Doctors and nurses would rather not deal with a sick patient who is a woman, because the idea that women are actual human beings, who can actually get sick, is inherently distasteful, so the sick woman will find herself brushed off, dismissed, or referred to psych medicines. It takes an unnecessarily long time to diagnose cancer, or other disease, in a woman, because she presents herself to the doctor with her symptoms, and they go undiagnosed.

A woman is often asked how her family is coping. A woman who is sick is not attended to by her loved ones, but again finds herself saddled with, not only the burden of dealing with her illness, but her family which expects her to comfort them. Her illness becomes about them, and the counseling is their sickness, and not hers.

This is the same with and typical of any assault on a woman, such as rape. Women are less inclined to report rape because it ends up being a drama about her male partner, brother, or father, or male relatives, and she ends up having to comfort them.

Breast Cancer awareness month is not much different. It is companies selling female health to men, marketing it to them the only way that matters: boobies.

PS–that icing recipe sounds fantastic.

PPS–long time reader, first time poster.

Mel, basic butter icing comprises 2 C (474 ml) confectioner’s sugar, 2 T (30 ml) melted butter, and 1 T (15 ml) vanilla or the guts of one vanilla bean all beaten together, with enough milk added in after that to make it spreadable. (You can use soy milk and vegetable margarine if you are lactose intolerant or vegan, and it will still be delicious.) To turn this yummy stuff into strawberry icing, just throw chunks of raw strawberry in with the milk and beat them in until not completely smooth. You want some lumps because strawberry bits are nice to come across.

I don’t have a precise measurement for you; as with making margaritas, much depends on the ripeness of the fruit. The riper the fruit, the wetter and also the pinker will be your icing. You don’t want the fruit to be positively rotten, but a little overripe can be perfect. I’d go one or two at a time alternating with dribbles of milk until you reach the consistency you desire.

Now, you can do this with pretty much any berry, and instead of raw you can also use frozen and then defrosted but not microwaved as ingredients must be room temperature. Blueberries make lavender icing. Defrosted dark sweet cherries with juice make very pink and ultra-sweet icing. Raspberries also make pink icing, but you have to be prepared for seeds unless you (unlike me) have a trick for getting them out in advance. I mean, I suppose you could mash them through a sieve into the icing mixture, but I’ve never tried it due to laziness and a strong preference for other flavors.

My mother, who taught me this technique, used to put fresh strawberry icing on vanilla cupcakes. Yummy.

Thank you for allowing me this interruption. I now return you to your regular blaming patterns.

I do get the point, what do men with pink sticks of any kind have to do with Breast cancer? Nothing, but shame on MLB or better yet, MLB reporters, for thinking they are so original.

I had both bundled together in one packet of readings with the face page from “Mismeasure” on top. Hence my confusion.

And MzNicky – good fortune be with you.

Quibble, but only to save Ron the keystrokes:

The Mismeasure of Man is a very informative and slightly dry book on IQ testing and other such pswaydosciences. The essay Gould wrote on his own personal cancer story – or at least the first part of it – is entitled “The Median is Not The Message.”