KNOWLEDGE IN WAVES: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF WOMEN’S SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND SELF-UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR BODIES by Stephanie Bethune Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Sociology Acadia University April, 2015 © Copyright by Stephanie Bethune, 2015 This thesis by Stephanie Bethune is accepted in its present form by the Department of Sociology as satisfying the thesis requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours Approved by the Thesis Supervisor __________________________ ____________________ (Dr. Zelda Abramson) Date Approved by the Head of the Department __________________________ ____________________ (Dr. Jeff Hennessy) Date Approved by the Honours Committee __________________________ ____________________ (Dr. Anthony Thomson) Date ii I, Stephanie Bethune, grant permission to the University Librarian at Acadia University to reproduce, loan or distribute copies of my thesis in microform, paper or electronic formats on a non-profit basis. I, however, retain the copyright in my thesis. _________________________________ Signature of Author _________________________________ Date iii Acknowledgements This thesis is dedicated to my supervisor and mentor, Dr. Zelda Abramson. Thank you for pushing me to be my best self, and believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself. Special thanks go to the faculty, staff, and students in the departments of Sociology, Philosophy, and Politics, for providing incredible spaces of learning and support. Our conversations in classrooms, offices, hallways, living rooms, and coffee shops created an environment of continuous discovery and collaborative inquiry. Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to the four women who participated in my research for this thesis. Your openness and insights astounded and inspired me. iv Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... IV LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... VII ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ VIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................... 4 CHAPTER 3: METHODS AND METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 23 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................... 23 METHODS ..................................................................................................................................... 26 The Sample .............................................................................................................................. 26 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................................... 29 CONCEPTS ................................................................................................................................ 29 Contemporary Condition ........................................................................................................ 29 Progress .................................................................................................................................. 31 Ideal ........................................................................................................................................ 32 SEXUALITY .............................................................................................................................. 33 Subjectivity of Women’s Experiences ..................................................................................... 34 Seizing the Means to Reproduction ........................................................................................ 35 Elimination of Sexual Difference ............................................................................................ 36 Sexuality as Constructed ......................................................................................................... 37 Fear and Shame in Masturbating ........................................................................................... 39 BODIES ...................................................................................................................................... 40 Deconstruction of Notions of Womanhood ............................................................................. 40 The Ideal Woman .................................................................................................................... 42 Body Image ............................................................................................................................. 43 v Subordination of Body to Mind ............................................................................................... 45 Community Building through Confession ............................................................................... 46 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 49 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................. 51 vi List of Tables TABLE 1: SAMPLE DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................................. 27 vii Abstract Contemporary feminist theory has become so complex and academic that the connection to women’s lives is seemingly lost, raising the question of whether feminist theory has a substantive relationship to women’s daily lives and experiences. Through problematizing the spaces between theory and experience, drawing on four in-depth mutigenerational interviews and examining the apparent relations between theory and experience, the futures of feminist theory can be creatively reimagined. By broadly overviewing important themes in feminist theory from late second wave to present day and cross- examining these with interview data from four multigenerational interviews, I examine the aforementioned space. Women’s experiences of their sexualities and bodies relate to theory in unexpected and interesting ways, and theory reflects these experiences in both its inaccessible and accessible forms. Women experience the construction of womanhood, the shame surrounding sexuality, community building through confession, and seek out their ideal world. By examining these experiences in relation to feminist theory, I demonstrate the importance of further theoretical analyses of sexual and gendered difference, wherein the creation and dissemination of knowledge of women’s bodies and experiences affect the lives of the women that it studies. viii CHAPTER 1: Introduction This thesis was inspired by my love of both feminist theory and my experiences within a feminist community. As I realized my two passions were often conceived as disparate, I sought to place my inquiry in the spaces between theory and experience, with the goal of bringing the two together. This thesis will problematize the spaces between theory and experience, and examine the apparent relations between them in praxis. By broadly overviewing important themes in feminist theory from late second wave to current day and cross- examining these with interview data from four multigenerational interviews, the aforementioned space is examined. Through this process the futures of feminist theory can be creatively reimagined. Women’s experiences of their sexualities and bodies relate to theory in unexpected and interesting ways, and theory reflects these experiences in both inaccessible and accessible forms. The women that participated in this project experience the construction of womanhood, the shame surrounding sexuality, community building through confession, and seek out their ideal world. By examining these experiences in relation to feminist theory, I demonstrate the need for further theoretical analyses of sexual and gendered difference. This need is evident, as the theoretical work being done on women’s bodies and experiences has an effect on the women whose bodies and experiences are being studied. 1 Through a series of multigenerational, in-depth interviews with women between the ages of 19 and 82, I focus on transference of knowledge, specifically addressing the ways in which these women learned about their bodies and sexualities, through family, friends, and school. By theorizing their experience in relation to second- and third-wave feminist theories, I argue that second- and third-wave feminist theories significantly contributed to the progressive change that women have made, through changes such as the ways women understand their bodies during and after second- and third-wave feminism. This contribution of second- and third-wave feminist theory is not only experienced in the macro social sense, however, but also in the micro interactions and experiences of women in their daily lives. In addition to the examination of second- and third-wave feminist theory, I probe both the historical context of women’s experiences