In case you don’t have any access to any kind of social media, let’s catch you up: Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the breast cancer charity that has become synonymous with the color pink, created quite the controversy earlier this week when they cut off their funding to Planned Parenthood. Komen says it’s because they don’t fund organizations who are currently under investigation by the government. Loads of people in the world have called bullshit on that excuse and pointed out that Karen Handel, SGK’s Vice President, has in fact had a pretty big slant against PP for some time now (here’s the now-infamous retweet she posted then immediately deleted – thanks, Internet).
Like I said, though, if you have even the slightest presence on social media sites then this news has been all over your feeds this week. Using Trendistic, a graphing tool that tracks trends on Twitter, you can see the spike in mentions of “komen” starting on Tuesday when the news broke.
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That initial spike you see indicates a .06% when I mouse over it, but I’m not sure if that’s the percentage increase in tweets containing “komen” or if it means something else, but I’ll explain that in a second.
Additionally, the term “planned parenthood” attracted even more attention and actually trended a little higher than “komen,” as you’ll see below in the graph. At the same time, Tuesday, January 31, at 6PM, “planned parenthood” was trending at .07%.
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As I said, I’m not precisely sure what those percentages indicate but let’s try to put it into a context from which we can hopefully extract some significance. I searched a couple of other popular terms to measure against the “komen” and “planned parenthood” trends. At the same time – again, on Tuesday at 6PM – these are the percentage of tweets for the following terms: “patriots” was .04%, “giants” was .04%, “super bowl” was .02%, “obama” was .06%, and “florida” was .1%. Given that the comparison terms I used are related to this Sunday’s Super Bowl and the presidential election (Note: the term “romney” dwarfed all of these terms on Tuesday, but that was also the day Romney won Florida’s primary), i.e., things people are talking about, you can see that lots of people have been talking about Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood on Twitter.
So… what are people saying? Well. They’re not happy. Have a look:
Er, wait. I almost put this first tweet at the bottom on purpose but then realized that some trolls out there would call me biased, but whatever – I am biased because this Komen decision is hateful and the product of ideological madness. At any rate, I’m still putting first the tweet-and-video-message from Nancy Brinker, Susan G. Komen’s sister and co-founder of SGK For The Cure.
It’s not about politics. It never has been and never will be. Get the straight story from me: http://t.co/MKME0pZg
Now that you’ve read/seen that, here’s how the rest of the Twitterscape feels about Komen dumping Planned Parenthood.
Thank you to those standing with me in support of #PlannedParenthood. I’m matching contributions up to $250K. Join me http://t.co/JuWXu6mp
Sen. Sanders and others call on Komen to reverse Planned Parenthood decision: http://t.co/pvQTj1v4 #komen #standwithPP #p2 #TFY #fem2
Planned Parenthood has been my primary provider of healthcare for HALF OF MY LIFE now. #PPSavedMe #StandWithPP
JUST IN: Two dozen Senators #standwithPP, call on Komen to reverse Planned Parenthood decision: http://t.co/bIXZKl1B
Komen thing is about more than abortion or Planned Parenthood. It’s about whether sexually active women have a right to full health care.
Planned Parenthood provides indispensable services to women in countless communities across the country RT @PPact RT if you #standwithPP
Found in the world: PlannedParenthoodSavedMe http://t.co/sUNOfZiz
If you’re not outraged by what the Susan G Komen organization has done by ending support for Planned Parenthood, you’re not paying attention
Overheard at Komen boardroom: “Help us, Koch Brothers, you’re our only hope!”
The Decemberists Pull Support From Komen Foundation, Raise Funds for Planned Parenthood http://t.co/ldJYXY7N
Today I will write a check payable to “Planned Parenthood.”
Put women’s health before politics. Call on #Komen to reject far-right agenda, reverse decision to defund @PPact http://t.co/IFuzUKI7
Komen is seeking a Director of Communications. A little late for that, no? http://t.co/i9dJrY1m
Komen changes story 180 degrees on why they defunded Planned Parenthood http://t.co/9zMcDl9Z
So–@komenforthecure is denying grants to organizations under investigation…but Penn State is getting $7.5 mil: http://t.co/AebDcE30 #fb
Shame on them for politicizing women’s health. Susan G. Komen enters the McCarthy era http://t.co/qf6BdJT3
BREAKING: Tax records reveal most of Susan G Komen money goes to curing ham.
The sad part of the Komen debacle is that a noble enterprise was infected with the moral Cancer that has permeated the political Right.
Big week 4 GOP…Komen’s anti choice CEO puts politics over women’s lives & Romney declares he doesn’t really care abt the very poor.Shame.
Thank you Planned Parenthood for being there to help the many foster teens we took in. The heck with Susan Komen group.
Women’s health can’t afford to be caught up in political bull. I #standwithPP. Do you? http://t.co/nWUlPKmX Pls RT!
Susan G. Komen is now selling pink handguns, you know, to help find the cure: http://t.co/EqzIMSWm You can’t make this up.
In the meantime, feel free to comment below on your thoughts about this ordeal. Maybe you like Komen’s decision? Maybe you’re enjoying the public relations gymnastics the charity is doing in order to contain the damage to their image? Or maybe you’re just downright livid. At any rate, chime in below.
UPDATE: Well, that was timely. So what’s the power of dominating a social media conversation to you?
BREAKING: Komen reverses position on Planned Parenthood, pledges to continue funding http://t.co/mPsrAfyt
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