Who's guarding what? A poststructural feminist analysis of gardasil discourses

In May 2006 the Gardasil vaccine was approved for implementation in the United States to prohibit the spread of four strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) that can lead to cervical cancer. Through a poststructural feminist reading, I critique ideologies at play throughout the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval hearing for this vaccine. I explore the conditions that gave rise to the adoption of the Gardasil vaccine as evidenced in the hearing transcript, and probe contradictions between choices the FDA enacted for the feminine body with those recommendations from lead scientists of Merck that urged the inclusion of males in the vaccination process. Along the way, I respond to appeals from scholars to address matters of health policy formation and implementation as critical and underexplored dimensions of health communication. I offer a vision that makes way for proactive engagement of males in reproductive and sexual health, particularly as the FDA delayed vaccine approval for males until 2009.