Att hålla tätt : Offentlig urinering och inkontinens som könad praktik

• Main Author: Larsdotter Lörelius, Emmalotte
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Centrum för genusvetenskap 2008
• Subjects: HUMANITIES and RELIGION; HUMANIORA och RELIGIONSVETENSKAP
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-167619

Urination is a biological need but the routines surrounding urination are culturally specific and ever changing. This makes the organization of public space an important part in deciding what actions are made possible for the people in it. This paper considers women’s public urination and the possibilities to merge the need to urinate and the construction of the female body as feminine. A number of texts that describe the construction of the female body and identity as both gendered and socially produced are analysed in relation to women’s experiences of incontinence. Incontinence as a medical diagnosis is by this becoming possible to question, and may be seen as one of several strategies used to manage both the organization of the public space and the expectations of the female body to be a docile body. The conclusion is that a woman who wants to enter public space has the following options when it comes to the need to urinate: To strive for the feminine ideal. This means planning, limiting and disciplining the body to create a docile female body. To use the medical diagnosis of incontinence. This may lead to lesser demands of bodily control but will construct the body as disabled. To exceed the boundaries. This means disobeying the demands of bodily control and leads to social and physical retribution.