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.
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.
Batiste, G., & Perew, T. (1998). Breast cancer month: Surviving the odds. Black Elegance, 114, 8–12.
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.
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.
Bullock, P. (1981). The Afro-American periodical press, 1838–1909. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University.
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.
Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Collins, P. H. (1991). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (1st ed.). New York: Routledge.
Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Couser, G. (1997). Recovering bodies: Illness, disability, and life writing. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
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.
Frank A. (1995). The wounded storyteller: Body, illness, and ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Herndl, D. (1995). The invisible (invalid) woman: African-American women, illness, and nineteenth-century narrative. Women's Studies, 24, 553–572.
House call: Expert advice on health and fitness. (1998, March). Ebony, 53, 19.
Ireland, J. (1988). Life wish. New York: Jove Publications.
Lorde, A. (1980). The cancer journals. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.
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.
Morton, P. (1991). Disfigured images: The historical assault on Afro-American women. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Quindlen, A. (1994). Barbie at 35. New York Times, 143, p. 19.
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.
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.
Ryan, C. (1998) Competing discourses and the female consumer: Implications for feminist composition theory and pedagogy. Dissertation, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
Saving our breasts, saving our lives. (1995, October). Essence, 26, 156.
Smith, D. (1987). The everyday world as problematic. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
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.
Sontag, S. (1990). Illness as metaphor. In S. Sontag (Ed.), Illness as metaphor and AIDS and its metaphors (pp. 2–87). New York: Anchor.
Thomas, V. (1989). Body image satisfaction among black women. Journal of Social Psychology, 129,(1), 107–112.
Van Zoonen, E. (1994). Feminist media studies. London: Sage.
Wagner, A. (2000, Spring). Re/covered bodies: The sites and stories of illness in popular media. Journal of Medical Humanities, 21(1), 15–27.
Weathers, D. (1994, October). Warriors. Essence, 25, 89–90.
Wolseley, R. (1990). The black press, U.S.A. Ames: Iowa State University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights 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
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOMH.0000023176.98778.10