Amazons in Mali? Women's experiences of breast cancer and gender (re)negotiation
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 sci­ entific 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.