“Lessons to Learn”: Constructions of Femininity in Popular Magazine Breast Health Narratives — Page 2:
6 There are narratives about: breast cancer survivors; women who died of breast cancer; and relatives and friends (including celebrities) of people with breast cancer. The stories invoke a range of emotions and deal with a variety of issues related to living with (and less often dying from) breast cancer. Some of the personal stories are funny, others are sad, and some take the readers through a rollercoaster of ups and downs related to dealing with a serious illness. Other narratives are celebratory or self-effacing. There are many that are intended to serve as cautionary tales. Individually the narratives encourage women to speak up and be heard, while collectively the narratives serve to reinforce the social construction of gender in ways that are often narrow and confining.
Motherhood
7 Motherhood appears in twenty articles. The articles and images address motherhood, mothers, and mothering in a variety of ways. The representations include images of pregnant breast cancer survivors and survivors who struggle with fertility and adoption. In this context motherhood becomes something that is more difficult because of breast cancer but is eventually achieved. “We conceived my daughter naturally less than a year later. It was truly miraculous” (Mantica 166). The emphasis on the impact of breast cancer on fertility reinforces the representation of younger women with breast cancer. Post-menopausal women are at higher risk for breast cancer but magazine coverage of breast cancer places an emphasis on younger women.
8 The presence or absence of mothers with breast cancer is another common theme. The focus of these articles is typically how celebrities have learned from their mothers’ experiences and have become advocates supporting breast cancer awareness and activism. In Daisy, Tell My Story in Public, celebrity Daisy Fuentes talks about her mother’s struggle with breast cancer and how it changed her close-knit family for the better. Fuentes uses this opportunity to call for “more research funds and free mammogram screenings, especially in low-income communities” (Greeven 128). In another article, actress Judy Reyes explains that she learned from her mother’s experience with breast cancer to “question everything and do your research” (Romero 124). These celebrities who have been impacted directly by breast cancer are using their celebrity status to increase breast cancer awareness.
9 Articles about motherhood and breast health contain stories of women who are struggling to be good mothers while taking care of their own health. In “Two Sisters with Breast Cancer: One Made it. One Didn’t,” April Zemla describes visiting her sister Norma, who is suffering the effects of chemotherapy: “Her kids were unfed and running wild around the house, but she couldn’t do anything about it. It broke my heart” (Shepelavy 319). A decade later when Zemla is struggling with a personal breast cancer diagnosis taking care of her own children proves difficult. According to the article, “she caught herself neglecting them as she struggled with the first wave of insurance forms and doctor appointments” (319), and as she went to bed later that night she chastised herself for not making the most of the day and spending time playing with her children. For Meka Flowers one of the most difficult parts of dealing with breast cancer was the reality that she could not pick up her two-year-old daughter, and there were times when she could not do certain things with her daughter (Green 138). This subset of narratives may serve to reinforce cultural pressures that are placed on women in relation to parenting.
10 Occasionally there are narratives that work to relieve some of the societal emphasis on being a “perfect mother.” Rene Syler, who underwent a prophylactic mastectomy because both of her parents are breast cancer survivors, wrote a book that is designed to “take the pressure of mothers who find themselves stressed out and stretched thin in their efforts to be supermoms” (SekouWrites 158). Her book strives to give women permission to accept good enough rather than some idealized notion of perfection when it comes to mothering. She emphasizes that children need time, love, support, and attention.