‘Not that I want to be thought of as a hero’: Narrative analysis of performative masculinities and the experience of informal cancer caring

Abstract

Providing care to a partner with cancer can have a significant impact on a carer’s well-being and experience of subjectivity. However, there is little research examining how men experience the role of cancer carer, and in particular, how they negotiate constructions of gender in this role. This paper draws on a single case study of a heterosexual man caring for his partner, and conducts a narrative analysis of the construction and performance of masculine subjectivity. It was found that rather than inhabiting a stable masculinity, this carer engaged in a complex negotiation of masculinities, enacting a caring role associated with victimisation, rejection, distress and powerlessness, as well as strength and heroic resilience. We highlight the importance of the relationship context to the experience of caring, and suggest that research into the gendered experience of cancer care needs to acknowledge the active negotiation of masculinities and caring. We also discuss the utility of case study research in analyses of masculinity and cancer care, and in health psychology more broadly.

Keywords:

• cancer
• informal caring
• narrative analysis
• masculinities
• subjectivity
• case study

Acknowledgements

The Chief Investigator on the UWS internal project was Emilee Gilbert. The chief investigators on the ARC project were Jane Ussher and Phyllis Butow, the partner investigators were Gerard Wain, Kim Hobbs, Gill Batt and Kendra Sundquist, and Janette Perz was an Associate Investigator. Thanks are offered to Catherine Kohler Riessman for stimulating discussion about the interview data and to Margaret Wetherell for suggestions for revision of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

Funding. This research was supported under a University of Western Sydney (UWS) Internal Grant Scheme and an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project LP0560448, in conjunction with the Cancer Council New South Wales, Westmead Hospital, and Carers New South Wales.