Searching For Identity in the Face of Survival: Overcoming Breast Cancer in a Patriarchal Society

Photo Source:
https://www.familycircle.com/health/concerns/cancer/is-it-breast-cancer/

Staring up at the lump seen on your mammogram, the doctor’s words have faded into the background, you are now face to face with your own mortality, then you imagine the severing of one of your breasts. You begin to worry that even if you survive, you will be looked upon as an oddity. Possibly your appearance can be revived through reconstruction, make-up, and the reassurance of others; at least that’s what our patriarchal society makes you think.  

While women confront death in the face of breast cancer, one’s attention is partitioned amongst survival, identity, desirability, and femininity. The current patriarchal society forces women with breast cancer to not only be concerned with their survival, but with their ability to uphold their image of being productive members of society through gender roles, whilst staying desirable through their outward appearance. In an attempt to make up for such felt absence of identity women rely on reconstructive surgeries or prosthetics and organizations such as Susan G. Komen where the stereotypical roles of women are further instilled.  

Once a woman is able to embark on the journey of recovery being left with a portion of a breast, one, or no breasts at all, her identity is called into question due to her femininity partly being linked to this fatty tissue that once wreaked havoc on her own body. This loss of flesh not only exemplifies a survivor but reminds a woman of her loss of identity. In a patriarchal society where the identity of women is found within the stereotype of women, where appearance is in part the aspect of their life that is widely understood as their only source of value (Lorde, A., 2007, p.58).  

Ms. Marcou, a breast cancer survivor herself, spoke out about her own perception on how breast cancer impacts women's sense of identity: “Individual women still tussle with their body because it's so valued in society. Every woman who goes through this will wonder about her femininity and sexuality”. 

So, what is the response of women in order to regain this sense of femininity and womanhood? Women feel it is their own responsibility to stay sexy and desirable in the eyes of another, only to try and cover up the suffering and trauma that has just occurred. Survivors may purchase wigs, make-up, and prosthetics in order to regain a desirability that they feel cancer stripped from these survivors. Rather than womanhood being exemplified in the sheer strength that women withhold, it’s reduced to the sheer appearance of a woman down to the very detail of “normal’ breasts.  

Photo Source:
http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/article/mastectomy

In a response to regain one's own sense of womanhood and femininity, women resort to reconstructive surgery and prosthetics in order to feel as though their identity is somewhat intact while their suffering remains. As breasts are represented as a symbol of womanhood, nurturing, and sexuality, rather than realizing these qualities within oneself, some women, as a result, opt for breast reconstruction or prosthetics in order to attempt to fill this void (Williams, L., 1991, December 25). “However well-meaning and under whatever guise, must be seen as damaging, for it keeps the post-mastectomy woman in a position of perpetual and secret insufficiency, infantilized and dependent for her identity upon an external definition of appearance.”  (Lorde, A., 2007, p.59). The importance of this quote from Audre Lorde exemplifies how women who subject themselves to this need of a disguise, are still left to fill this void, loss of womanhood and femininity because a fake breast(s) will not rebuild one's own identity, rather this is found within oneself. In reality, such reconstructive options only feed into the patriarchal society and the illusions that without hair, breasts, etc. you are unable to remain attractive, womanly, and feminine.  

On the other hand, not only are reconstructive surgeries and devices the only agents that attempt to lessen a women's identity, organizations such as the Susan G Komen have positioned themselves in a way that place women within their typical societal stereotypes. On Susan G Komen’s website, they position women as caretakers, purely heterosexual beings and represent femininity purely through the color pink, thus furthering the gender role divide. As pink has signified gender since the 1960s through apparel and toys for girls, in order to specify a gender divide between the sexes. Although the color pink has positively been used as a color to represent women, it also restrains women into the expected stereotypical role of being desirable, motherly, lady-like, sensitive, etc. Throughout this website, the color pink is overwhelmingly represented, constantly reminding women of the need to remain feminine and desirable, as though this is what is the utmost concern of those battling this life-threatening disease. 

While some may disagree and note that pink is a distinct color that has represented women’s strength throughout movements, with the pairing of overwhelming patriarchal and heterosexual propaganda I argue this use of color is used with the sole purpose of representing women who fall within their assigned role (Pandey, A., 2016, July 15). This patriarchal and heterosexual propaganda can be represented through the quote: “I worry for my daughter, her friends, my mother and women everywhere. As men, we have to realize that this disease could someday affect the women in our lives”. This quote not only signifies the need for a man to speak out in order for an issue majorly affecting women to be heard; it also represents that this website purely is speaking to women with a male partner, thus silencing a large group of women who do not find themselves as heterosexual. Throughout the website, there is consistent imagery of women with male partners. Thus, when paired with pictures of women with children, this is then once again placing women in the stereotypical role of women needing to be the productive and desirable member of society through their role as mothers and caretakers. This imagery can be harmful to women’s identity while battling with breast cancer because it is specifically speaking to a certain kind of woman that fits within the gender role seen as desirable and feminine within our patriarchal society.  

All in all, while a woman is battling cancer, she is forced by our patriarchal society to represent a woman that fits within her assigned gender role. Fitting within this gender role forces women to feel the need to remain/ become desirable and feminine. Organizations such as the Susan G. Komen organization largely represents such gender roles through patriarchal and heterosexual propaganda, while the cancer industry pushes women to gain their sense of identity back through an external self that can be discovered through surgeries and prosthetics. Rather than encouraging survivors to find a sense of identity that fulfills the patriarchal stereotype of women, why don’t we as a society offer other avenues in order to ease one’s suffering and trauma without relying on how the patriarchal ideals of what it means to be women who are productive, feminine, and desirable?  

Resources:

Lorde, A. (2007). The Cancer Journals. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books. 

Pandey, A. (2016, July 15). Pink And Blue: The Colours Of Gender Stereotyping. Retrieved December 09, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.in/aradhana-pandey/pink-and-blue-the-myth-be_b_9191840.html 

Susan G. Komen. (n.d.). Retrieved December 08, 2018, from https://ww5.komen.org/ 

Williams, L. (1991, December 25). Women Who Lose Breasts Define Their Own Femininity. Retrieved December 09, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/25/health/women-who-lose-breasts-define-their-own-femininity.html

If the Patriarchy Can't Control Women's Bodies, No One Can

        

Photograph Source:
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/how-feels-slut-shamed

       As women, we try to control our own bodies and reproduction with birth control- but we aren’t the only ones trying to control our bodies.

 
 Women’s reproductive rights and access to birth control have been under attack since the beginning of time. Since contraceptives have been available beginning in the 1960’s, there was a backlash among white men against women’s access to birth control, and it doesn’t look like the end to this fight is anywhere in sight (Our Bodies Ourselves, 2013, December 14). 

   The discourse surrounding the use of contraceptives among women has placed blame on to women and their sexuality. In a country where we are thought to be extremely advanced- it's shameful that women’s health in the United States suffers. I deem women’s health is extremely poor in the U.S. in part because the biopolitics surrounding contraceptives is used to control women and their reproduction in the United States, and when women attempt to take back this power, scare tactics such as slut-shaming is used to ensure that biopolitics will continue to control women, specifically surrounding the discourse of the 1980’s IUD and contraceptives in the Trump era. 

   To expand on why this discussion is still being had today, in 2018- it is all due to the biopolitics surrounding contraception and its link to women’s sexuality. Biopolitics acts as a mechanism that feeds off of “power, knowledge, and processes of subjectivization”(Garrison, L, 2013, January 21). Biopolitics as a mechanism is controlled by those in power and those who are able to control public knowledge- the patriarchy.  So as contraception was born into existence for population control, this allowed men to feel as though they were in control because they were able to target specific women in which they wanted to control. Then, as contraceptives began to become more widely available women took these devices in order to control their own bodies and reproduction. As a result- the biopolitics surrounding contraceptives enabled for further subjectivization of women who have reclaimed their own sexuality.

    Men use contraceptives as a way to put women’s reproductive freedoms under attack for the reason that the patriarchal system wants to have the power to over women’s bodies Men in history have used women’s bodies as a way for themselves to receive pleasure and reproduce in order to continue their familial line. Since contraceptives have been introduced, this has given women the opportunity to liberate their bodies from the control of men and use their bodies as a source for their own pleasure and gain control over their reproductive organs. It gave women a choice. This scared men- so in reaction, men used scare tactics in order to attempt to gain control back over women’s bodies, these men demanded to have a say.  Scare tactics in relation to women contraceptives began with putting women’s lives in danger, and when this failed to work,  men began to attack women for their bodily freedom, such as naming that having sex with multiple partners put women at risk for pelvic inflammatory disease when the IUD was used. 

 
  This subjectivization looks like women being blamed for the faulty  1980’s IUD. Subjectivization looks like women who are using contraceptives being slut-shamed by the government. 

    What is the role of biopolitics within all of this? It allows the patriarchy to control the public image of women on contraceptives- their belief lies that the patriarchy is in control of the discourse surrounding women and contraceptives

 

 Source:
http://www.ncsddc.org/leveraging-technology-for-partner-services-dis-now-have-access-to-an-ips-toolkit/shutterstock_348145376/

  So the problem isn’t my sexuality, or my sexual freedom, or my decision to use birth control- it’s the biopolitics surrounding contraceptives such as the IUD.  In the 1980’s women blamed for the faulty IUD available at this time, for it wasn't the IUD that cause harm among women’s bodies- it was women and their own sexuality. 

 
 In the 1980’s when cases of pelvic inflammatory disease became relevant in the topic of IUD’s, multiple studies were completed and “ through selective reading of epidemiological data, these medical texts neatly localized IUD risks to the promiscuous sexual behavior of the users and their partner.” (Takeshita, C, 2012, p.92) So rather than the researchers who were responsible for the development of this device asking why  IUDs placed in women’s bodies it raised the risk of infection by 1.8 times higher compared to those without an IUD (Takeshita, C, 2012, p.91). Instead, researchers chose to focus on the fact that women who had more than one sexual partner had a raised the risk of PID to 2.6 times (Takeshita, C, 2012, p.91). Now how does this make sense?

   I’ll try to make this a bit clearer for those reading this- PID is a bacterial infection that is caused by STI’s. So, those who are having sex with more partners have a chance of contracting this infection because they are being exposed more so. BUT, the IUD is causing the risk of 1.8 times higher for contracting this infection. Rather than focus on why the IUD was making the risk higher- researchers decided to say that women with “promiscuous and risky behavior” are at fault. This is biopolitics of contraception in action. The researchers who have the knowledge and power to share information with the public, instead of exploring why the IUD raises this risk, they choose to blame women for their sexuality. The patriarchy controls the discourse, therefore women are going to be shamed for embracing sexual freedom because the patriarchy is threatened by the power women receive through being able to control their own body.

   However, fast-forward to 2018, we are 2 years into the Trump Administration- left with a delusional man as a president and yet the discussion surrounding contraceptives and “risky sexual behavior” among women is still in the national headlines. The reason for this being that the biopolitics of contraception has yet to evolve. When women are taking back their sexuality the patriarchy is stripped of the power and their dominance, in turn, they are challenged. 

 
  This country’s institution over-powered by men does what they believe is rational- attempt to strip women of their reproductive rights. In response to this stripping of power, President Donald Trump renounced the notion that women should be given easier access to contraceptives by spreading a false discourse that contraception increases the risky sexual behavior (Abrams, A, 2017, October 12). This shaming of women yet again feeds into the biopolitical discourse that contraception should be used as a method to control the population and when women use contraception as a tool for themselves, scare tactics are used to ensure that biopolitics will continue to control women. 

Resources:

Abrams, A. (2017, October 12). The Trump Administration Says Birth Control Could Lead to 'Risky Sexual Behavior.' Scientists Say That's Wrong. Retrieved November 8, 2018, from http://time.com/4975951/donald-trump-birth-control-mandate-sexual-behavior/

Garrison, L. (2013, January 21). Biopolitics: An Overview. Retrieved November 09, 2018, from https://anthrobiopolitics.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/biopolitics-an-overview/

Our Bodies Ourselves. (2013, December 14). A Brief History of Birth Control in the U.S. Retrieved November 9, 2018, from https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/a-brief-history-of-birth-control/

Takeshita, C. (2012). The global biopolitics of the IUD: How science constructs contraceptive users and womens bodies. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

WebMD. (n.d.). What Is Pelvic Inflammatory Disease? Retrieved November 11, 2018, from https://www.webmd.com/women/guide/what-is-pelvic-inflammatory-disease