Breast cancer has existed for thousands of years, but before the 20th century, people rarely spoke of it.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus: 'One in eight women get breast cancer; today, I'm the one'
"I remember in the '80s when I couldn't say the word 'breast' in a public meeting," said breast cancer specialist Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. "If there were men in the audience, I had to say 'mammary gland.'"
Women with breast cancer faced debilitating stigmas in accessing treatment, in receiving sensitive care from their surgeons, and in being seen as whole women if their breasts were removed.
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"People shunned you," said Andrea Rader, spokeswoman for Susan G. Komen, a leading breast cancer organization.
How, then, did breast cancer go from hushed whisper to neon pink rallying cry?
Part of the reason for its visibility lies in the same reason it was stigmatized: breasts. Unlike cancer of the pancreas or the lung or the liver, breast cancer attacks a conspicuous organ imbued with deep cultural meaning. A woman's breasts aren't just visible, they're symbolic.
Breasts were "a metaphor for not only sexuality but for nurturing. And they still are," said Janet Osuch, founder of Michigan State University's Comprehensive Breast Health Clinic and co-author of "A Historical Perspective on Breast Cancer Activism in the United States."
Cultural shifts in the last century — including feminism and social media — have transformed the fight against breast cancer from an individual struggle into a collective cause.
"It affects people we just really love," Rader said of why the national movement has grown so much. "Our moms and our daughters. Our grandmothers and our sisters. And in some cases our dads."
In honor of October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we look at some of the big moments that took breast cancer out of the dark and into the pink."The very first true activist, not a fundraiser, but someone who bumped against the system, was Terese Lasser," Osuch said. Lasser was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a radical mastectomy, which was standard at the time. What Lasser took issue with was not the procedure, but what she saw as her surgeon's indifference. She had questions about sex, about what to tell her kids. "I think she was the very first of the activists who was brave enough to question the doctors," Osuch said. Lasser formed the Reach to Recovery program to help women cope with breast cancer. It's now part of the American Cancer Society.Before Title IX — the 1972 law which outlaws sex discrimination in education — few women were doctors. Data from the Association of American Medical Colleges shows that new enrollment in medical school in 2016 was evenly divided between women (49.8%) and men (50.2%).
"That law not only made a huge difference for women in medical schools but also for women in law schools. The women in law schools became policymakers and the women who went to medical school took a great interest in women's health," Osuch said.In 1974, former first lady Betty Ford told the country she had breast cancer. Norton called the move "revolutionary." Public figures then didn't talk openly about the disease, but Ford made it a part of the national conversation.
"She was brave enough to make it public," Osuch said. "I think things might have remained silent for a much longer time had that not happened."Medical journalist Ruth Kushner was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1974, and afterward became the "first nationally known breast cancer advocate," writes Ellen Leopold in A Darker Ribbon: A Twentieth-Century Story of Breast Cancer, Women, and Their Doctors. Kushner questioned if radical mastectomies were always a woman's best treatment option, and wrote prolifically about women advocating for better care.
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