Reconstrução da mama: experiências biográficas e visibilidade política de mulheres em um grupo no WhatsApp.

Abstract

The dissertation was about breast reconstruction. It sought to understand, through qualitative research, how this procedure impacts the women s life with breast cancer in a group at social media. It was used a participant observation through a virtual ethnography. In addition, there were events face-to-face and individual interviews. As a result it was found that biographical narratives about the disease had a script in the following order: "Discovery", "Impact of treatment", "Social support" and "Breast reconstruction". Other aspects of the narratives were outcomes and moralities which revolved around modesty and isolation of the subjects as a consequence from the negative reactions of others when seeing their bodies; emotions of pain and suffering generated by physical and psychological sequelae of breast reconstruction and the negotiation of women's bodies in order to their maintain identities and to resent their lives. The search for youth and beauty also stood out in plastic surgeries; the impact of social markers of the difference in the experience of surgery and the attempt of women to maintain themselves as productive beings through professional work. Finally, the group was a space for exchanging of knowledge, information and the struggle for rights.