*Note* This scheduling program was not designed by folks who do a lot with APA Style and unfortunately it defaults to listing authors in alphabetical order. We cannot fix this for this online schedule, but the author orders are posted in the order submitted in the printed program available via pdf here.
Three presenters address aspects of women’s lives which have been marketed to the general public in a false and misleading way to support the billion dollar profits of the medical-pharmacological industry. The authors challenge the marketing and “science” that objectify women’s bodies, or render women’s bodies and experiences a series of symptoms, diseases, and dysfunctions that require pharmaceutical or surgical intervention by medical professionals. Each presenter addresses the marketing of a specific “condition” in which the marketing is designed to misinform or misrepresent women at the expense of corporate America. The session is part of a larger movement that critically challenges the marketing associated with the medical-pharmacological industry. In addition to a scientific critique, the presenters provide a gender lens. For example, the labeling of the menstrual cycle- related experience as a syndrome (PMS) is based on a culturally pejorative perspective on women’s bodies and bodily process, which has resulted in the widespread experience of reproductive shame (Chrisler & Caplan, 2002; Johnston-Robledo, Voigt, Sheffield, & Wilcox-Constantine, 2007). Presenter 1 examines the marketing of menstrual suppression to avoid the problem of menstruation, and questions the impact of this campaign for women’s experience of their bodies. Presenter 2 critically examines the pinking of breast cancer, the proliferation of pink products which are alledgedly promoting awareness of breast cancer, and contributing resources to breast cancer research. She advises that we think before we pink. Presenter 3 examines the misleading information about women’s sexual functioning that has been used to argue for drugs for women’s FSD. She focuses on the recent campaign of the drug industry to pressure the FDA to approve drugs for women, to Even the Score. In each case marketing techniques and misinformation are cleverly used to convince women to adopt behaviors that are not conducive to women’s health and well being.
