Queering the sick room. A queer feminist narrative inquiry into the lived experiences of lesbians with cancer

Abstract

Introduction
Queering the sick room has brought together ten lesbian women’s stories of living with cancer and offers new insight into the experiences of being lesbian and having cancer within the United Kingdom. The study participants first discussed their life since coming out as lesbian and then their lesbian life with cancer.

Method
Queering the sick room is a queer feminist inquiry that employs Queer Phenomenology (Ahmed 2006) to construct narrative accounts of experiences of being lesbian and of having cancer. A convenient and purposeful sample of ten women were recruited. Focused, conversational interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken to construct the narratives included. Three overarching narratives were constructed: Living a lesbian life, living a lesbian life with cancer, and queering the sick room.

Results
The narratives presented as living a lesbian life show the multiplicity of experience, there is no one experience that captures the “lesbian experience”, but there are some commonly shared moments, fear of reactions from others, homophobia both internally felt and externally experienced. Significantly the recognition of self for these women was a truly empowering moment, that enabled them to begin to live as their authentic selves. An important factor for all the women was time, particularly in relation to coming out. The political mood of the time, for these women, dictated not only their feelings of safety but also their personal activism. The lived experience of being lesbian and having cancer included eight themes; constructed cancer hierarchies, being diagnosed, why have I got cancer, cancer and my [lesbian] body, treatment, coping, support, and environment. This narrative exploration adds a clear indication of the impact of cancer on their lives as the participants navigate the cancer journey. It highlights that heterosexism, homophobia and assumption-saturated care persists, despite the rhetoric that things are better.

Conclusion
Queering the Sick Room presents a new way of thinking about orientation and disorientation, and it asks us to consider how a space can be queered by who occupies that space. When we are not orientated, we are disorientated, but moments of disorientation are vital. They are embodied experiences that destabilise but also allow restabilising, an opportunity for re-orientation. Queering the sick room examines the experiences of queer bodies disorientating and being disorientated by normative spaces.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English