Mosquitoes, sex workers, nuns and "our ignorant folk": narratives of hpv infection and vaccination among Turkish doctors

Abstract

Through in-depth interviews with doctors in İstanbul, this thesis explores how doctors shape the meanings of human papillomavirus (HPV) in relation to discourses about sexuality, morality, and existing social hierarchies. It examines how existing social inequalities and power relationships based on gender, socioeconomic status, and knowledge are incorporated into, shaped and reproduced by doctors' HPV narratives. Through doctors' narratives of HPV, this study examines how doctors construct their patients and the general public as uneducated masses, which they differentiate from their own social positions as educated experts. It also conveys how HPV narratives cast men and women in specific gender roles. It aims to highlight how these narratives are embedded within a broader discussion of national and traditional values, as well as assumed norms about morality and sexuality.