Abstract
This chapter focuses on how norms for gender and (hetero)sexuality intersect with vulvar pain, sexual practice and bodily sensations, in relation to a study where I interviewed twenty-one women suffering from vulvar pain. Sexual practices, or the absence of them, partially constitute us as subjects. How we perform our sexuality is structured by how sex is constructed in society and culture. In a heteronormative culture, vaginal intercourse is part of sexual practice, and women suffering from vulvar pain cannot fully participate in this expected sexual practice. This means that they must actively respond to sexual discourses around what is considered to be ‘normal’ sexuality. In order to avoid pain and get pleasure out of the sexual encounter they need to change and redefine their sexual practice, and during this process norms for gender and sexuality are challenged. Norms and strategies for sexual practice and gender performance vary among women having sex with women and women having sex with men.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ayling, Kathryn and Jane M. Ussher. 2008. ‘“If Sex Hurts, am I Still a Woman?” The Subjective Experience of Vulvodynia in Hetero-Sexual Women’. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 37: 294–04.
Beasley, Chris. 2010. ‘The elephant in the room. Heterosexuality in critical gender/sexuality studies’. NORA, 18(3): 204–209.
Binik, Yitzchack M. 2010. ‘The DSM Diagnostic Criteria for Dyspareunia’. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39: 292–303.
Burr, Vivien. 1995. An Introduction to Social Constructionism. London: Routledge.
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender trouble. Feminism and the subversion of identity. London & New York: Routledge.
Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies That Matter. On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. London & New York: Routledge.
Clellan S. Ford and Frank A. Beach. 1951. Patterns of Sexual Behavior. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Deleuze, Gilles. 1992. ‘Ethology: Spinoza and us’. Incorporations. Ed. by Crary, Jonathan & Sanford Kwinter. London: MIT Press.
Edwards, Libby. 2004. ‘Subsets of vulvodynia: overlapping characteristics’. The Journal of Reproductive Medicine. 11(49): 883–87.
Ehrström, Sophia. 2007. Aspects on Chronic Stress and Glucose Metabolism in Women with Recurrent Vulvovaginal Candidasis and in Women with Localized Provoked Vulvodynia. Stockholm: Karolinska Institutet.
Elmerstig, Eva. 2009. Painful Ideals. Young Swedish women’s ideal sexual situations and experiences of pain during vaginal intercourse. Linköping: Linköping University, Gender and Medicine, Division of Women’s and Children’s Health.
Engman, Maria. 2007. Partial vaginismus—definition, symptoms and treatment. Linköping: Linköpings universitet, Faculty of Health Sciences.
Friedrich, E.G. 1987. ‘Vulvar vestibulitis syndrome’. Journal of Reproductive Medicine, 32: 110–14.
Gagnon, John H. and William Simon. 1973. Sexual Conduct. The Social Sources of Human Sexuality. Chicago: Aldine Pub. Co.
Gatens, Moira. 1996. Imaginary Bodies. Ethics, Power and Corporeality. London: Routledge.
Good, Byron J. 1994. Medicine, rationality, and experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grosz, Elisabeth. 1994. Volatile Bodies. Toward a Corporeal Feminism. London: Routledge.
Hite, Shere. 1976. The Hite report: a nationwide study on female sexuality. New York: Macmillan.
Hite, Shere. 1981. The Hite Report on Male Sexuality. New York: Knopf.
Hite, Shere. 1987. The Hite report: women and love: a cultural revolution in progress. New York: Knopf.
Holmberg, Carin. 1993. Det kallas kärlek. En socialpsykologisk studie om kvinnors underordning och mäns överordning bland unga jämställda par. Göteborg: Anamma förlag.
Jackson, Stevi and Sue Scott. 2010. Theorising Sexuality. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Johannesson, Ulrika. 2007. Combined Oral Contraceptives—Impact on the Vulvar Vestibular Mucosa and Pain Mechanisms. Stockholm: Karolinska Institutet.
Kaler, Amy, 2006. ‘Unreal women. Sex, gender, identity and the lived experience of vulvar pain’, Feminist Review. 82: 50–75.
Kinsey Alfred C., Wardell B. Pomeroy and Clyde E. Martin. 1948. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia: Saunders.
Kinsey, Alfred C., Wardell B. Pomeroy, Clyde E. Martin and Paul H. Gebhard. 1953. Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Philadelphia: Saunders.
Lundgren, Eva and Renita Sörensdotter. 2004. Ungdomar och genusnormer på skolans arena. Falun: Dalarnas forskningsråd.
Martinsson, Lena. 1997. Gemensamma liv. Om kön, kärlek och längtan. Stockholm: Carlsson Bokförlag.
Masters William H. and Virginia E. Johnson. 1966. Human Sexual Response. Boston: Little Brown.
Rosenberg, Tiina. 2002. Queerfeministisk agenda. Stockholm: Atlas.
Segal, Lynne. 1994. Straight sex. The politics of pleasure. London: Virago Press.
Seymour, Wendy. 1998. Remaking the body. Rehabilitation and change. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Simon, William. 1966. Postmodern Sexualities. London: Routledge.
Stanley, Liz. 1992. The Auto/Biographical I. The Theory and Practice of Feminist Auto/Biography. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Sörensdotter, Renita, 2012. ‘Pain and sex(uality) among women suffering from vulvar pain’. Dimensions of pain. Ed. by Lisa Folkmarson Käll. London: Routledge.
Wilton, Tamsin. 2004. Sexual (Dis)Orientation. Gender, Sex and Self-Fashioning. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jørgensen, Marianne Winter and Louise Phillips. 2000. Diskursanalys som teori och metod. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sörensdotter, R. (2017). Heteronormativity as a Painful Script: How Women with Vulvar Pain (re)Negotiate Sexual Practice. In: Rees, E. (eds) Talking Bodies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63778-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63778-5_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63777-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63778-5
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)