“We Remain Very Much the Second Sex”: The Constructions of Prostate Cancer in Popular News Magazines, 2000-2010
With the purpose of this research being to look at the “…portrayal of prostate cancer in high-circulating popular news magazines…” (15), it became immediately clear to me that this article was going to focus on some issues regarding men’s health that I have never thought of before. While “Prostate cancer is one of the most common male cancers affecting hundreds of thousands of men in North America mostly over the age of 50. In 2007, 22,300 Canadian men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and an additional 4,300 men died the same year.” (15) is alarming, it’s incredible that there is so much stigma and shame for men to get a prostate test. Although “…in Canada [in 2014], 1 in 7 men is expected to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 1 in 28 is expected to die from it. “(15) there doesn’t seem to be as much of a dramatic social shift in how a men’s masculinity and health go hand in hand. While the ideas of health and masculinity should be separated in an ideal world, the prostate exam preformed on men is explained as emphasizing their role as a female partner, instead of leaving them feeling healthy and masculine (18). And “Despite [the] debate surrounding the efficacy of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screenings, nearly half of Canadian men over the age of 50 report having several PSA screenings over their lifetime. PSA screenings mostly occur because of anxiety and because of how PSA screening is constructed as imperative in the media (17), all caused by men being told by society that they must be the biggest, strongest, and most masculine version of themselves while never showing weakness. The idea of masculinity plays a huge part in the fight to have men seen as individuals, just as strong or weak as anyone else, and should cause me to be “…embarrassed because of the procedure, the fear surrounding cancer and diagnosis, and general confusion about the screening.” (17). While some men go into the exams scared and uncomfortable with what the examination entails, when the test comes back positive, the men are “…portrayed as courageous, brave, strong, and stoic throughout the articles. In these articles, hegemonic masculinity is portrayed as important and needed to survive prostate cancer.” (21), enforcing the idea even more of having to be a masculine man to survive the prostate cancer if you just so happen to get it. This article showcases the negative aspects that masculinity has on men and their desires to live up to the expectation that they need to be a “macho-man,” and the idea of maintaining their masculinity for some men may come before the concern of their health.
Body Failure
While doctors dealt with issues of women’s health regarding cervical and breast cancer “…doctors perceived women’s bodies as problematic.” (215) and that these issues were due to womanly duties including childbirth (219). It was believed that “Women who conformed to the norms of society—who married and had children, especially those with many children— were most at risk.” (219) due to the trauma done to the woman’s cervix during pregnancy, this was seen as a “design flaw” in women’s bodies. While in the 1940’s it was “…estimated that [cervical cancer] was the second most common site of cancer in women.” (219) it’s very interesting that the use of Pap smears only become available to women in screening clinics around Canada in the late 1940s (223). Although “…cancer deaths in women occurred about 10 years earlier than men, at age 55 rather than 65…” (216), the invasive and very personal Pap examination face similar drawbacks as the rectal prostate exam that men face, as “…the challenge of getting apparently healthy women to come in for what was still an unwanted and rather personal examination was one factor…” (223) that may have held some women back from understanding their health (this seemed to be the big issue in the previous article when discussing male health). When discussing women’s health, it’s important to also discuss breast cancer, as it has been seen as even more of a worrisome than cervical cancer as breast cancer death rates in Canada were 13.2 per 100,000 in the early 1920’s (226), making a large impact on women’s lives throughout Canada. And it was “In the 1930s and 1940s, some physicians began to make a like between the female hormone estrogen and breast cancer.” (229) which allowed for new theories to be constructed regarding how breast cancer developed and “…it [was] suggested that breast cancer was a delayed disease or one with a long incubation.” (229), not a fundamental flaw with how women’s bodies were made. Yet while the pressures and stigma on women of “the cancer being your fault” have decreased since the early 1900s, its noted in this article that many older women would be hesitant regarding breast examinations due to the possibility of breast removal if their results came back positive (232). However, “While the radical mastectomy remained the dominant approach to breast cancer…X-ray and radium became therapeutic aids to surgery” (235) while many people had side effects from radiation treatment supporters were overall excited by the results, which has since has had a large historical importance as a double mastectomy is usually seen as one of a woman’s “last options” when faced with the troubles of breast cancer, not her first and only option like it was previously.
The Challenge of Developing and Publicizing Cervical Cancer Screening Programs
While new information has come out saying “Cervical cancer is one the few cancers that with early detection, can have a 100 per cent cure rate.” (127) which shows so much medical advancement from the previous documents. I found it very interesting that “While science and technology took a powerful hold of Canadian society in the 1950s and 1960s, there was little focus on prevention…. scientists wanted to prove they could ‘cure’ any disease, cervical cancer was not on the radar of concern…” (127-128), as they wish to find the cure the disease once it has already occurred, not try to prevent it entirely. As the “war against cancer” (131) became a growing concern in North America “…as early as 1947, American women actively participated in cervical cancer screening.” (133) whereas in Canada, things moved much slower moving through each province individually.” and it wouldn’t be until the fall of 1978 when “… Health and Welfare Canada created a small pamphlet encouraging women to have annual Pap smears and education women very generally about the risk of cervical cancer. “(136). This article also discusses the difficulty around women bringing themselves in to pay for an invasive test (in regard to Pap smears) as a preventative means of checking their health, and it wasn’t until the early 1980s when an increased understanding of the human papilloma virus would increase the awareness around cervical cancer (128), and “…this type of cancer [cervical], if caught early enough, was very treatable so all women should have annual examinations” (143) which is very interesting, and I’d like to know more of the research done on this because when I was 18 the doctor told me that it is only recommended to get a Pap smear every 5 years, even though my mother had cervical cancer. But with “The introduction of a regular “Health” column demonstrated a keener awareness of women’s health care needs in the 1970s.” (142) that has prevailed through the last 40-ish years, an although “Being examined is so humiliating ‘” (145) for many women, it’s worth the “risk”.
Overall, these three articles really work together in showing the social pressures and sigmas that men and women both face when dealing with elective tests to check their healths. While the feelings that women face now days considering Pap tests has shifted to a more necessary and less “scary” to many women (from my experiences from female family members and friends), it is still need as de-masculinizing and shameful for many men to talk about getting prostate exams. With this being said, these articles were very eye opening to all the advancements made in regards to cancer in Canada, and I hope that we can changer