Description
Book SynopsisAssesses the state of women’s healthcare today by analysing popular media representations - television, print newspapers, websites, advertisements, blogs, and memoirs - in order to understand the ways in which breast cancer, postpartum depression, and cervical cancer are discussed in American public life.
Trade Review"Dubriwny clearly explains the connections between neoliberal and postfeminist ideologies and effectively illustrates the ways in which these ideologies work in specific healthcare contexts. Her work is an original contribution to an important and growing conversation." -- Kelly Pender * Virginia Tech *
"This important critique convincingly problematizes the increased visibility of women's health in U.S. culture. A crucial text for scholars and activists committed to moving beyond postfeminist appropriations of women's lives."
-- Samantha King * author of Pink Ribbons, Inc. *
"This focused volume critiques three discourses on women's health issues situated in personal empowerment narratives. This will be valuable for advanced scholars both within biomedicalization-oriented research and outside it. Recommended."
* Choice *
"
The Vulnerable Empowered Woman is an obvious choice for gender and race courses, particularly dealing with health, but also neoliberalism. Beyond the obvious audience, this book is a good choice for an academic who wishes to better understand the 'language' of a colleague who studies postfeminism and related topics. The three contemporary topics covered in the case studies are highly accessible to the reader and Dubriwny’s careful attention to define terms that may be unfamiliar, often with examples, helps the reader move through each chapter." * World Medical and Health Policy *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Public Discourse and the Representation of the Vulnerable Empowered Woman
1. Theorizing Postfeminist Health: Risk and the Postfeminist Subject
2. Genetic Risk: Prophylactic Mastectomies and the Pursuit of Cancer-Free Life
3. Postfeminist Risky Mothers and Postpartum Depression
4. The Postfeminist Concession: Young Women, Sex, and Paternalism
5. Feminist Women's Health Activism in the Twenty-first Century
Afterword: From Martin to Center
Notes
Bibliography
Index
