12:00 pm
Clark Hall Room 206
In this talk, Kate J. Freeman, doctoral candidate in Sociology, will explore how men with chronic illnesses (specifically, migraine and long COVID) negotiate the simultaneous demands of “being sick” and “being a man.” Because these illnesses have no identifiable biomedical basis, they are considered “contested” illnesses in the medical field, which have historically been associated with hysteria and femininity. Drawing on a qualitative design that combines TikTok clips and semi-structured interviews, this lecture analyzes emergent findings on both public representations and private narratives of these illnesses to illuminate how masculine identity shapes, and is shaped by, experiences of illness. Investigating the tensions between how masculinity is represented publicly and privately, this work examines how gendered power and legitimacy are socially constructed for men across intersecting identities. In alignment with the Baker-Nord Institute, this research approaches this data as texts of human experience: stories, performances, and embodied expressions through which men grapple with pain, vulnerability, and identity. By extending the conversations of gender, health, and contested illness, which typically center on women’s experiences of illness, we shift focus from women’s experiences of illness to men’s and the underexamined stigma they face when inhabiting conditions culturally understood as feminized. This talk will highlight possibilities for resistance, care, and more expansive ways of “doing” gender, ultimately helping to improve the lives of men with migraine and long COVID as well as those who are in community with them.
An informal lunch will be provided. Registration requested. Register HERE.