I support the cause and believe it's very noble.
I don't support what the bracelets now stand for at my school.
It's a 99% status symbol/trendy thing-people use the fact that it's for cancer research almost as an excuse to join it. They've become the equivalent of North Face jackets and Ugg boots; when someone has one that doesn't have the "original" brand, they are talked about in negative ways.
What adds to it is that many of the popular crowd (who, coincidentally, happen to be rich) are being laudibly capitalistic by buying dozens of them off the website and then reselling them at school. They are not simply buying a few for a bunch of their friends-they're buying hoards to redistribute to a seleced few (also at the top of the social ladder), who then sell them to other people, etc. Every layer tries to sell the bracelets only to people they consider social equals, but it does eventually trickle down the ladder.
[The bracelets are sold at other places like athletic supply stores, but they sell out extremely quickly. Therefore, if one wants one, one must find a "friend" or colleague who has extras.]
While there is nothing inherently wrong with harnessing capitalism like that, it irks me that some people are pleading and begging for them. People are putting on an almost sarcastic facade of being someone's friend, just to get the bracelets.
Disclaimer: I don't have any problem with capitalism at all. Neither am I suggesting that there would not be this problem in a "socialist" society.
ZH! wrote:
They're so popular here, people have to buy them off others to get ones.
I personally don't have one, but I know quite a few people that do. I don't mind them. They've spawned a few lookalikes here; for instance, there are pink ones that were made to support a missing person around here.
Quite the same at my school. There are light pink ones supporting breast cancer and more saturated pink ones also supporting breast cancer, but also lime green ones to support Lyme disease research.
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