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Title: <\/strong>Professor<\/p>\n University: <\/strong>Forsyth Technical Community College<\/p>\n Description of Work:<\/strong><\/p>\n Underscoring breast cancer survivorship\u2019s harmful connection to reconstruction, Shelley Cobb and Susan Starr warn that \u201c. . . the [makeover] metaphor insidiously constructs contemporary women\u2019s experience of breast cancer, making it about positive personal transformation, which assumes the requisite bodily refashioning, and designates reconstructive surgery as a signifier of survivorship (98). Thus, Cobb and Starr conclude that \u201c. . . the makeover metaphor has infiltrated breast cancer culture, limiting women\u2019s experience of the disease to only one possible narrative, overshadowing those women who do not fulfill the role of the idealized survivor from the public image of breast cancer . . .\u201d (98). With reconstruction appearing to be the primary pathway to positive personal transformation, the dominant narrative eclipses survivors\u2019 wide spectrum of experiences, specifically silencing those who deviate from the narrative\u2019s reconstructive surgical path.<\/p>\n Considering reconstruction\u2019s deep ties to survivorship and normality, how do survivors disrupt the dominant narrative and present their differing conceptions of survivorship and normality? To answer this question, I argue that breast cancer survivors deviating from reconstruction paths form subaltern counterpublics in online spaces to disrupt the dominant makeover narrative and create room for alternative survivorship narratives. I refer to the subaltern counterpublic as Going Flat, a diverse group of breast cancer survivors choosing not to reconstruct. Nancy Fraser defines subaltern counterpublics as \u201cparallel discursive arenas where members of subordinated social groups invent and circulate counterdiscourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interest, and needs\u201d (123).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kristy Crawley Title: Professor University: Forsyth Technical Community College Description of Work: Underscoring breast cancer survivorship\u2019s harmful connection to reconstruction, Shelley Cobb and Susan Starr warn that \u201c. . . … Continue reading Kristy Crawley<\/span>