It Hurts Down There

Download or read book It Hurts Down There written by Christine Labuski and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.