‘WTF Uterus?’ Metaphors of the Body as Positioning in Infertility Blogs by Muslim Women
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19463718 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Fatema Alhalwachi (0000-0002-6932-245X, Birkbeck, University of London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 10497323261442757-10497323261442757 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Qualitative Health Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/10497323261442757 |
| PMID | 42237504 |
| OpenAlex | W7163524109 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 24 |
This paper uses a small-stories positioning framework to analyse metaphors of the body and related claims of identity in Muslim women’s infertility blogs. I first conduct a directed qualitative content analysis to identify metaphorically used words and group them into a small set of metaphor families; I then apply Metaphor-Led Positioning Analysis to interpret how those metaphors position narrators, audiences, and institutions across small stories. I examine how narrators construct gendered selves in context – alternately contesting or adopting positions of victimhood – vis-à-vis hegemonic medical, social, and religious Discourses and key interlocutors (partners, families, clinicians, peers). Focusing on figurative language (e.g., the body as defective machine, battleground, empty container, rebellious agent, or season/journey), The article shows how metaphors mediate alignment with audiences, index affect, and enable stance shifts that both reproduce and resist pronatalist and medicalising ideologies. It argues that these cultural–rhetorical manifestations expose the workings of hegemony around femininity and the body in relation to reproductive ‘failure’, while also furnishing resources for re-authoring womanhood beyond gestation. Implications include faith-literate, lineage-sensitive communication in fertility care, and narrative-focused support for coping
Construct (python library) · Context (archaeology) · Discourse analysis · Femininity · Hegemony · Identity (music) · Literal and figurative language · Metaphor · Perspective (graphical) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Rhetoric and Communication Studies
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The Infertile Body in the Clinic
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Who am I? Narration and its contribution to self and identity
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Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis
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Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis
Using Metaphor as a Qualitative Analytic Approach to Understand Complexity in Primary Care Research
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |