From the Margins of Healthcare: De-mythicizing Cancer Online

Peitho Volume 19 Issue 1 Fall/Winter 2016

Author(s): Cristy Beemer

Abstract: "From the Margins of Healthcare: De-mythicizing Cancer Online" is a deeply personal study in which a breast cancer survivor and participant-observer in the large, online peer-to-peer healthcare community emerges from the silenced margins of medical paternalism to give voice to patients often silenced in traditional healthcare settings. This study examines one online thread, an immediate archive, women’s rhetorical history in the making, as a site of feminist praxis through a collaboratively written response to standard medical practice that interrogated top-down policies allowing the silenced to find power and agency.

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Tags: cancer survivor, feminist community building, healthcare, online support communities, patient advocacy