Université Paris Cité, IRD, Inserm, Ceped, F-75006, Paris, France; Institut Convergences et Migrations - ICM, Aubervilliers, France.
Faculty of Medicine and Odontostomatology (FMOS), Bamako, Mali.
Soc Sci Med. 2024 May;348:116874. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116874. Epub 2024 Apr 8.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer, with more than 2.31 million cases diagnosed worldwide in 2022. Cancer medicine subjects the body to invasive procedures in the hope of offering a chance of recovery. In the course of treatment, the body is pricked, burned, incised and amputated, sometimes shattering identity and often changing the way women perceive the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, incidence rates are steadily increasing and women are particularly young when they develop breast cancer. Despite this alarming situation, the scientific literature on breast cancer in sub-Saharan Africa is poor and largely dominated by medical literature. Using a qualitative approach and a theoretical framework at the intersection of the sociology of gender and the sociology of the body, we explore the discourse strategies of women with breast cancer in Mali regarding their relationship to the body and to others. Based on 25 semi-directive interviews, we analyse the experiences of these women. Using the image of the Amazon woman, whose struggle has challenged gender because of its masculine attributes, we explore whether these women's fight against their breast cancer could be an opportunity to renegotiate gender relations. The experience of these women is characterised by the deconstruction of their bodies, pain and suffering. The masculinisation of their bodies and their inability to perform certain typically female functions in society (such as cooking or sexuality) challenges their female identity. The resistance observed through the sorority, discreet mobilisation and display of their bodies does not seem to be part of a renegotiation of gender relations, but it does play an active role in women's acceptance of the disease and their reconstruction.
乳腺癌是全球第二大常见癌症，2022 年全球诊断出超过 231 万例病例。癌症医学采用侵袭性手术来治疗癌症，以期提供治愈的机会。在治疗过程中，身体会被刺穿、烧伤、切开和截肢，有时会粉碎身份认同，经常改变女性对世界的看法。在撒哈拉以南非洲，发病率稳步上升，女性患乳腺癌的年龄尤其年轻。尽管情况令人担忧，但撒哈拉以南非洲的乳腺癌科学文献很少，而且主要以医学文献为主。我们使用定性方法和性别社会学与身体社会学交叉的理论框架，探讨了马里乳腺癌患者对身体和他人的关系的话语策略。基于 25 次半结构化访谈，我们分析了这些女性的经历。我们使用亚马逊女性的形象，其斗争因其男性属性而挑战了性别，来探讨这些女性与乳腺癌的斗争是否可能是重新协商性别关系的机会。这些女性的经历的特点是身体的解构、痛苦和苦难。她们身体的男性化以及她们无法在社会中执行某些典型的女性功能（如烹饪或性行为）挑战了她们的女性身份。通过姐妹情谊、 discreet 动员和展示身体观察到的抵抗似乎不是重新协商性别关系的一部分，但它在女性接受疾病和重建方面发挥了积极作用。
