Skip to main content
Log in

“Am I Not a Woman?” The Rhetoric of Breast Cancer Stories in African American Women's Popular Periodicals

  • Published:
Journal of Medical Humanities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Representations of breast cancer are examined in three popular women's periodicals targeting African American readers: Ebony, Essence, and Black Elegance. The researcher focuses specifically on representations that reflect certain ideas/ideals about the sharing and creating of information about the disease and related issues, such as health care and body image. Magazine selections are analyzed and critiqued according to the epistemological principles outlined by Patricia Hill Collins in Black Feminist Thought. The author calls for further research into how and why particular social and cultural groups consume information about health and illness in particular ways.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Avon hopes to increase breast cancer awareness. (1995, January). Black Elegance, 11.

  • Bair, B., & Cayleff, S. (1993). Wings of gauze: Women of color and the experience of health and illness. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Batiste, G., & Perew, T. (1998). Breast cancer month: Surviving the odds. Black Elegance, 114, 8–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belenky, M., Clinchy, B., Goldberger, N., & Tarule, J. (1986). Women's ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belkin, L. (1996, December 22). Charity begins at... the marketing meeting, the gala event, the product tie-in. New York Times Magazine, p. 40.

  • Boehmer, U. (2000). The personal and the political: Women's activism in response to the breast cancer and AIDS epidemics. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bullock, P. (1981). The Afro-American periodical press, 1838–1909. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cancer center in Harlem expands free services. (1995, May). Black Elegance, 12.

  • Cartwright, L. (2000). Community and the public body in breast cancer media activism. In J. Marchessault & K. Sawchuk (Eds.), Wild science: Reading feminism, medicine and the media (pp. 120–138). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (1991). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (1st ed.). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Couser, G. (1997). Recovering bodies: Illness, disability, and life writing. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diahann Carroll's lifesaving breast cancer message to black women. (1998, October). Ebony, 53, 170–171.

  • Dodson, A. (1998, December). Tea and empathy. Essence, 8, 66.

  • Dunnavant, S. (1995, October). Am I not a woman? Black Elegance, 87, 40.

  • Falconer, J. W., & Neville, H. A. (2000). African American college women's body image. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24 (3), 236–243.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank A. (1995). The wounded storyteller: Body, illness, and ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grayson, D. R. (1999). Necessity was the midwife of our politics: Black women's health activism in the “post”-Civil rights era (1980–1996). In K. Springer (Ed.), Still lifting, still climbing: African American women's contemporary activism (pp. 131–48). New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregory, D. (1993, September). Prevent breast cancer. Essence, 24, 44.

  • Harris, T. (1995). This disease called strength: Some observations on the compensating construction of black female character. Literature and Medicine, 14, 109–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartsock, N. (1983). The feminist standpoint: Developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism. In S. Harding & M. Hintikka (Eds.), Discovering reality (pp. 283–310). Boston: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Health and beauty 101. (1999, March). Essence, 29, 126.

  • Hermes, J. (1995). Reading women's magazines: An analysis of everyday media use. Oxford: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herndl, D. (1995). The invisible (invalid) woman: African-American women, illness, and nineteenth-century narrative. Women's Studies, 24, 553–572.

    Google Scholar 

  • House call: Expert advice on health and fitness. (1998, March). Ebony, 53, 19.

  • Ireland, J. (1988). Life wish. New York: Jove Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorde, A. (1980). The cancer journals. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Makkar, J. K., & Strube, M. (1995). Black women's self-perceptions of attractiveness following exposure to white versus black beauty. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25 (18), 1547–1567.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton, P. (1991). Disfigured images: The historical assault on Afro-American women. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quindlen, A. (1994). Barbie at 35. New York Times, 143, p. 19.

    Google Scholar 

  • QVC's benefit for breast cancer research. (1998, October). Black Elegance, 114, 15.

  • Randolph, L. (1995, March). Why breast cancer kills more black women: Alarming statistics spark national search for answers. Ebony, 50, 122.

  • Randolph, L. (1997, October). Breast cancer: Confronting a major killer of black women. Ebony, 52, 148–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhea, S. (1998, September). Living with a purpose. Essence, 29, 80.

  • Rivers, A. (1995, October). Always a woman. Black Elegance, 87, 40–44.

  • Rollin, B. (1976). First you cry. New York: Anchor.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, C. (1998) Competing discourses and the female consumer: Implications for feminist composition theory and pedagogy. Dissertation, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saving our breasts, saving our lives. (1995, October). Essence, 26, 156.

  • Smith, D. (1987). The everyday world as problematic. Boston: Northeastern University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, S. (1995). Sick and tired of being sick and tired: Black women's health activism in America, 1890–1950. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sontag, S. (1990). Illness as metaphor. In S. Sontag (Ed.), Illness as metaphor and AIDS and its metaphors (pp. 2–87). New York: Anchor.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, V. (1989). Body image satisfaction among black women. Journal of Social Psychology, 129,(1), 107–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Zoonen, E. (1994). Feminist media studies. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, A. (2000, Spring). Re/covered bodies: The sites and stories of illness in popular media. Journal of Medical Humanities, 21(1), 15–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weathers, D. (1994, October). Warriors. Essence, 25, 89–90.

  • Wolseley, R. (1990). The black press, U.S.A. Ames: Iowa State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ryan, C. “Am I Not a Woman?” The Rhetoric of Breast Cancer Stories in African American Women's Popular Periodicals. Journal of Medical Humanities 25, 129–150 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOMH.0000023176.98778.10

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOMH.0000023176.98778.10

Navigation