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Searching for a cure?: a feminist rhetorical queering of mainstream breast cancer discourse online

Date

2016

Authors

Downing, Savannah Greer, author
Griffin, Cindy, advisor
Gibson, Katie, committee member
Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member

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Journal ISSN

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Abstract

This project is a feminist rhetorical analysis of two main sites of breast cancer communication: Komen and the National Breast Cancer Foundation. In order to better understand messages about breast cancer online and how those messages seek to constitute particular audiences, this project rhetorically queers each organization’s homepage to consider representations of race, class and gender. The intersectional approach critiques the presentation of normalized experiences of breast cancer that rely on traditional femininity and cast breast cancer as a middle to upper class white woman’s disease and points to the potential consequences of such a presentation for those who fall along the margins. Ultimately, the project calls for a remaking of breast cancer discourse to be more inclusive, particularly given the vulnerability of bodies already affected by breast cancer, and demonstrates how seemingly palatable sites that are highly trafficked actually further marginalize already silenced experiences of breast cancer.

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Subject

communication
gender
rhetoric
feminism
breast cancer
online

Citation

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