Pap smear brochures, misogyny and language: a discourse analysis and feminist critique

Text from a public health brochure on pap smears was analysed with particular reference to ways in which the language used conveys particular messages about women and their bodies. In the text, 'humans' were found to be excluded as such. Both the pap smear service provider and the women who are the recipients of this service--and at whom such brochures are targeted--are objectified and their characteristics of human existence (i.e. ontological capacities) were restricted. The language of the pamphlet invokes an image for women associated with vaginal (penile penetrative) sex. The discourse also is found to be didactic, biomedical and written in the voice of the service provider. Further, the encounter of pap smear events is contextualized as procedural such that not only is the woman 'done to' in the process of having a cervical smear test but the woman's and provider's experiences of the encounter are silenced. It is concluded that the texts may be viewed as misogynist and that such texts do not take account of the complexity of women's decisions to 'submit to' or comply with cervical cancer screening.