Abstract
Of central concern in my work on the transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) between women is a critical engagement with conceptualisations of identities, bodies and risk. As I have argued, the questions commonly posed on the issue of female-to-female STI transmission (for instance, ‘Can lesbians get STIs?’) need to be carefully unpacked and critically interrogated by drawing attention to the complexities of identities, bodies and risk-making (Rudolph, 2009).2 Here I focus on the first of these interrelated conceptual foci and ask how identities are constitutive of, and constituted through, discourses of female-to-female transmission of STIs.3 The relevance of taking into account discourses of identity when critically engaging with the issue of female-to-female STI transmission became increasingly apparent during my initial engagement with the literature on lesbian sexual health and was then echoed in the accounts of the young women and health professionals I interviewed.4
A special thank you to all the women who supported this research by participating in the interviews and focus groups.Warm thanks to Gail Lewis, Celia Roberts, Vicky Singleton, Hilary Graham, Maureen McNeil and friends from Lancaster University Women’s Studies. I am also grateful to Niamh Moore and to the Centre of Gender Excellence, Linköping University, Sweden.
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© 2013 Anne Rudolph
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Rudolph, A. (2013). Discourses of Female-to-Female STI Transmission: Of the Dent in Identity and Moments of Fixing. In: Sanger, T., Taylor, Y. (eds) Mapping Intimacies. Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137313423_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137313423_5
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