Breast Talk in Breast Cancer Narratives

Abstract

Breast cancer often involves uniquely mutilating treatments and is frequently assumed to produce problems specifically associated with feminine identity: body image and sexuality. But empirical research to support this assumption is sometimes mixed and nearly always quantitative in method. This study examines breast talk—specific references to breasts and breast cancer in women's illness narratives—collected in 20 open-ended, in-depth interviews with 17 White, middle-class survivors in Maine. Participants varied in age, marital status, motherhood sexual orientation, family history of breast cancer, medical diagnoses, and treatments. Phenomenological analysis of the breast talk resulted in four interrelated clusters of meanings: the medicalized breast, the functional breast, the gendered breast, and the sexualized breast. The analysis suggests both greater and fewer problems with femininity, sexuality, and body image than presumed by much research, and it urges researchers not to reproduce the objectifications and stereotyping of sexist culture.