Medicine Anthropology Theory (Apr 2024)

​​The Butt of the Joke​: Humour and Queer Care at an Anal Dysplasia Clinic

  • William J Robertson

DOI
https://doi.org/10.17157/mat.11.2.7278
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 2
pp. 1 – 27

Abstract

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Based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork I conducted at an anal cancer prevention clinic in Chicago, USA, this article considers queer camp humour as a care practice to better understand how providers and patients navigate clinical interactions centred around a stigmatised disease in a taboo body part. Humorous moments infused daily life at the clinic, and I came to see them as a critical feature of the clinic’s uniquely queer environment and a central aspect of the staff’s queer care practices. I argue the campy queer style of humour in the clinic was a vital tool for providing culturally appropriate care, and describe how humour mediated patient-provider interactions, had palliative effects, and managed dirt and bodily excess. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the importance of anthropological attention to humour and joking as forms of care.

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