Social constructions of femaleness in writing about cancer

This article uses a qualitative content analysis of writing about cancer si nce 1900, with numeric summaries from Medline/PubMed searches, to propose t hat there is an implicit reliance in biomedicine on the idea that femalenes s is pathological hence carcinogenic. Numeric summaries of rates of use of search terms for men and women and their sexual attributes are a backdrop f or text sources that illustrate a greater tendency to see women in sexual t erms and pathologize aspects of femaleness. This even extends into more fre quent use of the term estrogen than testosterone in exclusively male cancer sites such as prostate and testicle. The analysis suggests that female foc us and pathologization of femaleness come from social sex differentiation, heterosexual bias, and objectification of women as sex objects. This may be detrimental to both women and men because these social constructions may h ave focused cancer research on social classifications that are not physical ly relevant.