Rethink Pink Summit: Dr. Gayle Sulik – The Politics of Pink
Dr. Gayle Sulik developed the Pink Ribbon Blues website and blog, engaging over 350 thousand readers, and founded the Breast Cancer Consortium in 2012 — an international partnership committed to energizing the scientific and public discourse about breast cancer and promoting collaborative initiatives. She has received the prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities research fellowship in 2008, was named as one of the top ten online influencers in the field of breast cancer from ShareCare in 2012, and is winner of the 2013 Sociologists for Women in Society Distinguished Feminist Lecturer award.
One of the most sought-after experts in breast cancer and women’s health, Dr. Sulik has much to offer in showing others not only how to do the kind of important research she has done, but how to reach beyond the ivory tower to share it with those who will benefit most. In this engaging interview from WISH Summit, Dr. Sulik discusses the politics of pink.
Dr. Gayle Sulik
Dr. Gayle Sulik, M.A., Ph.D, is a social science researcher and writer affiliated with the University at Albany (SUNY) Department of Women’s Studies. Her ground-breaking analysis of the culture and cult of breast cancer, richly described in her book Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women’s Health, has stirred a grass roots feminist reawakening.
Sulik’s book is an essential read that provides a thorough grounding for thinking through the many complexities and perversions of a pink ribbon system gone awry. Joining the ranks of feminist provocateurs who have observed how acceptable narratives neutralize and trivialize women’s suffering, she shows how the pink ribbon is itself wrapped up in a system that uses advocacy, culture, mass media, and the medical industry for its own purposes, to create a festive culture of consumption that wrests in profitable complacency.
Visit Dr. Sulik’s website here.
Listen to Dr. Gayle Sulik’s WISH Radio interview here:
Stop Running For The Cure. Join Us To Stand Up For The Cause.
There are pink parades, pom poms and paraphernalia that line the streets and shopping aisles in the name of “finding a cure.” But with millions of dollars in fund-raising, why are rates of breast cancer (and all cancers) still on the rise. Something stinks about all this pink and we’re going to find out why!
Access the Rethink Pink Summit calls here: