Feminist Solidarity or Moralized Body Politics? Online Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Communities and Feminist Health Politics

Abstract

In this article, we extend the study of the embodied health activism of breast cancer survivors to the relatively neglected peer-to-peer groups now proliferating online. We conducted in-depth interviews during COVID-19 with individuals with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) mutations because, with heightened risk of disease, they are unusually active online. We asked participants with diverse racial-ethnic, gender, and sexual identities about online experiences to understand solidarity and activism, particularly within the context of a neoliberal emphasis on taking individual responsibility to overcome health risks. We found that (1) most reported finding solidarity and shared experiential knowledge, yet desires for positive uplift to overcome cancer led to a moralized body politics of exclusion and individualized responsibility, and (2) such boundary making, particularly over breast reconstruction, has contradictory implications with larger lessons for social movement scholars. While boundary making builds solidarity among insiders, it threatens connections to others, as was also the case with the ideological and identitarian politics that limited second-wave feminism. In our case, boundary making limits transgressive body politics, leaving a moralized body politics of heteronormative femininity.