1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910350288603321

Autore

Gatwiri Kathomi

Titolo

African Womanhood and Incontinent Bodies [[electronic resource] ] : Kenyan Women with Vaginal Fistulas / / by Kathomi Gatwiri

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Singapore : , : Springer Singapore : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2019

ISBN

981-13-0565-X

Edizione

[1st ed. 2019.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XVII, 210 p.)

Disciplina

306.4613

Soggetti

Human body—Social aspects

Culture

Gender

Maternal and child health services

Women

Ethnology—Africa

Gynecology 

Sociology of the Body

Culture and Gender

Maternal and Child Health

Women's Studies

African Culture

Gynecology

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Exploring African Feminisms: Context, Positioning, and Making the Personal Political -- Two: The Problem of Vaginal Fistulas: Dimensions and Trends -- African Women, Gender, Health, and Sexuality: Theoretical Considerations -- Vaginal Fistulas and Structural Disadvantage -- Rationalising Fistulas: A Cultural Influence and Response -- Flawed Bodies, Blackness, and Incontinence -- Recreating African Womanhood and Rewriting Our Stories: Bringing the Narratives to a Close -- References -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

This book reveals the structures of poverty, power, patriarchy and imperialistic health policies that underpin what the World Health



Organization calls the “hidden disease” of vaginal fistulas in Africa. By employing critical feminist and post-colonial perspectives, it shows how “leaking black female bodies” are constructed, ranked, stratified and marginalised in global maternal health care, and explains why women in Africa are at risk of developing vaginal fistulas and then having adequate treatment delayed or denied. Drawing on face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 30 Kenyan women, it paints a rare social portrait of the heartbreaking challenges for Kenyan women living with this most profound gender-related health issue – an experience of shame, taboo and abjection with severe implications for women’s wellbeing, health and sexuality. In absolutely groundbreaking depth, this book shows why research on vaginal fistulas must incorporate feminist understandings of bodily experience to inform future practices and knowledge.