ABSTRACT
A few months ago I had a routine mammogram at a women’s health center in a midsized Midwestern city. Between changing out of my blouse and bra and being called back into the imaging area, I sat in the communal patient suite with three other smocked women. In the spirit of Barbara Ehrenreich’s (2001) analysis and evaluation of the mammogram as a site for induction into the world of breast cancer, I performed a cursory inventory of the room’s contents and observed other patients. I took note of the following: one woman picking up and reading a well-worn copy of Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivor’s Soul (2006); another investigating the varied posters on the walls serving to advertise an upcoming Avon “Walk for Breast Cancer”; and a third flipping through an album of images of office employees at previous years’ local Komen “Race for the Cure” walks and runs. This space also contained a sampling of other ultrafeminized pink or pink-ribboned objects related to the prevention of breast cancer, in-treatment cancer support, and life after the disease. Taken in whole, these artifacts send patients a clear message: The pink ribbon movement and the values it espouses is the preferred framework for understanding and engaging breast cancer in this location.
