Maren Klawiter Essay

Breast cancer was not always something that could be freely talked about nor was it always a major illness that was endlessly researched on. In Maren Klawiter’s, “Racing for care, walking women, and toxic touring: Mapping cultures of action within the Bay area Terrain of breast cancer,” she analyzes the deep rooted culture of social movements and compares the differences of individual cancer activism fields in the San Francisco Bay area (Klawiter p.2). She write a comparative analysis by examining three different social movements that both educated the public on breast cancer but also reshaped the breast cancer movement in different ways (Klawiter p.2). My claim is that Klawiter produced an in depth analysis of the different breast cancer movements,

This was one of the first cancer movements of it’s time that solely focused on breast cancer (Klawiter p.6). Komen used all of her resources that she possessed to raise money to promote research and campaign for early detection machines for women (Klawiter p.7). Race for cancer played a crucial role in the breast cancer movement by bring attention to not only breast cancer and praising those who survived it but they were also the first group to use pink to symbolize support for breast cancer (Klawiter p.7). The movement’s main value was to create a whole new acceptance for breast cancer in society and introduce it as household word instead of something quietly talked about in secret. Klawiter, in his article, critiqued that Race for cancer was determined to set aside breast cancer survivors from the others, which indirectly created a sense that other cancer patients were not as courageous nor were other cancers as deadly as breast cancer (Klawiter p.8). I think that Klawiter’s critique is appropriate, Race for Cancer gave the ultimate status symbol to those who were survivors of breast cancer, which inversely shamed those who were still battling cancer