Podcast: Flat: How One Woman Reclaimed Her Body
Flat: How One Woman Reclaimed Her Body From Breast Cancer, October 18, 2018
Catherine Guthrie is a women's health journalist with two decades of experience in the magazine and publishing industry. She has written for Cosmopolitan; O, The Oprah Magazine; Slate; Time; and Better Homes and Gardens, among others.
In 2009, at age 38, Catherine was diagnosed with breast cancer. Although the cancer was only in one breast, she opted for a double mastectomy and chose not to reconstruct. She was diagnosed with breast cancer a second time a year later in 2010. During her treatment, she searched for a memoir where the narrator grappled with the reality of the disease, where she unpacked questions about reconstruction, and challenged the tacit assumptions about what women want or need to feel whole after cancer. She couldn't find a book that filled that niche, so she wrote one. Catherine's queer, feminist memoir, FLAT: Reclaiming My Body From Breast Cancer, was published in September 2018.
Listen to the podcast to hear Catherine discuss:
- "the male gaze" and how it informs breast reconstruction, even if the surgeon is a woman
- how her queerness affected her experience with breast cancer
- how her experience with breast cancer has changed how she reports on the disease
- her advice to women on things they can do to help ensure that their choices about reconstruction — or not — are respected by surgeons
Running time: 33:34
Listen now or read the transcript.
Comments
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Thanks for the interesting article. I agree with giving women information and choices and it's time that surgeons listened to us.
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Great pod cast. Very personal and still rising above this to highlight the weaknesses in the current system of surgical breast cancer treatment.
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What are organizations like this doing to inform surgeons about the problems that have been outlined in this podcast?
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Loved the podcast. I felt that she touched on so many things that rang true with me.
I also read the book and think everyone with a cancer diagnosis should as well. I could relate to so much of what she said. Such an amazing stor
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Just ordered the book and loved the podcast. Glad I discovered this group's podcast.
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