When Breast Cancer Is All About the Boobs: Postfeminist Culture's Influence on Breast Cancer Awareness Campaigning

Abstract

This project analyzes the relationship between breast cancer culture and postfeminist culture, looking at materials from both American and international breast cancer activist groups. Postfeminist culture has an influence on breast cancer culture in several ways, through a neoliberal focus on consumption as a form of activism, continual self-monitoring for beauty and health, a "girling" of women, and the sexual subjectification of women. This project focuses on four main breast cancer activism groups and includes a textual analysis of the groups' awareness and education materials. Included in the textual analysis are responses from popular press and blog sites, which have reacted to the sexual subjectification present in some of the campaigns. This study asserts that sexual subjectification has become a dominant marketing tactic with the rise of postfeminist marketing as a whole.