Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 2, August 2001 | Page 34

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Popular Culture Review

Breast Consumerism
“Breast Fest” frames breast cancer as a “breast” issue. The list of attributes
describing women’s breasts in the bridge of “Breast Power” echoes the emphasis
placed on breasts elsewhere in the web site and also in much other media coverage
o f the illness. Certainly, breasts are saturated with symbolic significance in rela
tion to sexuality and maternal femininity, and the sexiness of breasts makes breast
cancer a marketable media topic. Cherise Saywell and her colleagues argue, for
instance, that breast cancer now has a higher media profile than all other common
cancers. Although feminist and women’s organizations have promoted this kind of
attention, Saywell et al. argue that news coverage of the disease also is structured
by and exploits “the public fascination” (2000: 40) with breasts’ symbolic signifi
cance.6 Such a focus on breasts makes breast cancer “sexy” for the mass media. It
also underscores issues of sexual attractiveness and maternity as primary concerns
for women worried about breast cancer, whose (normative, heterosexual) feminin
ity is presented as at risk. At Women.com, the focus on breasts also literally pro
vides the link between cancer awareness and other forms of self-care. The “Sup
port Them” pages of “Breast Fest” argue that “Big or little, [breasts] need physi
cal, and sometimes political, support.” Visitors to the site are