UC San Diego

A common cultural belief is that our body parts and sexual organs inevitably and invariably dictate our gender identities. While sociologists have begun to understand different ways in which individuals alter their body to match their gender identity, previous literature focuses on transgender individuals. Little research has focused on the effects of involuntary changes to the body. I show that although cancer survivors rely on limited, body-centric cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity, the changes to their bodies provide them with an opportunity to alter their definitions of what it means to be a man or a woman.

In this dissertation, I analyze a large yet understudied population. I conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 63 people who had been diagnosed with the four gender-specific cancers—breast, gynecological, prostate, and testicular cancer—and 27 oncologists who treat these diseases. Studying the disruption to the gendered body for cancer patients allows us to better understand the relationship between the cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity, the body, and gender identity.

First, as does the broader public, the women and men in my sample generally define masculinity and femininity through cultural understandings of the body (i.e., they equate femininity with breasts and masculinity with sexual function). Second, undergoing treatment that threatens these cultural definitions allows them to change their understanding of their own gender identity. Third, this process yields different outcomes for women and for men. Women feel empowered and redefine themselves as strong, moving beyond cultural definitions of femininity defined exclusively by appearance. In contrast, men redefine masculinity as broader than sexual function, and they are forced to confront their mortality and the loss of the control that they have taken for granted as men. Last, because doctors also rely on the same narrow definitions of masculinity and femininity, they proactively prescribe biomedical technology to resolve a limited number of side effects and unintentionally ignore others.