Gendered Subjectivities in HPV Health Materials
Genital Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmissible infection, where the majority of the population will acquire an infection of HPV within a few years post sexual debut. While most strains are relatively harmless, some increase the risk of developing cancer within various locations of the male and female body. Immunisation against HPV within adolescent female populations has been a significant component of evidence- based medicine within Australia since 2007 given the viruses’ lineage with cervical cancer development.
Recently, in December 2012, the Australian Department of Health and Ageing announced the first universal HPV immunisation program to include both men and women. This research draws upon Foucault’s social theory regarding the formation of subjects and subjectivities within discourses. I apply this rationale to recent policy changes regarding the National Immunisation Program to include the male population. A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis was conducted across two Australian health promotion campaigns while adapting a constant comparative methodology. Key themes identified for this research were as follows: gender, risk, heteronormativity, consent, regulation, morality and disease.
Outcomes of research methods indicate that the discursive practices of public health experts constructing health promotion campaigns construct subjects with limited understanding of fe/male bodies and HPV as a disease. The appropriation of culturally entrenched conventions of gender presented within health promotion campaigns portrays an overarching theme of paternalism in relationship to the participation of men in protecting the female reproductive system. Though both sexes participate within the National HPV Immunisation Program it is argued that HPV still has historical meaning as a gendered infection, thus constructing subjects and subjectivities which relegate male health concerns in order to focus on female concerns instead.
