Everyone responds differently upon being diagnosed with an illness, particularly cancer. Regardless of your race, gender, age and socio-economic background, the experience of cancer has negative effects on both the patient and their loved ones and the experience is drastically different and unique to each individual diagnosed. While experiences of cancer depend on the individual experience, there are patterns that allow us to understand why people are more likely to respond a certain way to their illness. Looking at cancer narratives from the perspective of traditional gender roles allows us to conceptualize how individual cancer narratives are shaped by gendered
