For this post, I’ve chosen to dissect the website and the foundation that is the Susan G. Komen foundation. This probably sounds pretty terrible. But, hear me out.

I very much support what the Susan G. Komen foundation claims to support, but my issue is that they don’t really support the cure for breast cancer.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation has fixed a lot of the problems that they originally came under fire for, but everyone can fix problems that they lose business over. Here’s the thing; there’s a LOT of problems with this organization.

Firstly, they ignored the wants and the feelings of women with metastatic breast cancer for YEARS. Metastatic breast cancer means that these women were diagnosed late stage and will almost definitely die from this disease. There is now a huge, bold-lettered tab on their website as soon as you click on it, just to drive the point home that they SUPPORT EVERYONE!!! This just isn’t the case. They went a long time without caring about these women. They get to walk into stores and see shelves upon shelves of items with pink ribbons on them, knowing that they can’t fight this because there’s nothing to fight. Their body is cancer and they know there’s no winning of a fight. They have to feel that pain and see the praising of women who “bravely beat their fight” and know that they will never be “the brave one.”

Next is a problem that I mentioned above, but for a different reason. The Susan G. Komen Foundation loves to plaster pink ribbons and paint every product pink as much as possible. A lot of people feel like this exploits breast cancer for profit because people want to “support” the cause by buying the product, but really only a couple cents goes towards actual breast cancer research or funding out of even the most expensive products. People call this action “pink washing,” and it causes a lot of animosity among both breast cancer survivors and people without breast cancer. The use of these ribbons on everything is inappropriate and a cash grab.

Finally, the biggest problem of all. The Susan G. Komen Foundation cut funding in 2012 through Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings and outreach programs. They quickly reversed this decision due to backlash, but this decision goes hand in hand with why many people refuse to donate to the fund. The CEO of the Susan G. Komen made $684,000 a year (in 2014). The executive members of the foundation make enough money and due to their donation records, 20% of their profits go to critical research and the rest goes to these members’ salaries. So, all of their pink washing profits that supposedly go to research, are simply lining pockets of a CEO who is most likely making upwards of a million dollars a year these days. It’s disgusting.

This organization takes advantage of their audience and lies to them every chance they get, while neglecting to be considerate of members of their target benefactors. It needs to end and it needs to be exposed.