New book by Laura Mamo explores sex and HPV, and the politics of HPV cancer prevention
By Pamela Tom | HPVANDME Founder
Watch HPVANDME’s interview with Laura Mamo on our YouTube Channel.
When the HIV/AIDS crisis exploded in 1981, concerns about public health took a backseat to headlines that connected the infection and disease to gay men and by association, men who have sex with men. The unwarranted social stigma imposed upon those with HIV/AIDS impacted access to proper healthcare, stole their dignity, and ultimately, laid the groundwork for the sexualization of health and wellness.
In Sexualizing Cancer, HPV and the Politics of Cancer Prevention, author Laura Mamo examines the emergence of the HPV vaccine and the evolution of yet another sexualization of a viral infection. This time, it’s a viral infection that can cause multiple types of cancer: cervical, oropharyngeal, anal, penile, vaginal, and vulvar.
Mamo is a professor at the Health Equity Institute, San Francisco State University, California.
Sexualization is defined as, “the act of viewing someone or something in a sexual way, or making them seem sexual.”
Mamo’s research reveals how sexualizing HPV cancers through the lens of gender and other equity positions has informed and shaped HPV cancer prevention efforts and policy. She documents the sexualization impact on vaccine guidelines, clinical trial funding, research practices, clinical programs—and the public’s perception and acceptance of HPV vaccination as cancer prevention.
Mamo named her book, Sexualizing Cancer, while recognizing the “Catch 22” nature of attaching a sexual label to cancer. The very fact, she contends, that there has been a lack of open conversations connecting sexual transmission to HPV contributes to the hush hush attitudes that inhibit progress.
“When I say sexualize, I think it can be a good thing. It’s not a bad thing. It’s not always stigmatizing to sexualize,” says Mamo. “I think we need more sexualization in some way in health and illness when that’s the transmission route, and when that’s also the implications for people’s bodies and lives.”
Popular Culture as the Messenger
Education is understanding. Mamo attended numerous medical conferences in order to conduct research for the book. She found that some scientists thought HPV cancer prevention education would be rather straightforward. She also met clinicians who admitted having difficulty discussing an adolescent vaccine with patients and their parents.
Mamo maintains that pop culture is now a primary driver in health education.
In Chapter Two (What’s In It for the Boys?) of her book, Mamo recounts how the HBO show Girls (April 2012), “valiantly tried to tackle the silencing around sex and sexuality in the public-facing information about HPV.” When the show’s main character, Hannah (played by actress Lena Dunham), learns that she has contracted HPV, the script dutifully shares that sex is the source of transmission. Mamo says that’s a good thing. However, the storyline also leaves viewers to wonder if sex and HPV are something to worry about. At the same time, painting the source of the STD transmission as a bad guy, further contributes to the complexities of destigmatizing HPV.
“… what is brought forward in the episode is the way STIs—the infections caused by bodily fluid exchange as well as close friction in bodily contact—continue to be somehow mysterious, feared, and potentially stigmatizing,” Mamo writes.
The New York Times criticized the Girls show for being, “rife with misinformation about HPV.” In the same article, the reporter says a HBO spokeswoman responded, “ … it is a comedy series and one which we hope people won’t go to for medical advice.”
OUCH!
We vs. Me Attitudes Toward Health and Cancer Prevention
Mamo also writes that prevention politics around HPV and the HPV vaccine are not exempt from the “we” versus “me” phenomenon that informs health care policy.
The “we” mentality prioritizes public health; the “me” mentality puts individualized prevention first, balancing risk and benefits for the individual. Mamo says HPV cancer prevention currently takes the “me” approach.
HPV vaccination campaigns, including those produced by Merck, the manufacturer of the HPV (Gardasil) vaccine, promoted messages that the vaccine protected the individual. This strategy contrasts with promoting vaccination for the common good and supporting herd immunity.
“It is a question about whose bodies matter and whether individual or community health matters most,” Mamo writes.
She elaborates on how this question affects “the politics of inclusion.” Sociologist Steven Epstein used the term in the mid 1980’s to explain how a fight for representation (race, gender, sexual identity) led to changes and reform in medical research practices.
Beyond the Basics
As a patient advocate who has been providing education about HPV cancer prevention for the past 12 years, I found the book, Sexualizing Cancer, HPV and the Politics of Cancer Prevention to be extremely satisfying and moreso, needed. Mamo’s comprehensive research details how we got here, lends context to the state of HPV cancers today, and provides insights into how we may develop future initiatives to increase HPV vaccination rates.
One reviewer calls Sexualizing Cancer, “a welcome resource for scholars, clinicians, and policymakers.” However, Mamo’s work informs all of us because HPV is something that affects nearly all of us.
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the US. The CDC says nearly all sexually active adults will contract HPV at some point in their lives. The risk of infection does not discriminate. There is no known treatment other than one’s own immune system to clear the virus.
A HPV infection may not lead to cancer but why take the chance when we have a solution?
Education leaves nothing to chance.
Once more people learn more about HPV, the stigma will wane.
Fear will dissipate.
We have the means to eradicate HPV cancers in future generations.
Let’s get out of our own way.
The HPV vaccine is cancer prevention. It helps prevent six types of HPV cancers.