The sexual embodiment of the cancer patient

This paper draws upon data from my doctoral studies and uses poststructuralism as a methodology to provide a way of seeing and understanding cancer patients' complex experience of their bodies. Cancer patients were massaged for the purpose of this study and the themes addressed in this article are linked to the sexuality of the person being massaged and the masseuse (PVDR). In order to capture the richness of the cancer patients' experience, the data are presented in an unconventional way--in the form of poetry. The poems show that the damaged bodies of cancer patients are still sexual in nature. In this research, the body of the cancer patient is a discursive one inscribed with power, culture, society and history. There are also themes of managing the body, altered embodiments of femininity, altered embodiments of masculinity, intimacy, and speaking the unspeakable.