Abstract
ABSTRACT
In 2009, the HPV-vaccine was implemented as a part of the Danish vaccination program, with 12-year old girls as its primary target group. HPV is a sexually transmitted virus, which causes certain types of cancer in both sexes, but focus is on the prevention of cervical cancer. The vaccine protects against 70 % of oncogenic HPV-strains and is, parallel with the current screening program which is supposed to continue unaltered, meant to prevent this disease. On a yearly basis, approximately 375 Danish women are diagnosed with this type of cancer. Through the vaccination of girls it is expected to obtain herd immunity.
A prevention initiative of this character, leveled at women only, is expected to cause a certain form of gendered discourse, which is verified on a global level by a structured literature search. The present master thesis therefore takes its starting point in a Danish context in order to explore the gendered discourses identifiable in The Danish Cancer Society´s campaign called “Vidunderlivet”. The theoretical perspective applied is critical-interpretive anthropology and feminist critical discourse analysis constitutes the analytical method. A purposeful sample of campaign texts, illustrations and videos constitutes the empirical data, focusing on gender perspectives.
Acknowledging the notion of discourse as dialectically framed and hence both constituting as well as constituted by societal norms, the thesis discusses the implications of discourse in correlation with society´s view on women and women´s views on themselves. Pivotal findings imply that the campaign´s discourses aims at the individual body, the social body and the body politic, disclosing specifically gendered expectations for woman according to moral responsibility, solidarity and compliance, by means of communicative effects, drawing on fear, fame, fortune and fairy tales.
Characteristically for the campaign, the complexity of the virus is reduced in an effort to communicate a simplified message regarding prevention, alongside an attempt to play down the unknown features of the virus. In a gender perspective, the findings imply that the campaign, regardless of its implicit intentions of being liberal-minded, empowering and tolerant towards female sexuality, excludes certain subgroups, which are not consistent with a traditional heteronormative gender ideology.
In 2009, the HPV-vaccine was implemented as a part of the Danish vaccination program, with 12-year old girls as its primary target group. HPV is a sexually transmitted virus, which causes certain types of cancer in both sexes, but focus is on the prevention of cervical cancer. The vaccine protects against 70 % of oncogenic HPV-strains and is, parallel with the current screening program which is supposed to continue unaltered, meant to prevent this disease. On a yearly basis, approximately 375 Danish women are diagnosed with this type of cancer. Through the vaccination of girls it is expected to obtain herd immunity.
A prevention initiative of this character, leveled at women only, is expected to cause a certain form of gendered discourse, which is verified on a global level by a structured literature search. The present master thesis therefore takes its starting point in a Danish context in order to explore the gendered discourses identifiable in The Danish Cancer Society´s campaign called “Vidunderlivet”. The theoretical perspective applied is critical-interpretive anthropology and feminist critical discourse analysis constitutes the analytical method. A purposeful sample of campaign texts, illustrations and videos constitutes the empirical data, focusing on gender perspectives.
Acknowledging the notion of discourse as dialectically framed and hence both constituting as well as constituted by societal norms, the thesis discusses the implications of discourse in correlation with society´s view on women and women´s views on themselves. Pivotal findings imply that the campaign´s discourses aims at the individual body, the social body and the body politic, disclosing specifically gendered expectations for woman according to moral responsibility, solidarity and compliance, by means of communicative effects, drawing on fear, fame, fortune and fairy tales.
Characteristically for the campaign, the complexity of the virus is reduced in an effort to communicate a simplified message regarding prevention, alongside an attempt to play down the unknown features of the virus. In a gender perspective, the findings imply that the campaign, regardless of its implicit intentions of being liberal-minded, empowering and tolerant towards female sexuality, excludes certain subgroups, which are not consistent with a traditional heteronormative gender ideology.
| Originalsprog | Dansk |
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| Status | Udgivet - 29 jun. 2016 |