Politização do útero: entre tecnologias e representações de gênero nas campanhas preventivas de HPV e câncer de colo do útero desenvolvidas pelo Ministério da Saúde de 2014 a 2020

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the preventive campaigns of human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer (CC) developed by the National Cancer Institute / Ministry of Health, from 2014 to 2020. In the light of a socioanthropological view, our main objective is to understand how these campaigns trigger gender representations, and, as health technologies, how to co-construct meanings and users. The campaigns highlight a certain politicization of the uterus that maintains excessive scrutiny of the female body, through medicalization and monitoring of the sexual and reproductive health of women. Among the controversies, displacements and continuities that cross the discussion, preventive campaigns point to a materiality that not only does, but also ceases to do – promoting silences and absences. Thus, we believe that the graphic elements of these campaigns allow us to understand some important aspects of the place of the uterus in public health policies. In addition, we present some private and non-governmental campaigns, as a counterpoint to the analysis. We created seven categories of analysis ("Generationality of care", "Schooling", "Childhood and Youth", "Gamification", "Risk to Health", "Men's Health" and "Neutrality") that allowed us to discuss and make seams between the themes that emerged in the layouts. Although Brazil has historically been considered a country with a robust immunization culture, HPV vaccine adhering is still considered low. Because of this, both HPV vaccination and CC involvement are presented as "alarming health problems". The specificities of the Brazilian context, in a way, scramble the senses of risk and care, protection and submission, autonomy and denialism. The graphic pieces analyzed illuminate a symbolic universe in relation to the theme and the peculiarity of the biography of the HPV vaccine, going through issues such as the increase in the target audience of vaccines, the recent expansion of the vaccine for men, the low adoption in the second and third dose, family distrust, anti-vacinist influences, morality around gender and sexualities, and so on. The campaigns contextualized with the history of the vaccine in Brazil, the current mode of management and the actors on the scene engender a phenomenon that deserves attention for the studies of the human sciences in health. Therefore, we focus precisely on the attempt to follow part of the trajectory that HPV vaccine and CC preventive campaigns have mapped in Brazil, mainly through the articulations established between gender and health, starting from a perspective that sees science and culture as inseparable.