Pink! Nude! Stained with red wine!

January 8, 2010 9:50 AM

What ARE all these FB color updates about?? What could it be . . . hmm . . .?

What about YOU today?

posted by jfwlucy (47 comments total)

commando
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 9:51 AM on January 8, 2010

pink with skulls and crossbones
posted by MXJ1983 at 9:53 AM on January 8, 2010

oh for the love of god, not here.
posted by pinky at 9:54 AM on January 8, 2010 [11 favorites]

This cleared it up for me. It's an important read.
posted by jeanmari at 9:54 AM on January 8, 2010 [12 favorites]

Two skulls and a strap made of snakes
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:54 AM on January 8, 2010 [4 favorites]

Very useful for Breast Awareness.
posted by jeblis at 9:54 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

This has been getting on my nerves.
posted by Mavri at 9:54 AM on January 8, 2010

Rosicrucian.
posted by hermitosis at 9:55 AM on January 8, 2010

LEARN ONE MOMS WEIRD OLD TRICK FOR WHITER TEETH
posted by yhbc at 9:55 AM on January 8, 2010

Whatever color pancakes are.
posted by ardgedee at 9:56 AM on January 8, 2010

if you really care donate money towards the research instead of spamming.
posted by lemonfridge at 9:56 AM on January 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

WHAT? You mean BREASTS can get CANCER?? I was UNAWARE!
posted by signalnine at 9:56 AM on January 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

It's supposed to be a prank to confuse/test the boys although it confused me too.

How on earth...?
I'm unsure of how this is supposed to raise awareness for breast cancer or "test" guys, but then again I'm confused at the point of many inane facebook/internet chain memes.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 9:57 AM on January 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

two repurposed champagne glasses, one gauze ribbon.
posted by jenkinsEar at 9:57 AM on January 8, 2010 [3 favorites]

This fails for awareness at a basic level.
posted by smackfu at 9:57 AM on January 8, 2010

Facebook posts will not cure cancer.



You must write STRONGLY WORDED TWEETS!
posted by mazola at 9:58 AM on January 8, 2010 [3 favorites]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_mDTLphIVY
posted by jckll at 9:59 AM on January 8, 2010

this is fun, i like it.
also, yahoo answers rules at a certain type of thing: enshrining the answers to instantly forgettable questions.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:59 AM on January 8, 2010

argh
posted by jckll at 9:59 AM on January 8, 2010

Do manssieres count?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:59 AM on January 8, 2010

Chainmail.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 10:03 AM on January 8, 2010

I tracked the game back a couple hours and figured it out — they were writing their bra colors! I put hands to keyboard and wrote … nothing. Truth is, I didn’t know what to write. I wanted to frivilously play along — the boys had gone to bed, and this was MY time, after all — but I couldn’t. And why couldn’t I? If you know me, you don’t have to ask. But if you’re new here, I couldn’t play along by posting the color of my bra because I don’t have one. I don’t own one.

Two years ago this month, I underwent surgery, you see. I had a double mastectomy to remove the cancer that was trying to kill me...Other cancer survivors joined in, telling me that they felt left out too. After all, this was ostensibly an effort to raise awareness of breast cancer — but one in which breast cancer survivors themselves could not participate, and were reminded (as if we needed a reminder) that we didn’t need bras anymore, that most basic undergarment of women everywhere, that symbol of sexuality, for the simple reason that we had already sacrificed our breasts in a hail mary attempt to keep the rest of our bodies from dying of cancer.

This is from that link I posted up there.

Seriously? Breast Cancer is not a meme. Want to do something about it? Raise money for medical research.
posted by jeanmari at 10:03 AM on January 8, 2010 [4 favorites]

the flesh of the innocent
posted by brundlefly at 10:04 AM on January 8, 2010

Breast Cancer is not a meme.

Shades of 4chan.
posted by GuyZero at 10:06 AM on January 8, 2010

Congrats Facebook, this is most useless thing that has ever been done in the name of breast cancer awareness, which is no small feat.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:07 AM on January 8, 2010 [3 favorites]

If "awareness" is the concern, here's some things I want the women to be AWARE of:

1) Men get breast cancer too. See Rob Roddy.

2) Women don't get prostate cancer. Where's our meme and 5k walk? You just have to squeeze your boob. You wanna know what a prostate exam is like? We don't even get stirrups.

3) Men were not UNAWARE boobs get cancer.
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 10:08 AM on January 8, 2010 [3 favorites]

This was remarkably fascinating for the speed and reach of this seemingly instant viral status update, only matched by the ease and speed in which women will reveal their underwear.
posted by four panels at 10:09 AM on January 8, 2010

Bacon
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:09 AM on January 8, 2010

Thanks for explaining this -- I just posted "what the hell is this colors thing" and one of my FB friends posted a cutesy color as a response.

...I was very tempted to post something like "my late grandmother would say 'a funeral shroud' right now, because this is what KILLED her. Now let's cut the crap." But I restrained myself.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:10 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

I assumed that it was an indication of what kind of Guelf the person is, and that anything other than black or white simply indicated that the person just didn't understand.
posted by The World Famous at 10:13 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

This is sexist.
posted by oddman at 10:15 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

@bathtub. Men's health issues are usually pretty well funded. Most prostate cancer is detected early and won't result in the loss of giant chunks of the body: breasts, muscle, etc. I will say as I advance into my 40s I'd love to see what a cute prostate awareness campaign would look like. I don't get all where all the venom comes from. The same folks who want you to be AWARE also like 'Save the TaTas" stickers, so lighten up!
posted by drowsy at 10:18 AM on January 8, 2010

oh for the love of god, not here.
posted by pinky

Eponysterical.
posted by mazola at 10:18 AM on January 8, 2010

I find the whole concept of "awareness", especially as applied to breast cancer in the US to be fascinating. It's like it has entered some kind of weird space where it no longer means "check yourself for lumps" nor "raise funds for research" nor even merely "show solidarity with breast cancer sufferers", but instead it seems to be a worthy goal for its own sake. And yet of course of all diseases, breast cancer is the one least in need of mere awareness-raising. In fact, I wonder if the ubiquity of breast cancer culture (the pink ribbons and stuffed toys that Barbara Ehrenreich writes about) actually normalizes it in a way that damages efforts to fight it.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 10:20 AM on January 8, 2010

Hair
posted by qvantamon at 10:20 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

I thought it was just post an arbitrary color day, so I posted "#cccccc".

Now, I feel a little foolish.
posted by everichon at 10:21 AM on January 8, 2010

Facebook posts will not cure cancer.

NEITHER WILL THEY KILL DRACULA.
posted by jquinby at 10:21 AM on January 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

A lot of women "participating" in the meme had no idea it was for breast cancer awareness. Which is why I put "participating" in scare quotes, since it's hard to accuse people of doing something nonsensical when they could be acting to support breast cancer research, when in fact, they had no idea that breast cancer had anything to do with it.
posted by fraula at 10:23 AM on January 8, 2010

Not a good Metafilter post.
posted by mrgrimm at 10:25 AM on January 8, 2010

BOYS WEAR BRAS TOO.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:25 AM on January 8, 2010

come on u guys we weren't supposed to tell the boys! now our secret is ruined.

FWIW, this is the message I got:

Just write the color of your bra in your status, just the color, nothing else, and send this on to only girls, no men.....It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before the men will wonder why all the girls have a color in their status! .... ha ha.

**If you don't wear one, just think of a pretty color that you would like to wear and enter that in the status.

I must be pretty slow today because I didn't connect "cancer awareness" with "breast cancer".
posted by muddgirl at 10:26 AM on January 8, 2010

Well, if this silly meme reminds even one woman to check her "girls", it will be worth it.

(My boss just had her mastectomy this summer, plus a reconstruction.)
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 10:26 AM on January 8, 2010

Uh, excuse me, Cory Doctorow - what were you saying about social networks and how great they are?
posted by nestor_makhno at 10:28 AM on January 8, 2010

fuck yes postin' things on facebook, ungh, gonna be so goddamn active today
posted by boo_radley at 10:29 AM on January 8, 2010

Breast cancer!
I am now aware of it!
posted by Jim Slade at 10:29 AM on January 8, 2010

I thought it was panties because one of my acquaintance's was something like this:

Her: Purple
Someone else: My favorite color!
Her: That's because you get to take it off! ;-)


So:
1. Ew, TMI
2. Campaigns usually work better when you TELL people about them
3. Money's actually more useful for solving cancer than facebook statuses, crazy as it sounds.
posted by oinopaponton at 10:31 AM on January 8, 2010

As the designated curmudgeon of most people's facebook news feeds, I have posted a grumpy warning that I better not see any of this color nonsense on my news feed, and that people should donate money to some fund/research/what have you instead.

I'd like to put my money where my mouth is, so if someone could point me to the direction of something breast cancer oriented at which to put angry dollar bills, I would be (grouchily!) obliged (harumph!)
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 10:31 AM on January 8, 2010