Womb Space: Examining the Role of Black Women's Online Experience-Sharing in Their Journeys with Fibroids

Saria (Akina) Canady

Advisor: Denise Albanese, PhD, Department of English

Committee Members: Rachel Lewis, Iccha Basnyat

Online Location, https://gmu.zoom.us/j/95114380145?pwd=nzYjxwXYMcYEA5WaIrOMmN7sU11t66.1
December 03, 2024, 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM

Abstract:

An estimated 80 percent of Black women will be diagnosed with fibroids by the age of 50. Still, the uterine tumors are under-researched. Information about causes is limited, and invasive surgeries are often the only remedy for many. Increasingly, women have taken to social media to raise public awareness and share their experiences of living with fibroids. This dissertation explores the phenomenon of experience-sharing and exchange of information on YouTube between Black women who have fibroids. It examines this space as a “digital counterpublic,” which previous scholars have defined as a site of resistance and opportunity to validate the experiences of marginalized groups. Concepts of biopolitics are employed to provide historical context for the underlying theme of racial disparities in healthcare. Using biopolitical framing, this student argues that the disproportionality in fibroid-related adverse outcomes is a contemporary example of state harm against the Black female body and selfhood, and it necessitates the formation of a counterpublic space. Black women’s use of personal narrative and social media are analyzed using Black feminist thought, the tenets of which are means for understanding and writing about Black women’s lived experiences. This study will consider how and to what extent Black women’s online experience-sharing shapes the way we seek fibroid care; and what might be learned about how Black women gather information, make meaning, produce knowledge, and resist the challenges faced while navigating illness and the U.S. healthcare system.