Moralistic Therapeutic Bunting — feh!

I have made my views on the Planned Parenthood/Susan G. Komen controversy known, and so have many of you readers. One thing I think most of us can agree on: if this means nobody has to wear those stupid pink ribbons anymore, then it cannot have been all bad.

Can I tell you how much I hate the ribbon thing? I hated it when the AIDS red ribbon fashion started, and I’ve hated every one since then. The whole Conspicuous Compassion thing. If you weren’t wearing a ribbon, did that mean you were insensitive to AIDS sufferers, to those with breast cancer, to [fill in the blank] sufferers? While I have, or hope I have, compassion for those who suffer from all sorts of maladies, I don’t get the appeal of Moralistic Therapeutic Bunting — that is, ribbons that make you feel that you’ve done something to fight a disease, and allow you to preen moralistically in front of people whose lack of beribbonment perhaps indicates that they aren’t as enlightened as you are, but which ultimately means nothing. I have never worn a Conspicuous Compassion ribbon for any cause, and I never will, simply because it strikes me as a vulgar and emotionally manipulative practice.