“Lessons to Learn”: Constructions of Femininity in Popular Magazine Breast Health Narratives
21 Social pressures complicate beauty discussions within the breast health narratives. Women are expected to conform to a narrow ideal even while dealing with a potentially deadly illness. The effects of breast cancer treatments can include loss of breasts and hair each of which can have social and cultural significance related to femininity. Through out the narratives women talk about how these changes impacted their lives and how they dealt with the new physical and emotional realities. In the article “We Beat Breast Cancer,” Meka Flowers states: “When people see that you don’t look a hot mess, that shows you are not letting it get the best of you” (Green 138). For Flowers conforming to societal beauty norms is part of controlling her cancer. Robin Roberts, a Good Morning America anchor, shared her breast cancer experience with the television audience. But even though she was very open about her experience, her position as television personality required her to present culturally prescribed femininity. Her treatment made it difficult, because of many changes to her body. In speaking about the challenges her cancer posed for the show’s makeup artists, Roberts states: “It was like putting Humpty Dumpty back together again every morning” (134).
22 Loss of hair is talked about in many of the articles. The moment when Lynda Gorov shaves her head (in response to hair loss from chemotherapy) is a key part of her narrative. The reality of living with a baldhead is complicated by the response of others. When Gorov wraps her baldhead in a scarf, “they seem to see sickness. They see their greatest fear dining at the next table” (127). However, when she does not cover her head the response is very different: “I like to think it says ultra-hip avant-garde performance artist who could kick your butt” (127). In this way, Gorov is able to subvert the pity she hates. She enjoys projecting an image of strength. For Regina Stuve hair loss was the most emotionally difficult part of coping with cancer; “it was even harder than not breastfeeding” (Gurwitt 180). She does cope by wearing specially made baseball caps (with hair extensions attached) and joking that she has the same hairstyle as her infant son. Many of the narratives about hair loss also serve to disrupt traditional beauty norms, such as when Roberts relates the story of modeling in a televised fashion show without her wig. “I held my bald head high and strutted my stuff” (134). The accompanying picture of Roberts shows her bald on the catwalk. The image of a woman who is bald and beautiful has become a symbol of strength and survivorship.
23 The article “I was Diagnosed at 26” is about breast cancer survivor Allison Briggs who documented her experience with a camera and posted the pictures on a website. In one accompanying image Briggs is wearing only a pair of jeans. One arm is suggestively covering her breasts and she is looking out at the camera in a sexual manner. Briggs describes the picture as “while I still had my breasts and some hair” (316). So this pre-treatment picture is an image of the “old” Briggs. But the image of a topless, young, thin, white, and blonde woman in a suggestive pose reinforces the narrow representation and sexualization of women in breast health magazine articles.
24 It is common for women to have difficulty negotiating the balance between mourning the pre-treatment body and celebrating a new life as a survivor. Many, like Allison Briggs, learn to reframe what it means to be beautiful: “I used to associate hair, nails, eyelashes and breasts with beauty, but when I lost them all I truly felt more beautiful than ever simply because I was alive” (317). Collectively the breast health narratives emphasize women’s looks. While the narratives may recognize and promote new beauty norms, there is still an underlying current that women should focus on looking good and seek external validation of their looks.
“Lessons to Learn”
25 The theme that surviving breast cancer presents an opportunity for learning important life lessons permeates many of the narratives. Melissa Ethridge explains that she was jolted by her breast cancer diagnosis: “I thought I was being good, eating right, exercising. But this was the road I was going to have to go down. Maybe kicking and screaming, but this was my new path. I knew there had to be lessons to learn” (Glock 98). Maimh Karmo states that “it was the best time in my life because it gave me the opportunity to really live” (Green 140). Because of her breast cancer experiences she learned, as she says, that “I’m stronger and more powerful than I ever thought I could be” (Green 140). These sentiments can potentially serve to empower women.