“Lessons to Learn”: Constructions of Femininity in Popular Magazine Breast Health Narratives — Page 3:
11 According to the women in the narratives, breast cancer can serve to refocus the importance of being a mother. Hilene Flanzbaum states that “having breast cancer focuses me on my children like a laser” (228). Other moms talk about how their children help them to deal with breast cancer: “My girls make mustaches with the hair at my feet. It doesn’t seem so awful” (Corrigan 218). In these and other narratives the difficult realities of living with breast cancer are tempered by the joys of being a mother.
12 Motherhood and mothers are also talked about in the context of genetic risk. In the article “My Mother, My Cancer Fears,” Sara Austin comes clean about the reality that instead of making her more proactive about breast health, her mother’s experience paralyzes her into avoidance. She calls for more attention from the medical community to women’s fears. Other women try to keep their mother’s breast cancer in perspective: “I get my tests, try to love my body and free myself from stress. Just because my mother got breast cancer doesn’t mean I will” (Bried 142).
13 Another theme related to motherhood is about helping children to cope with cancer. In the essay “My Third Lung,” mother Laura Walsh Plunkett explains allowing her daughter to play Dr. and examine her as part of the daughter learning to cope with her mother’s breast cancer (130). Maimh Karmo refused to keep her baldness from her three-year-old daughter. Her daughter was originally shocked but grew to love her mother’s baldhead, and she learned to view her mother’s returning hair as a sign of wellness (Green 140).
14 This emphasis on motherhood is potentially essentializing. Feminists have long acknowledged the challenges of recognizing women’s biological differences while trying to advance gender justice. While motherhood could possibly serve as a point of collective action, it more often is taken up as a nexus of familial connection. Women may feel pressure from society to be mothers or even “supermoms” in ways that men typically do not. Traditional notions of femininity dictate that even women who are dealing with life threatening illness place the needs of family before taking care of themselves, as expressed by Angela Agbasi: “the best way to take care of me was to take care of my kids” (Welch 218). While the articles often acknowledge the dangers of this behavior they do little to present solutions.
Sex and Sexuality
15 The personal narratives present a complicated picture of sex and sexuality in relation to breast health. Breasts are sexualized in mainstream media. Many women relate to their breasts sexually. Many of the narratives detail women’s struggles with body confidence post-treatment. “I felt embarrassed to show him my breast, which after my partial mastectomy looked caved in” (LaRue 194). The women in the narratives are challenged to be comfortable with their bodies in a culture that often overemphasizes breasts.