by Yvonne Donlon

Created on: December 05, 2009   Last Updated: December 10, 2009

AND NOW IT'S A RED DRESS...

It can often be a dubious honor, if not a source of shock and concern, to be #1 at something. When the #1 cause of death in women became breast cancer, the shock and fear among women was palpable. And very personal. Could disease and death hit any closer to home for women?

It was not a male issue. It was an overwhelmingly private issue for women, and and unbearable issue for families. It was a disease that hit, not just women, but whole families. It was not just as a subject of health, but an enemy that showed itself as a disruptive, displacing and possibly a disintegrating attacker of the family tapestry. Men, and children, although not personal affected, were affected.

To some degree, the affect on the men drove the awareness farther underground. The #1 killer of women began to be pushed to the backseat of women's lives. The stigma of it among their own families and the maternal and sexual consequences it waged upon their lives was, often times, less stressful to them than the fear, and imminence, of the truth.

And, then the pink ribbon campaigns came along.

The first chapter in the history of Pink Ribbon as a symbol for breast cancer awareness can be found at the Komen Foundation's Race for The Cure, on the 16th of June 1990. At this race, held in Washington DC, the Komen Foundation handed out pink visors randomly to the 8,529 walkers. Some participants wore pink ribbons. A year later, in 1991, Komen distributed pink ribbons to every participant in it's New York City Race for The Cure. As from this year, the pink ribbon became the symbol for breast cancer awareness. http://www.pinkribbon.org/About/History/tabid/199/De fault.aspx

These campaigns gave everyone permission to diagnosis, discuss, and help prevent the #1 killer of women.

Today, in 2009, the #1 killer of women is heart disease. In response and as a means of awareness, the American Heart Association has brought out The Red Dress as a symbol for women's heart disease among women.

Dear God, after reducing the fatalities of breast cancer among women with an awareness campaign that started with a simple pink ribbon, are we really saying that the #1 cause in death in women is now what has been hitherto primarily a man's disease?. [http://www.womensheart.org/content/HeartDisease/hear t_disease_facts.asp]

And then you're telling me that's it's actually been that way for quite some time. You're telling me, that even as breast cancer snuck into the lives of women and their families,

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