Pink Ribbon Campaign Case Study

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My doctoral research began with the following question ; “for what reasons Pink Ribbon Campaign was introduced in South Korea ?” The Pink Ribbon campaign has been praised as sensational inside the country, because it has introduced several ethical practices : a company that takes responsibility for the society and its citizens (corporate social responsibility), the youth who participate in the breast cancer prevention campaign and citizens to support scientific progress which will help patients in the future. All sounded promising, but I was neither convinced by eulogy nor by how these projects have been realized. In public spaces – the mass media, advertisement, scientific publications, and speeches of specialists -, two major and contradictory …show more content…

Since the mid-2000s, building a national network of patients with breast cancer became an important agenda for the leaders of self-help groups dealing with local and national setbacks to improve the health coverage extension. For a start, the national association has claimed since 2011 to cover breast reconstructive surgery. Throughout the last fifteen years, self-help group activities have diversified in their forms, size and types (from cultural to claim-making activities). They are believed to improve the psychological state of a patient regardless of scientific proof1. Certainly, the patients' claim of rights drew more attention than ever in the country and the mobilization of breast cancer patients have rapidly become one of major patients' groups promoting rights. In my dissertation, I pursue to examine how these activities have been practiced and configured and how they have contributed to the identity construction of breast cancer patients and 'patient-actor'. I will provide an answer to the following question : if finding one's femininity should be realized, according to the association of breast cancer patients, by the access to a surgical breast reconstruction, does the claim make women proactive actors of their femininity / their female identity? This question will develop three main parts in my dissertation. …show more content…

Above all, the decision (not) to be involved in a patient's group reveals what a patient thinks about herself as a breast cancer patient and a person in a particular social setting3. Next, I will argue what a patient's saying “we have a disease in common”, or “we share a common experience” means to patients depending on their involvement in a group activity. I question if the national association has been rather an obstacle to allow individuals to become actors of their own body (to express themselves) and their treatments (to acquire knowledge). It will lead to a conclusion that the way a woman's collective identity has been determined is a social construction profitable to build a patient's movement, but some modalities outside the range of collective activities made it possible for women to realize their conscience as actors/subjects (emancipation or subjectification –

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