Unreal Women

Sex, Gender, Identity and the Lived Experience of Vulvar Pain

Bibliographic Data

ID3945381
AuthorsA Kaler (0000-0003-2681-3483, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume82
Issue1
Pages50-75
Publication date2006-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-7789 • E-ISSN: 1466-4380
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400262
OpenAlexW2015956103
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited26

In this paper, I take up the lives of women with persistent vulvar pain for what they can reveal about the enmeshment of gender, (hetero)sexuality and bodily practices. Women with vulvodynia are unable to perform the central heterogendering act of penetrative intercourse with a male partner. They describe this inability as rendering them effectively 'genderless', described as being 'not a real woman' or a 'fake woman'. I analyse their perceptions of gender and bodily performance in relation to feminist theorizing about gender and sexuality, and I argue for the centrality of the lived body to the epistemology of feminist efforts to theorize gender. This paper is based on in-person interviews with 20 women and web-based open-ended interactions with 70 women with vulvodynia

Gender identity · Human sexuality · Pelvic pain · Perception · Sociology · Vulvodynia · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Medicine · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology

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