Reasons to Have Pride in 2012, Part 4

Because there’s a new reason to think before you pink

Pink Ribbons, the much-lauded documentary by Canadian lesbian filmmaker Léa Pool, exposes how some companies have reaped huge profits and visibility by selling products associated with the fight against breast cancer, though those companies actually do little to advance research, treatment, or prevention. What’s more, Pool finds that some corporations may even be contributing to the disease by releasing carcinogens into the environment. She also notes that breast cancer awareness campaigns seldom portray minorities, including lesbians, who constitute a high-risk group. She says she wants audiences “to be more critical and more politically conscious about our actions and to stop thinking that by buying pink toilet paper we’re doing what needs to be done.… I don’t want to say that we absolutely shouldn’t be raising money. We are just saying, ‘Think before you pink.’ ” The film opens in the U.S. in June.