bravery here is my admission at what a lazy cuss I am, and the only inherent sexiness that can be found is in that honesty.
But that’s not the point of this post. I wonder: Do any of you (particularly the men) know why we gals were posting our bra colors?
The point was buried in the Facebook message: “It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of breast cancer awareness.” But did it at all? What might lingerie color have to do with breast cancer awareness? NPR reporter Shereen Meraji wondered about this and smacks all of us Facebook-trend followers with this point. She asks:
Is this another example of “slacktivism,” virtual activism with no real results?
How many of you were inspired to educate yourselves?
How many of you changed your Facebook status, but weren’t enticed to learn more about breast cancer?
No one seems to know where this campaign began. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, which promotes breast cancer awareness and research, praised the campaign for raising awareness but said it wasn’t linked to it. And the colorful reports weren’t limited to the U.S. but found in Ireland, England and Costa Rica as well. And the “campaign” doesn’t seem to have inspired any interest in breast cancer research or prevention, but it has inspired a lot of groups protesting the virtual flashing, reports Mary Carmichael at Newsweek:
The backlash against the campaign has already started. As of 1 a.m., the Facebook group “I Really Dont [sic] Care What Color Your Bra Is” had more than 1,000 fans (compared with 48 fans for “Bra Color As My Status”). Another group, “Not Posting the Color of Your Bra,” was advising readers to make donations of time or money to cancer societies or at least to refresh their statuses with medical facts. Personally, I liked the approach of science writer Maggie Koerth, who updated thus: “Post what your arteries look like and support a cure for heart disease! (What? It still kills more women than breast cancer.) I’m guessing that mine are slowly filling with sediment thanks to a genetic tendency toward high cholesterol!”
I halfway wonder whether the campaign wasn’t actually a well-meaning but pointless attempt to raise awareness on an important topic, but just an experiment in group manipulation and peer pressure. Or an invitation to jump on a conformist bandwagon with a saucy wink to the little exhibitionist that lives in a lot of us, and a lot of us took the bait. I reported my state of undress without thinking about the response it might get, but I also did it with a grin because I knew I was playing against the “black/beige/white/tiger striped” reports of all my friends. I was, I confess, showing off my nonconformity in my conformity. And now I have to really wonder what I was doing after all. And whether I’m doing it again just by talking about it here.
I was also amused by how many of my male friends, wittingly or not, took part in the Facebook phenom by reporting colors of their own. And why not? Here’s a little something you should know about breast cancer (and if you’ve stuck with me this far, you should learn something. After reading Meraji’s post, I was determined to learn something): Breast cancer is not just a women’s disease. It’s rare, but 1 percent of all cases of breast cancer occur in men. And in fact, former University of Oklahoma journalism instructor and Oklahoma Daily advisor Jack Willis wrote a book about his own struggle with the disease, Saving Jack, as a resource to help men suffering from breast cancer. Here’s a video of Jack talking about his experience:
So thanks for showing your support for the disease, guys. Whether you knew it or not.
Barbara Schwartz is the editorial director at the Xenia Institute. She lives in Oklahoma City, Okla., and currently is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa.
This is an interesting question, and I’m of two minds on it. On the one hand, I don’t think slacktivism does a whole lot of good – even though I’m as guilty of it as the next Facebook user. On the other hand, I can’t help but think that everybody who got the message about what is going on won’t at least face the potentiality of being changed. Even if it’s just a miniscule alteration in attitude that might not blossom for quite some time, a seed may have been planted. And I suspect that some slacktivists (like myself) eventually graduate to real forms of activism – letter writing, more concrete awareness raising, giving of time, talents, and funds, etc.
I’m also intrigued by the thought of manipulation, peer pressure, or groupspeak. If this is really just playing to certain folks desire to make an exhibitionist statement, is it any different than the point Caitlin raises about Rock the Vote in her blog post? Kudos to you both for sparking these discussions.
Some seeds fall on rocks, some are eaten by birds, some fall on good soil.
The rocks are the dudes, and the gals, who mindlessly posted their colors (or hit “likes” for “no color.”) The birds are the media types and bigtime personalities who really don’t give a shit about anything but finding some seeds to eat — something else to opine-gripe-write about today/this column deadline/this news cycle, then, having consumed, are off to consume and regurgitate something else tomorrow/the next column/the next news cycle … The good soil is the honest talk that comes from the good soil that this kind of seed falls into, which comes AFTER the misplaced righteous indignation, the “personal offense,” the ruffled sensibilities.
Mustard seeds and weeds! Lebanon cedars and trees!
ALL voices uttered in good faith are faithful voices. IMHO.
I’m just sayin’.
Peas.
A friend of mine sent me a link to a Washington Post story that says: ” Whatever it is, its impact was immediate and dramatic: As bra colors went flying around the net, something strange happened at the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. After two years of intensive efforts to boost its profile through social networking, hiring two full-time people to do solely that, within two hours Friday morning, their fan base on Facebook exploded from 135 to 700.
“”This would fall into the unprecedented category. We’ve never had a spike like this,” said spokesman John Hammerley. “We don’t care if it’s a $20 million campaign or a, what do you call it, a kind of electronic chain letter asking for your bra color. It’s fun. It gets people talking, and hopefully, it will lead folks to really getting a greater awareness of something that’s going to affect one in eight American women.””
Which is great, of course, but I still have my doubts as to whether Facebook activism is really effective in raising awareness. Clint & ER, you have a good point that campaigns like this may be the gateway activism into more embodied work, and that’s what I hope, too. Certainly, we’re talking about it now, and if that’s the crazy/sneaky point of the campaign, then kudos to them! However, my inner cynic rages at me that most of our responses to slacktivism allow us to pat ourselves on the back for doing the very least that we can do, but at least we did something that makes us feel good, but doesn’t do much in reality. Time will tell, I suppose. I hope the Komen Foundation takes this opportunity to really start hitting up their new FB fans for donations.