Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

You Will Protect Your Daughter, Right?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Gendering Drugs

Abstract

This chapter explores how direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising in Sweden for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil (advertised as a vaccine for young girls for the prevention of cervical cancer) addresses parents and articulates gendered parental care relationships. Vaccination practice invokes a tension between the collective good and individual choice, and encourages parents to exercise good consumer choices for their children (Rose and Blume 2003; Fairhead and Leach 2007). The trope of parents-as-consumers can present the management of health risks as an individual responsibility rather than a matter of population health (Reich 2014). Vaccination practices can be read as an example of a pharmaceuticalization of life, which transforms the relations between, in this case, parents, daughters, health professionals and pharmaceutical companies, and creates new relations of caring which require the involvement of pharmaceuticals as essential participants (even when actively resisted by potential recipients) in the relationship (cf. Williams et al. 2009, 2011).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Gardasil is used to prevent two strains of HPV which are estimated to cause 70% of cervical cancer cases per year, as well as two strains that are estimated to cause 90% of genital wart cases per year. More than 100 different types of HPV exist, whereof 14 types can cause cervical cancer, cytological abnormalities and precancerous lesions. HPV is transmitted through genital skin-to-skin contact. Both men and women transmit HPV (Medical Products Agency 2015b).

  2. 2.

    In 2013 Australia decided to implement a vaccination scheme for both boys and girls, and in 2014, Austria did the same. For a discussion of the gender-neutral discourse currently articulated in Austria, see Lindén and Busse (Chap. 9, this volume).

  3. 3.

    At this time, subsidized pharmaceuticals in Sweden meant that the patient did not have to pay more than 1800 Swedish kronor (SEK) (US$218) for prescription pharmaceuticals within a calendar year. Since January 2012, the maximum sum is 2200 SEK (US$266) (Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency 2015).

  4. 4.

    All translations are the author’s.

  5. 5.

    1766 (http://www.government.se/articles/2016/06/the-swedish-press-act-250-years-of-freedom-of-the-press/).

  6. 6.

    Falun red is a typically Swedish color often found in the Swedish countryside.

References

  • Adams, V., M. Murphy, and A. Clarke. 2009. Anticipation: Technoscience, Life, Affect, Temporality. Subjectivity 28(1): 246–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ã…sberg, C., and E. Johnson. 2009. Viagra Selfhood: Pharmaceutical Advertising and the Visual Formation of Swedish Masculinity. Health Care Analysis 17(2): 144–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, S., and A. Figert. 2012. Medicalization and Pharmaceuticalization at the Intersections: Looking Backward, Sideways and Forward. Social Science & Medicine 75: 775–783.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berg, M., and A. Mol, ed. 1998. Differences in Medicine: Unraveling Practices, Techniques, and Bodies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergenheim, Ã…. 1994. Barnet, libido och samhället: om den svenska diskursen kring barns sexualitet 1930–1960. PhD thesis, UmeÃ¥ University, Sweden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergman, H., M. Eriksson, and R. Klinth. 2011. Föräldraskapets politik: frÃ¥n 1900-till 2000-tal. Stockholm: Dialogos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergman, H., and B. Hobson. 2002. Compulsory Fatherhood: Policy and Behaviour in the Swedish Welfare State. In Making Men into Fathers. Men, Masculinities and the Social Politics of Fatherhood, ed. B. Hobson, 92–124. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bragesjö, F., and B. Hallberg. 2009. Forskning med juridiska förvecklingar: om tolkningsflexibilitet kontroversen om mässlingsvaccination och autism. Sociologisk forskning 1: 5–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandth, B., and E. Kvande. 1998. Masculinity and Child Care: The Reconstruction of Fathering. The Sociological Review 46(2): 293–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casper, M., and M. Carpenter. 2008. Sex, Drugs, and Politics: The HPV Vaccine for Cervical Cancer. Sociology of Health & Illness 30(6): 886–899.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, A. 2005. Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory After the Postmodern Turn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Colgrove, J. 2006. State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conrad, P. 2007. The Medicalization of Society. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, H.M. 2012. Neo-liberalism Meets the Nordic Welfare State—Gaps and Silences. NORA—Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 20(4): 283–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency. 2015. Högkostnadsskyddet. http://www.tlv.se/apotek/hogkostnadsskyddet. Accessed 26 January 2015.

  • Doucet, A. 2006. Do Men Mother? Fathering, Care, and Domestic Responsibility. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eduards, M. 2007. Kroppspolitik: om Moder Svea och andra kvinnor. Stockholm: Atlas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elvin-Nowak, Y., and H. Thomsson. 2001. Motherhood as Idea and Practice. A Discursive Understanding of Employed Mothers in Sweden. Gender & Society 15(3): 407–428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engström, A. 2008. EU-nej till reklam för cancervaccin. Svenska Dagbladet. http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/eu-nej-till-reklam-for-cancervaccin_1245291.svd. Accessed 26 January 2015.

  • EU (European Union). 2004. Directive 2004/27/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 Amending Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community Code Relating to Medicinal Products for Human Use. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004L0027:EN:HTML. Accessed 26 January 2015.

  • Fairhead, J., and M. Leach. 2007. Vaccine Anxieties: Global Science, Child Health and Society. London: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forsberg, L. 2009. Involved Parenthood: Everyday Lives of Swedish Middle-Class Families. PhD thesis, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedlund, F. 2008. Regler för marknadsföring av vacciner kritiseras. Läkartidningen. http://www.lakartidningen.se/07engine.php?articleId=9614. Accessed 26 January 2015.

  • Johansson, T., and R. Klinth. 2007. Caring Fathers: The Ideology of Gender Equality and Masculine Positions. Men and Masculinities 11(1): 42–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, E., and C. Ã…sberg. 2012. Enrolling the Swedish Viagra Man. Science and Technology Studies 25(2): 46–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knaak, S. 2010. Contextualizing Risk, Constructing Choice: Breastfeeding and Good Mothering in Risk Society. Health, Risk & Society 12(4): 345–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, E., J. Macvarish, and J. Bristow. 2010. Risk, Health and Parenting Culture. Health, Risk & Society 12(4): 293–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindén, Lisa. 2013. What Do Eva and Anna Have to Do with Cervical Cancer? Constructing Adolescent Girl Subjectivities in Swedish Gardasil Advertisements. Girlhood Studies 6(2): 83–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2016. Communicating Care: The Contradictions of HPV Vaccination Campaigns. Lund: Arkiv förlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linnersten, L. 2008. Är riktad Gardasilreklam till hushÃ¥llen i enlighet med lagstiftarens intentioner? Läkartidningen 105(30–31): 2121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mamo, L., and J. Fishman. 2001. Potency in All the Right Places: Viagra as a Technology of the Gendered Body. Body & Society 7(4): 13–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mamo, L., A. Nelson, and A. Clark. 2010. Producing and Protecting Risky Girlhoods. In Three Shots at Prevention. The HPV Vaccine and the Politics of Medicine’s Simple Solutions, ed. K. Wailoo, J. Livingston, S. Epstein, and R. Aronowitz, 121–145. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, B., and S. Katz. 2002. ‘Forever Functional’—Sexual Fitness and the Aging Male Body. Body & Society 8(4): 3–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Medical Products Agency. 2008. Svar pÃ¥ “skrivelse angÃ¥ende Läkemedelsverkets underlÃ¥tenhet att agera mot vaccinationskampanjer för Gardasil och Cervarix.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015a. Marknadsföring av humanläkemedel. http://www.lakemedelsverket.se/malgrupp/Foretag/Lakemedel/Marknadsforing-/. Accessed 26 January 2015.

  • ———. 2015b. Vaccinering mot humant papillomavirus (HPV) med Gardasil och Cervarix. http://www.lakemedelsverket.se/hpv. Accessed 26 January 2015.

  • Miller, T. 2011. Falling Back into Gender? Men’s Narratives and Practices around First-Time Fatherhood. Sociology 45(6): 1094–1109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mol, A. 2002. The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2008. The Logic of Care: Health and the Problem of Patient Choice. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munro-Prescott, H. 2010. Safeguarding Girls: Morality, Risk and Activism. In Three Shots at Prevention. The HPV Vaccine and the Politics of Medicine’s Simple Solutions, ed. K. Wailoo, J. Livingston, S. Epstein, and R. Aronowitz, 103–120. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, E. 2003. Risk, Maternal Ideologies and Infant Feeding. In A Sociology of Food and Nutrition, ed. J. Germov and L. Williams, 291–325. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohrlander, K. 1992. I barnens och nationens intresse: Socialliberal reformpolitik 1903–1930. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prothero, A. 2006. The F Word: The Use of Fear in Advertising to Mothers. Advertising & Society Review 7(4). http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/. Accessed 12 October 2016.

  • Puig de la Bellacasa, M. 2012. ‘Nothing Comes Without Its World’: Thinking with Care. The Sociological Review 60(2): 197–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rehnqvist, N., M. Rosén, and Allander S. Vilhelmsdotter. 2008. Upphaussat cancervaccin svek mot kvinnors hälsa. Dagens nyheter. http://www.dn.se/debatt/upphaussat-cancervaccin-svek-mot-kvinnors-halsa/. Accessed 16 January 2015.

  • Reich, J. 2014. Neoliberal Mothering and Vaccine Refusal: Imagined Gated Communities and the Privilege of Choice. Gender & Society 28: 679–704.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, D., and S. Blume. 2003. Citizens as Users of Technology: An Exploratory Study of Vaccines and Vaccination. In How Users Matter: The Co-construction of Users and Technologies, ed. N. Oudshoorn and T. Pinch, 103–132. Cambridge, MA: MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sevenhuijsen, S. 1998. Citizenship and the Ethics of Care: Feminist Considerations on Justice, Morality and Politics. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sköld, P. 1996. From Inoculation to Vaccination: Smallpox in Sweden in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Population Studies: A Journal of Demography 50(2): 247–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sturken, M., and L. Cartwright. 2009. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swedish Government. 2005. Regeringens Proposition 2005/06:30. Ändringar i läkemedelslagstiftningen m.m. http://www.riksdagen.se/sv/Dokument-Lagar/Utskottens-dokument/Betankanden/200506ndringar-i-lakemedelsl_GT01SoU15/. Accessed 26 January 2015.

  • Tiefer, L. 2006. The Viagra Phenomenon. Sexualities 9(3): 273–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tornbjer, C. 2002. Den nationella modern. Moderskap i konstruktioner av svensk nationell gemenskap under 1900-talets första hälft. Lund: Nordic Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tronto, J. 1993. Moral Boundaries: Political Argument for an Ethic of Care. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vardeman-Winter, J. 2012. Medicalization and Teen Girls’ Bodies in the Gardasil Cervical Cancer Vaccine Campaign. Feminist Media Studies 12(2): 281–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wall, G., and S. Arnold. 2007. How Involved is Involved Fathering? An Exploration of the Contemporary Culture of Fatherhood. Gender & Society 21(4): 508–527.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, S.J., J. Gabe, and P. Davis. 2009. The Sociology of Pharmaceuticals: Progress and Prospects. In Pharmaceuticals and Society: Critical Discourses and Debates, ed. S.J. Williams, J. Gabe, and P. Davis, 1–11. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, S.J., P. Martin, and J. Gabe. 2011. The Pharmaceuticalisation of Society? A Framework for Analysis. Sociology of Health & Illness 33(5): 710–725.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuval-Davis, N. 1997. Gender and Nation. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lisa Lindén

Authors
  1. Lisa Lindén
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technology and Social Change, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Ericka Johnson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Lindén, L. (2017). You Will Protect Your Daughter, Right?. In: Johnson, E. (eds) Gendering Drugs. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51487-1_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51487-1_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51486-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51487-1

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation