Breast Cancer Society Shapes an Epidemic

by Kasper, Anne S.; Ferguson, Susan J.

• ISBN13: 9780312294519
• ISBN10: 0312294514
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-11
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Breast Cancer: Society Shapes an Epidemic provides an innovative look at the social and political contexts of breast cancer and examines how this illness has become a social problem. This is not a book about breast cancer as a biological disease, its diagnosis and treatment, or the latest research to cure it. Rather, it looks at how economics, politics, gender, social class, and race-ethnicity have deeply influenced the science behind breast cancer research, spurred the growth of a breast cancer industry, generated media portrayals of women with the disease, and defined and influenced women's experiences with breast cancer. The contributors address the social construction of breast cancer as an illness and as an area of scientific controversy, advocacy, and public policy. Chapters on the history of breast cancer, the health care system, the environment, and the marketing of breast cancer, among others, tease apart the complex social forces that have shaped our collective and individual responses to breast cancer.

Author Biography

Anne S. Kasper is Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Susan J. Ferguson is Associate Professor of Sociology at Grinnell College.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	v
Foreword	viii
Susan M. Love
Introduction---Living with Breast Cancer	1	(24)
Susan J. Ferguson
Anne S. Kasper
PART ONE Breast Cancer Diagnoses and Treatment---The Historical Context
Inventing a Curable Disease: Historical Perspectives on Breast Cancer	25	(26)
Barron H. Lerner
Deformities and Diseased: The Medicalization of Women's Breasts	51	(38)
Susan J. Ferguson
PART TWO Breast Cancer as a Social Problem
The Economics of Breast Cancer
Breast Cancer and the Evolving Health Care System: Why Health Care Reform Is a Breast Cancer Issue	89	(30)
Ellen R. Shaffer
Profits from Pain: The Political Economy of Breast Cancer	119	(34)
Jane S. Zones
Women, Their Bodies, and the Illness Experience
Women's Experiences of Breast Cancer	153	(30)
Marcy E. Rosenbaum
Gun M. Roos
Barriers and Burdens: Poor Women Face Breast Cancer	183	(30)
Anne S. Kasper
The Politics of Breast Cancer
Breast Cancer Policymaking	213	(32)
Carol S. Weisman
Controversies in Breast Cancer Research	245	(26)
Sue V. Rosser
The Environmental Link to Breast Cancer	271	(32)
Sandra Steingraber
PART THREE Breast Cancer and Social Change
Breast Cancer in Popular Women's Magazines from 1913 to 1996	303	(22)
Jennifer R. Fosket
Angela Karran
Christine LaFia
Sister Support: Women Create a Breast Cancer Movement	325	(30)
Barbara A. Brenner
Conclusion---Eliminating Breast Cancer from Our Future	355	(19)
Anne S. Kasper
Susan J. Ferguson
About the Contributors	374	(4)
Index	378