A Conception of a Women’s Disease: The Representation of HPV on Instagram by Physicians

Mahsa Taghipour Javi; Sayed Ali Hashemianfar

doi:10.61838/arz2n515

Authors

Mahsa Taghipour Javi MA, Department of Social Sciences, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7179-0155
Sayed Ali Hashemianfar M.Sc., Women’s Study, Department of Social sciences, Faculty of literature, university of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Author https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8726-1737

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61838/arz2n515

Keywords:

Human Papillomavirus, HPV, Media Representation, Instagram, Physicians, Sociology of Health, Health Discourse, Gender

Abstract

Purpose: The present study aimed to examine how Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is represented on Iranian physicians’ Instagram pages and to analyze the dominant themes, discursive frameworks, and gendered assumptions embedded in these representations.

Methods and Materials: This qualitative study employed thematic analysis to investigate HPV-related content published on Instagram by healthcare professionals. The study population consisted of physician-managed Instagram accounts actively producing educational content about HPV. Using purposive sampling, 25 Instagram pages were selected, and a total of 500 posts, including images, videos, reels, captions, and archived stories, were analyzed. Data were coded and categorized through qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis procedures. To enhance credibility, independent coding was conducted by two researchers, and themes were continuously compared and refined throughout the analytical process.

Findings: The findings indicated that HPV was predominantly represented as a women-centered disease. The most common themes included “HPV as a threat to women’s health,” “HPV as a cause of cervical cancer,” and “women’s responsibility for prevention and disease management.” Furthermore, medical risk discourse and individual responsibility discourse emerged as the dominant discursive frameworks. Gender analysis revealed that women were primarily portrayed as the main victims of the disease and as the principal agents responsible for prevention and control, whereas men’s roles in transmission, prevention, and disease management were largely marginalized. The results suggest that physicians’ Instagram content contributes to the reproduction of a social perception of HPV as a predominantly female disease.

Conclusion: The study demonstrated that physicians’ Instagram representations of HPV extend beyond health education and actively participate in the social construction of disease meanings. The strong emphasis on women’s bodies, cervical cancer, and female responsibility creates a gendered understanding of HPV that may influence public attitudes toward sexual health and disease prevention.

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