'You have all those emotions inside that you cannot show because of what they will cause': Disclosing the absence of one's uterus and vagina. (October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Guntram, Lisa; Zeiler, Kristin
• Is Part Of: Social science & medicine. Volume 167(2016)
• Page Start: 63
• Page End: 70
• Publication Date: 2016-10
• Subjects: Sweden -- Emotions -- Intersex -- Disorder of sex development (DSD) -- Uterus -- Vagina -- Coming out -- Affective dissonance; Social medicine -- Periodicals; Medical anthropology -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Médecine sociale -- Périodiques; Anthropologie médicale -- Périodiques; Santé publique -- Périodiques; Psychologie -- Périodiques; Médecine -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 362.105
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.08.028
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0277-9536

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines young women's experiences of telling others that they have no uterus and no, or a so-called small, vagina – a condition labelled 'congenital absence of uterus and vagina', which falls within the larger category of 'atypical' sex development. Our aim is to investigate how affective dissonances such as fear and frustration are expressed in young women's narratives about letting others know about their 'atypical' sex development, and how these women narrate desired steps to recognition. By drawing on feminist writings on the performativity of affects or emotions, we examine what affective dissonances accomplish within three identified narratives: how affective dissonances may contribute to the women's positioning of themselves vis-à-vis other individuals and how affective dissonances can imply a strengthening and/or questioning of norms about female embodiment and heterosexuality. This allows us to tease out how routes for questioning of these norms become available through the three narratives that together form a storyline of coming out about a congenital absence of a uterus and vagina in the Swedish context. Furthermore, by demonstrating how others' responses shape the women – their understandings of their own bodies, their envisaged future disclosures and their relations – our analysis highlights the multifaceted intersubjective and in other ways relational, affective and temporal dimensions of coming out about one's 'atypical' sex development. Highlights: Details narratives about 'coming out' with 'atypical' sex development in Sweden. Draws attention to accomplishments of affective dissonances in such narratives. Demonstrates intersubjective, affective and temporal dimensions of coming-out. Makes a unique contribution to social scientific research on intersex/DSD. Contributes with further contextualization to studies on coming-out.