Inherited breast cancer
I don’t know if you or any of your family has been affected by breast cancer. Both of my grandmothers, and one paternal great-grandmother are/were survivors of breast cancer. One of my grandmothers had a double mastectomy and both grandmothers underwent chemotherapy. I have another family member who is in treatment – anonymous at this time. I wanted to update today (8/08/2021) to let everyone know that another one of my family members has breast cancer. Breast Cancer has now made it’s presences in four generations.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Doctors estimate about 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers are linked to gene mutations passed through generations of a family.” According to the CDC, female breast cancer was the 2nd leading cause of death for women (19.9 per 100,000) with 42,000 deaths in the United States in 2017.
Risk Factors of Breast Cancer
I have provided a list of risk factors from the Mayo Clinic. The risk factors do not mean that you will develop breast cancer, nor does it mean that you won’t. It just means you may be at risk of having breast cancer if you have risk factors.
- Being female.
- Increasing age.
- A personal history of breast conditions.
- A personal history of breast cancer.
- A family history of breast cancer.
- Inherited genes that increase cancer risk.
- Radiation exposure.
- Obesity.
- Beginning your period at a younger age.
- Beginning menopause at an older age
- Having your first child at an older age.
- Having never been pregnant.
- Postmenopausal hormone therapy.
- Drinking alcohol.
Breast Cancer Prevention
According to Mayo Clinic, the most common breast cancer screenings are self-exams and mammograms. In my early 20’s I learned about self-exams by my gynecologist. After I turned 40, my primary care physician recommend mammogram screenings. I will admit the mam procedure is uncomfortable and awkward. I have fibromyalgia and it hasn’t been painful at this time.
- Ask your doctor about breast cancer screening.
- Become familiar with your breasts through breast self-exam for breast awareness.
- Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all.
- Exercise most days of the week.
- Limit postmenopausal hormone therapy.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Choose a healthy diet.
If you have any questions about breast cancer or breast cancer screenings, please talk with your doctor. I wanted to share this information about Breast Cancer and some statistical data along with my case study reflection. We will now move onto the case study “Breast Cancer Memes.”
What are memes?
According to an article on Britannica.com by Kara Rogers (2020), a meme is “unit of cultural information spread by imitation that was introduced in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his work The Selfish Gene.”
Rogers (2020) further explains that Internet memes, “often take the form of pictures, videos, or other media containing cultural information that, rather than mutating randomly, have been deliberately altered by individuals.” You may be already familiar with memes.
Breast Cancer Memes
The case study, “Breast Cancer Meme,” talks about three memes that have circulated in the past on Facebook during the month October to help spread the awareness of breast cancer. Instructions with the memes, stated not to not to tell the males what was going on and let them keep guessing.
Like It
A private message would ask females to change their Facebook status to the location where they like to put their purse, such as “I like it on the table.”
Inches
Here is another meme you may recall, “put a number, followed by the word inches and how long it takes to do your hair.” 2 inches 30 minutes.
Name/Color
The individual was asked to choose a color of their bra that they were wearing and update their status, such Jane Doe, Purple (Name, Color).
There is controversy surrounding this approach, do the memes actually help prevent breast cancer or provide awareness? There were also concerns with the memes focusing only on woman and not including men, because men can also get breast cancer.
The “Like It” and “Name/Color” memes appeared in 2010 and the “Inches” meme in 2012. These may not be the exact names given to the memes, but they are in my post. The case study talked about the memes with sexualized themes. What do you think?
I personal felt the memes could have a sexualized approach to them. Yes, we all have our opinions, but if you see a post like, “I like it in the car,” what do you think? Individuals donated financially during this time, but there is no statistical data linking the memes to the contributions.
The case study, suggested better ways to get your message out there that focuses on real-life mobilization efforts, such as volunteering, donating money, signing a petition or writing a letter. For an example, volunteering with those who are breast cancer survivors or those taking chemo.
In conclusion, using social media to advance a particular cause or charity is becoming more common, especially at this time of COVID-19 pandemic. It’s easy for the post to go viral quickly, but it makes little difference in the world, because there is no real-life mobilization of behavioral changes.
This blog is based on a case study “Breast Cancer Meme,” located in chapter 4 of Mahoney and Tang’s book, “Strategic Social Media: From Marketing to Social Change.” This blog is part of an assignment for a class MKT-555 “Social Media Marketing” through Southern New Hampshire University.
I’m impressed. You packed this post with a lot of factual information. However, what about male breast cancer? Sure, it doesn’t affect as many men as it does women. But it is still prevalent in men, usually in the later stages of disease.
Shiva, you are absolutely correct, males can get breast cancer as well. According to the CDC, “Breast cancer is most often found in women, but men can get breast cancer too. About 1 out of every 100 breast cancers diagnosed in the United States is found in a man.” I will update my post to reflect this. Thank you for pointing this out.
Source: “https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast/men/index.htm