Signifying the Pandemics: Metaphors of AIDS, Cancer, and Heart Disease

Abstract

This article offers a symbolic analysis of the cultural construction and signification of three of the major "pandemics" of the late 20th century: AIDS, cancer, and heart disease. It is based on unstructured interviews conducted in Israel between 1993-94 with 75 nurses and 40 physicians and between 1993-95 with 60 university students. Two key symbols, "pollution" and "transformation," are shown to constitute AIDS and cancer within a symbolic space that I suggest is "beyond culture," where body boundaries are dissolved and cultural categories are dismantled. Heart disease, in contrast, is metaphorized as a defect in the "body machinery." The article concludes by arguing that heart attack is depicted as the pathology of the Fordist, modernist body, while AIDS/cancer are pathologies of the postmodern body in late capitalism.

Invisible women? The importance of gender in lay beliefs about heart problems

“…Her account also backs up Weiss' argument that the heart is perceived as a replaceable part of the`Fordist body' (Martin 1992, Weiss 1997.…”

“…The mechanical image of heart problems facilitates its portrayal in morally neutral terms; a heart attack is seen as affecting a specific organ, rather than transforming an entire person (Clarke 1992, Weiss 1997. Sontag (1991) suggests that, unlike the stigma associated with conditions like cancer and AIDS, there is nothing shameful about heart disease.`Cardiac disease implies a weakness, trouble, failure that is mechanical; there is no disgrace.…”

¿Por qué las mujeres con cáncer de mama deben estar guapas y los hombres con cáncer de próstata pueden ir sin afeitar? oncología, disidencia y cultura hegemónica

“…Indica Stacey que las representaciones y metáforas demonológicas asociadas al cáncer y al lesbianismo parten de un mismo origen: un exceso de "mismidad", la incapacidad del cuerpo para diferenciar y expulsar lo que le es ajeno y de la mujer para rechazar el deseo de sí misma. En un artículo donde analiza las metáforas generadas por el HIV/SIDA, cáncer e infartos de miocardio entre un grupo de médicos y enfermeras, Weiss (61) retoma argumentos similares. El cáncer es representado en tér-minos de la imposibilidad distinguir entre el "body-self" y el "non-self"; el cuerpo como algo abierto y alterado que es fuente de polución, un cuerpo extraño, distorsionado, fragmentado que se diluye en lo Otro oncológico.…”

Stigma and Otherness in the Israeli Media’s Mirror Representations of Illness

“…The symbol of the brave patient is connected to cultural views associating the heart with courage and bravery (Weiss, 1997), whereas the cultural meaning of bravery in Israel gains unique meaning from its association with the army. Since its independence, the young State of Israel, only 60 years old, has experienced seven wars and two Intifadas (Palestinian uprisings); terrorist attacks are a part of routine life.…”