Poster Art as Women's Rhetoric: Raising Awareness about Breast Cancer

By the start of this decade, the number of women in North America diagnosed with breast cancer over the course of a full lifetime had climbed to the dismal statistic of one in nine. On the other hand, the 1990s have witnessed notable advances in women organizing themselves to make changes in policy, health care, and research related to this disease. The formation of a national coalition of more than twenty separate voluntary organizations, a significant legislative increase in research funding, and the formation of a National Action Plan under the sponsorship of the Secretary of Health and Human Services attest to women’s increased empowerment. With these changes, there has been a momentous expansion in the amount of information about breast cancer brought to daily, public attention. Such visibility is remarkable in light of the fear, stigma, lack of knowledge, and denial that customarily have surrounded this disease. Not only does this surge of communication provide useful material about epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment options, it functions rhetorically to shape our understandings, beliefs, and attitudes about people with breast cancer.

Members of the artistic community have been among those to recently come to the fore in the public discourse on this topic. Visual art, with its elements of aesthetics, economy of statement, and individualized expression, conveys information and points of view in emphatic and convincing ways. Beginning with German printmaker and sculptor Käthe Kollwitz (1887–1945), whose work is known for its powerful anti-war messages, several decades of women artists have used their work for purposes of social and political activism. ¹ Art in the form of posters communicates multiple messages about breast cancer portrayed through a wide variety of styles. In addition, posters have relatively broad exposure and availability to a diversity of audiences.

Rhetorical Dynamics in Poster Art

All six posters discussed—and reproduced—here possess at least four interrelated dynamics that characterize posters as a unique rhetorical type: word and image, the literal and the symbolic, personal experience and political agenda, and distance and proximity. Not surprisingly, since breast cancer is primarily a disease of women, the subject matter of the posters focuses on women, with a particular emphasis on the female body. While visual elements predominate, verbal components complement them with exposition or nuance not apparent in the picture alone. The visual and verbal messages found in these works exhibit a stylistic range from literal to symbolic, realistic to fantastic, often juxtaposing these components within one piece to assist the viewer in comprehending the immediate problem and yet transcending it as well.

Most of the posters discussed in this article were created by breast cancer survivors, and, to varying degrees, convey personal reactions to this illness. At the same time, they communicate a more generalized point of view, political stance, or call for action. In many respects, the inward gaze and the outreach to others are blended in seamless and clever ways, so that the impact of both dimensions are experienced simultaneously by the viewer. Finally, the visual tension between proximity and distance echoes the interplay between the personal and political. Certain meanings are intended to be understood when viewing the poster from afar; other aspects of many of these works invite viewers to come closer, to linger, to search more closely for the less obvious.

The first two posters were not created by survivors of breast cancer, but are parts of multi-media campaigns sponsored by large organizations. Though very different in style, they both aim to increase the use of mammographies by older, African American women, who have lower incidence but higher mortality rates of breast cancer than do other cultural groups, because they tend to come for treatment at a later stage in their disease. ² Given the history of African American suspicion of the medical establishment and clinical trials; experiences with being ignored, misunderstood, or underestimated by health care practitioners; and lack of easy access to many of the support organizations for breast cancer; special efforts are needed to reach out to this group. ³