Femininity and the Social Power of the Post-Cancer Body: The Social Construction of the Body in Breast Cancer

حامی کارگر, فاطمه; نیکخواه, نرگس; گنجی, محمد

doi:10.22034/jss.2026.2089673.1948

Femininity and the Social Power of the Post-Cancer Body: The Social Construction of the Body in Breast Cancer

نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی

نویسندگان

فاطمه حامی کارگر ¹ ^¶

نرگس نیکخواه ²

محمد گنجی ²

¹ PhD in Sociology, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

² Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

10.22034/jss.2026.2089673.1948

چکیده

Background and aim: The experience of breast cancer is not merely a biomedical event; rather, it constitutes a profound disruption in women’s embodied and social lifeworlds. Breast cancer removes the body from its taken-for-granted status in everyday life, transforming it into a focal site of awareness, interpretation, and meaning-making. This study aims to understand how the social construction of the transformed body unfolds following breast cancer.
Data and method: The study employed a constructivist grounded theory methodology. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 25 women diagnosed with breast cancer. Concepts were developed through analysis of the interview data and researchers’ memos, while taking into account the broader social discourses through which the body is constructed and understood.
Findings: The central theoretical concept in this study is Social Power of the Body. Following the emergence of bodily changes, the Collapse of the Social Power of the Normative Body occurs. This collapse can be identified at the subjective level, in social interactions, and in women’s relationships with their bodies. In response, however, every loss of power is accompanied by a process of Reclaiming Bodily Power. The soft reclamation of power takes the form of Agentic Adaptation. Some women, however, adopt a more critical approach, in which The Body as an Arena for Recreating Subjectivity refers to women’s ongoing efforts to refuse a particular mode of being with illness, encompassing a new meaning-making of the body and Redefining Femininity.
Conclusion: Drawing on the constructivist logic of grounded theory, this study demonstrates that the body after breast cancer is not a fixed object, but rather a social reality in the process of becoming, whose meaning is constituted through the connection between women’s lived experiences and the social discourse of the body. By foregrounding women’s voices and narratives, the present study contributes to the enrichment of social studies of cancer and provides new theoretical perspectives for understanding the body and femininity under conditions of chronic illnes

کلیدواژه‌ها

Breast cancer

Bodily changes, Social power of the body, Redefining Femininity, Constructivist grounded theory

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