Tuesday, January 10, 2012
5:00 AM
2239 Lane Hall
Christine Labuski, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, The University of Arkansas
Drawing on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in a vulvar pain clinic, this talk examines how symptomatic women negotiate a cultural landscape through which frank discussions about female genitalia are often silenced. Dr. Labuski argues that these routine erasures limit many women’s ability to include their vulvas into their body image. These ‘missing vulvas’ provide the basis for an investigation into how culture informs and shapes our bodies and physiology.
Drawing on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in a vulvar pain clinic, this talk examines how symptomatic women negotiate a cultural landscape through which frank discussions about female genitalia are often silenced. Dr. Labuski argues that these routine erasures limit many women’s ability to include their vulvas into their body image. These ‘missing vulvas’ provide the basis for an investigation into how culture informs and shapes our bodies and physiology.
