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Constructed Ignorance and Inevitable Resistance: Our Knowledge of the Clitoris By Karly Rath Department of Sociology A thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Critical Sociology Faculty of Social Sciences, Brock University St. Catharines, Ontario ©2018 1 ABSTRACT Drawing on Nancy Tuana’s epistemologies of ignorance, this thesis explores the ways in which ignorance surrounding the clitoris is socially and systemically constructed, and how people with clitorises resist this gendered ignorance. The researcher conducted interviews with nine women and trans people about their sexual body, knowledge of the clitoris and their relationship with their own clitoris. During the in-depth follow-ups, participants were shown an anatomical model of the clitoris and a Cliteracy art mural by Conceptual Artist Sophia Wallace. After all the interviews were transcribed, a thematic analysis was conducted. The findings suggest that ignorance—in the forms of erasure, misrepresentation and dismissiveness—is prevalent in society and participants’ lived experiences. Few knew about the full size and anatomy of the clitoris and those who did learned this information from feminist, sexual education sources online. Participants demonstrated that what they know is primarily from active, self-initiated learning. Most participants indicated that learning about the clitoris is important for experiencing sexual pleasure, which is evident when examining the ways they sought to overcome barriers to learning. While the relationship between pleasure and the clitoris is complex, most participants stated that the organ was central to their experience of pleasure, especially orgasm. Notably, most participants were queer, and many participants expressed the belief that queer people are likely to be more knowledgeable than others about the clitoris. The data is contextualized with explorations of predominant discourses within social spaces such as schools, media and the healthcare system, focusing on aspects like language, school curricula and visual diagrams. The power dynamics and gendered processes behind what is known, and, importantly, what is not known, are explored. 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to acknowledge the land that I research, work, advocate and live on. The land I occupy as a white settler has been stolen from the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, and Neutral peoples. While it is always important to acknowledge the land, it is especially relevant when discussing our knowledge and autonomy over our bodies. Indigenous peoples continue to experience violence against their land, through occupation and resource extraction, and against their bodies. Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people face unfathomable sexual and gendered violence. This thesis is rooted in the understanding that some bodies are positioned to have more knowledge and autonomy than others, due to intersecting layers of oppression. I acknowledge that this research was conducted in a colonial institution through largely colonial research methods. I would also like to recognize those who came before me. I thank the feminists whose work has shaped my opportunities in academia and all other spheres. I thank the queer communities who have fought for centuries to allow me to be able to publicly state here that I am a queer woman. I recognize that queer liberation began with, and continues to be led, by queer and trans people of colour. I am deeply grateful to their work and commit to fighting alongside them. I would like to thank the scholars who have guided me. Thank you to Dr. Rebecca Raby who validated that exploring cliteracy is an important academic endeavor, and who challenged and supported me throughout the entire research process. Thank you to Dr. Margot Francis for sharing my excitement for the power of resistance through art and for pushing me to deepen 3 my understandings of the sexual and gendered contexts in which we live. Thank you to Dr. Andrea Doucet for introducing me to the incredible work of Dr. Nancy Tuana, and for guiding me epistemologically. Thank you to Dr. Vanessa Oliver for her enthusiastic reading of my work, providing me with many insights to strengthen it, and valuing my praxis efforts. Thank you to Dr. Rebecca Godderis and Dr. Marcia Oliver for encouraging me to grow as a feminist scholar, activist and educator—without whom, I may not have pursued further academic education. I am also deeply honoured to lean on the work of Sophia Wallace, the conceptual artist who first opened my eyes to the gendered ignorance surrounding the clitoris and to Odile Fillod, who cleverly created the first anatomically accurate clitoris model and who graciously made its digital model publicly available. Featuring their work in my research is an honour. Lastly, thank you to those in my personal life who supported me: my friends, family and partner. For your intellectual and emotional support, but also for supporting me in carrying around a 3D-printed clitoris and bringing sex organs up in nearly every conversation. It is because of these people that I have been able to produce this work—this labour of resistance—in the hopes that it will bring us closer to a world in which all women, trans and non-binary people intimately know about our bodies. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1 DEFINING KEY CONCEPTS ......................................................................................................................... 4 Clitoris ................................................................................................................................................... 4 People with clitorises ........................................................................................................................... 5 Cliteracy ................................................................................................................................................ 6 Knowledge ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Learning ................................................................................................................................................ 8 Sexual Bodies ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Sexual Experiences ............................................................................................................................... 9 Sexual Pleasure................................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................................................................. 11 CLITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................................ 11 Representations ................................................................................................................................. 11 Clitoral Knowledge ............................................................................................................................. 15 Girlhood Studies ................................................................................................................................. 16 Intersectional Feminism ..................................................................................................................... 18 Epistemologies of Ignorance .............................................................................................................. 20 CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................................................................. 26 METHODS AND METHODOLOGIES ........................................................................................................ 26 My Standpoint .................................................................................................................................... 28 Data Collection ................................................................................................................................... 30 Thematic Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 52 CHAPTER 4 .................................................................................................................................................. 55 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 55 The Ambiguous Relationships Between the Clitoris and Sexual Pleasure ....................................... 55 Participants’ Level of Cliteracy ........................................................................................................... 72 Ignorance ............................................................................................................................................ 82 Learning Processes ............................................................................................................................
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