It Hurts Down There: The Bodily Imaginaries of Female Genital Pain

Description

Tracks the medical emergence and treatment of vulvar pain conditions in order to understand why so many US women are misinformed about their sexual bodies. How does a woman describe a part of her body that much of society teaches her to never discuss? It Hurts Down There analyzes the largest known set of qualitative research data about vulvar pain conditions. It tells the story of one hundred women who struggled with this dilemma as they sought treatment for chronic and unexplained vulvar pain. Christine Labuski argues that the medical condition of vulvar pain cannot be adequately understood without exposing and interrogating cultural attitudes about female genitalia. The author’s dual positioning as cultural anthropologist and former nurse practitioner strengthens her argument that discourses about “healthy” vulvas naturalize and reproduce heteronormative associations between genitalia, sex, and gender. Christine Labuski is Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and the coauthor (with Nicholas Copeland) of The World of Wal-Mart: Discounting the American Dream. Contents......Page 6 List of Figures......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Prologue: A Fourteen-Foot-Tall Vagina......Page 14 A Note About Terms......Page 16 1. Insinuation: A Biocultural Condition......Page 20 Fixing the Problem......Page 23 My Birth in the Clinic......Page 27 Genitality......Page 30 Critical Heterosexuality......Page 33 Other Causes......Page 36 Genital Dis-ease......Page 38 Unwanted Genital Experience......Page 43 Genital Alienation......Page 48 Overview......Page 50 2. Examination: Clinical Interpretations of Vulvar Pain......Page 54 Categorizing the Conditions......Page 55 Vulvar Vestibulitis Syndrome......Page 57 Dysesthetic Vulvodynia......Page 65 The Lichens......Page 69 “Pretty White Skin”: Race, Gender, and Female Genitalia......Page 74 Black and White Pain......Page 76 Hysteria, White Femininity, and the Intersectionality of Pain......Page 82 The Clinic......Page 86 The Staff and Their Roles......Page 92 3. Accumulation: The Materiality of Absence......Page 96 Collecting......Page 98 Alternative Baggage......Page 100 Speculum Practice......Page 103 Frances......Page 108 Deirdre, Lily, Isabelle, and JoJo......Page 117 Anything Wrong before I Touch?......Page 120 Holding Patterns......Page 130 4. Manifestation: (Un)conscious Presencing......Page 138 Showing Up......Page 139 Nikki and Lisa......Page 140 It’s the Body’s Intelligence: The Mind-Body Connection......Page 141 Safety and Support......Page 146 Veronica......Page 148 Eruptions......Page 155 Three Millimeters......Page 158 Genital Preservation......Page 160 Manifestation 2. A Public Demonstration, Usually over a political Issue.......Page 164 Hiding in Plain Sight......Page 166 Manifestation 3. The State or Condition of Being Shown or Perceptible.......Page 170 A New Vulva?......Page 175 Getting Better by Pushing the Limits......Page 180 In the Clinic: The Stratification of Better......Page 183 At Home: Here and There......Page 185 Too much or “A Lot more than i am”?......Page 189 The Fragmented Self: Scout......Page 190 Feeling Female......Page 194 Capacities for Action......Page 198 Vulvar Dys-appearances......Page 200 Naturalizing Absence: Brigette and Sharon......Page 203 That Kind of Sex......Page 207 Critical Juxtapositions: Vulvar Disease......Page 211 Success......Page 214 New and Renewed......Page 218 Generative Power......Page 224 Control (at a Whole Other Level)......Page 227 Imagine That: Corporeal Feminism and Anthropology......Page 234 This Is Like a Broken Bone I Didn’t Know About. I’m Going to Get a Cast......Page 238 He Won’t Like That......Page 243 Negativity......Page 249 7. Evaluation: Concluding Thoughts......Page 254 So What is Vulvar Pain? Is it Real?......Page 266 Epilogue: Collaboration......Page 270 Notes......Page 278 References......Page 294 Index......Page 330