Elements for depolitization of breast cancer
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Abstract
Breast cancer has acquired unprecedented visibility in Spain. Although the origins of the breast cancer movement were concerned with the oppressive patient role and the increasing incidence of the disease, the last three decades have been marked by a focus on diagnosis through screening and awareness campaigns. Some would say that we need to celebrate this progressive politization of breast cancer that has placed the disease on the national agenda. However, I argue that its political purpose is in crisis and has depolitised the disease without raising any suspicions among the most critical sectors, including feminist circles. Building on my work on breast cancer from the past 14 years, in this article I take a cue from Mari Luz Esteban’s (2017) critique of the ‘overinvisibilization’ of breast cancer to demonstrate how it has been depoliticized. I will reinterrogate how breast cancer is spoken about, how women are represented, what topics make headlines and which ones are silenced or remain taboo. In particular,I will illustrate how the ‘overinvisibilization’ of breast cancer results in various forms of discourses and practices. These include the hypervisibility of hegemonic and monothematic messages that are compounded with sexism; and the invisibilization of those differential experiences and discourses about the disease that questions the status quo of the industry of cancer.
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