I recently saw the Sex in the City episode where Miranda goes shopping for a dress for her mother’s funeral and after screaming at a lingerie saleswoman, she breaks down and cries in the woman’s arms. That scene makes me watery eyed for so many reasons; the thought of loosing a parent, the vulnerability in breaking down to a stranger, the compassion of the sales woman.

I had a similar experience. Not the breakdown part, but the bra fitting scenario. A few months ago I went for a proper fitting at a place in New York City called Linda’s bra store and learned way more about bras and how they relate to breast health than I ever anticipated. Apparently a poorly fitted or unsupportive bra can result in back pain, shoulder pain, improper posture, and can create unhealthy

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A group of over 20 female singers, including Anya Donelly, Britta Phillips, Lori McKenna, Jill Sobule with John Doe, Veruca Salt, Kristin Hersh, Josie Cotton, and The Watson Twins are joining musical forces to record new versions of Neil Young’s most popular, pre-1980 acoustic ballads. Proceeds from the collection, titled Cinnamon Girl, will benefit Casting for Recovery, a cancer charity.

As explained on their site Casting For Recovery (CFR) is a national non-profit support and educational program for women who have or have had breast cancer. They provide an opportunity for women whose lives have been profoundly affected by the disease to gather in a beautiful, natural setting and learn fly-fishing, “a sport for life.” Just as importantly, they offer an opportunity to meet new friends and have fun. Their weekend retreats incorporate counseling, educational services and the sport of fly-fishing to promote mental and physical healing. Founded in 1996, Casting for Recovery has been offering free retreats across the country.

CFR relies heavily on volunteers and donations to offer it’s free retreats, so and visit castingforrecovery.org to get give or get involved.

Did you know you could celebrate International Women’s Day without even leaving your house, or getting out of bed, or changing out of your pajamas, or spending a penny? Here are 10 ways you can show your support, make change, and even raise money for good causes on International Women’s Day:

1. Send this fun animated e-card about women, body issues, and self-esteem. Don’t worry, it’s funny, not a downer. Plus with e-cards from Care2, you’re not just supporting women. You’re helping the environment. Because for every e-card you send, Care2 makes a donation to an environmental nonprofit to save a square foot of rainforest.

2. Send this funny animated “Keep Young and Beautiful” e-card about women who torture and contort themselves to fit into certain clothes and shoes. But don’t worry. It has a happy ending involving an ice cream cone. Again, you’ll be helping out the rainforests.

3. Or try celebrating International Women’s Day with this Celebrating Women e-card.

4. And this Marie Curie animated e-card is a great way to cure the International Women’s Day blues.

5. Now that you’ve put all those cards in the mailbox, treat yourself and treat the world with some care2 “click to donates.” You raise money for organizations and campaigns without paying a cent. When you “click,” a company “donates.” So if you want to support Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women programs, just click here.

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Thanks Feministing.com for directing us to this awesome video by the fabulous comedic duo Mark & Ari. It gives love to everyone’s favorite video-game feminist, Ms. Pac-Man and gives a thumbs down to breast cancer. Enjoy!

For more on breast cancer awareness visit http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/

Our second installation of the TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is here give you the very best of Katie, Nicole, Giulia, Gina and Kerry! More blogs means more to love this Valentine’s Day week, and more social action means a healthier and happier world for everyone. Check out our most popular posts of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

5 Ways to Take Action and Get Action On Valentine’s Day

Top 10 Guilt-Free Valentine’s Day Jewelry Gifts: Show Your Valentine You Have a Heart

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Nicole:

Kiva: Microlending to Change Lives

Top 10 New Releases to Inspire Social Change

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Giulia:

Alicia Keys Uses Grammys to Help Keep a Child Alive

V-Day Celebrates Its 10 Year Anniversary!

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Gina:

Top 10 Movie Characters That Make A Difference

Art As Politics In “The Silence Before Bach”

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Kerry:

Tap Project Gets Donations Flowing For Safe Global Water

Levon Helms’ “Dirt Farmer” Wins Grammy Gold

This Valentine’s Day, if you’re hoping to find that special someone who will “take actions” with you to make the world, and your love life, a better happier place, I have just the list for you. So here are the 5 best free on-line dating sites for finding that special someone to drink organic free trade hot cocoa with, to make a hemp necklace for, and to send action alerts to. Because, you know what they say: the personals is political.

1. Act For Love is a personals site where you can find the activist– and the cause– of your dreams. After you’re done searching through profiles, you can search through the action center where you will find things like “Less Pink, More Research” take action link, which urges Congress to pass the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act. Their motto, which I say after coming up with the title for this post, is “Take Action. Get Action.”

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Early detection of breast cancer can be the difference between life and death, but thousands of women lack the means to get a mammogram, while others fail to realize the importance of getting regular mammograms.

If you had the opportunity to donate free mammograms to low-income, inner-city and minority women who lack access to this essential service and have only a limited awareness of breast cancer, you’d do it, right?

I’m glad you said “yes,” because, thanks to The Breast Cancer Site, you can! All you have to do is take a few seconds to go to the site:

With a simple, daily click of the pink “Click Here to Give - it’s FREE” button at The Breast Cancer Site, visitors help to provide free mammograms for women in need. Visitors pay nothing. Mammograms are provided by our charitable partners. Your click is paid for by site sponsors, and mammogram funding is provided to clinics throughout the U.S. through the efforts of the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

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CNN.com reported that men are being encouraged to be aware of breast cancer risks.

Male relatives of women with such genes often do not realize that they, too, may carry them, and face greater odds of developing male breast cancer, as well as prostate, pancreatic and skin cancer, new research suggests.

“Everyone thinks of breast and ovarian cancer and just assumes it’s all women. They don’t even realize these genes can be inherited from the father’s side of the family,” said Dr. Mary Daly of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

According to the American Cancer Association men make up about 1% of all breast cancer cases,  which means about 2,030 men will develop breast cancer every year.

For more on cancer prevention and support visit http://www.cancer.org