Images, femininity and cancer: an analysis of an international patient education programme

Abstract

This article is an analysis of a cancer patient education programme run by cosmetic companies. I focus on an analysis of imagery, arguing that there are particular discursive elements that the cosmetic companies use in order to make productive the relationship between femininity and cancer. I contextualize this education programme by presenting the controversies regarding cosmetics as they relate to the growth of breast tumours. In doing so, I conclude that conversations and questions about a link between chemicals and cancer are subverted by both `horror' narratives of cancer and the provocative use of standards of beauty. Such discursive dominance in patient education programmes makes it difficult to engage in a more public understanding of cancer growth as affected by cosmetic chemicals.