The authors interrogate genital examinations as events in which both client and practitioner are `produced' as relational subjects in quite specific ways. This article explores the way one female sex health worker talks about her work as a form of cultural exchange, noting what she requires of her clients and seeks to give of herself. Of particular importance is the way the practitioner produces the client as a social subject amenable to intimate examination, while resisting some traditional means for doing so. The authors use a Foucauldian conceptual framework to signal their departure from feminist analyses which explain such practices in terms of a patriarchal medical system.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Allen, Judith
(1992) `Feminist Critiques of Western Knowledges: Spatial Anxieties in a Provisional Phase?', pp. 57-77 in K.K. Ruthven (ed.) Beyond the Disciplines: The New Humanities. Canberra: Australian Academy of the Humanities.
2.
Beaglehole, R.
and R. Bonita (1997) Public Health at the Crossroads: Achievements and Prospects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.
Beck, C.
and S. Ragan (1992) `Negotiating Interpersonal and Medical Talk: Frame Shifts in the Gynaecological Exam', Journal of Language and Social Psychology11(1-2): 47-61.
4.
Butler, Judith
(1993) Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. New York and London: Routledge
5.
Coney, S.
(1991) The Menopause History: A Guide to Medicine's `Discovery' of the Mid-Life Woman. Auckland: Penguin Books.
6.
Deutscher, P.
(1994) `Eating the Words of the Other - Ethics, Erotics and Cannibalism in Pedagogy', pp. 31-46 in J. Matthews (ed.) Jane Gallop Seminar Papers, Proceedings of the Jane Gallop Seminar and Public Lecture `The Teacher's Breasts', June 1993. Canberra: The Humanities Research Council.
7.
Felman, S.
(1982) `Psychoanalysis and Education: Teaching Terminable and Interminable', `The Pedagogical Imperative: Teaching as a Literary Genre', Yale French Studies (Special Edition) 63: 21-44.
8.
Foucault, Michel
(1980) The History of Sexuality, Volume 1, An Introduction, trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Pantheon.
9.
Foucault, M.
(1985) The Use of Pleasure: The History of Sexuality, Volume 2, trans. R. Hurley. London: Penguin.
10.
Foucault, M.
(1988) `Technologies of the Self', pp. 1-49 in L. Martin, H. Gutman and P. Hutton (eds) Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
11.
Gallop, J.
(1982) `The Immoral Teachers', `The Pedagogical Imperative: Teaching as a Literary Genre', Yale French Studies (Special Edition) 63: 117-128.
12.
Gallop, J.
(1985) Reading Lacan. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press.
13.
Gallop, J.
(1994) `The Teacher's Breasts', pp. 1-12 in J.J. Matthews (ed.) Jane Gallop Seminar Papers, Proceedings of the Jane Gallop Seminar and Public Lecture `The Teacher's Breasts', June 1993. Canberra: The Humanities Research Council.
14.
Gallop, J.
(ed.) (1995) Pedagogy: The Question of Impersonation. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
15.
Gastaldo, D.
(1997) `Is Health Education Good for You? Re-Thinking Health Education through the Concept of Bio-Power', pp. 113-133 in A. Petersen and R. Bunton (eds) Foucault: Health and Medicine. London: Routledge.
16.
Grosz, E.
(1994) Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal Feminism. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
17.
Illich, I.
(1990) Limits to Medicine: Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health. London: Penguin.
18.
Irigaray, L.
(1992) J'aime a toi. Paris: Grasset.
19.
Latane, D.
(1989) `At Play in the Field of Foucault: A Review of Some Recent Texts', Critical Texts6: 39-58.
20.
Leder, D.
(1990) The Absent Body. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
21.
Le Doeuff, M.
(1977) `Women and Philosophy', Radical Philosophy17 (Summer): 2-12.
22.
Lewington, F.
and D. Rogers (1995) `Forensic Services for Victims of Sexual Abuse and Assault', Sexual and Marital Therapy10(2): 215-229.
23.
Lupton, D.
(1997) `Foucault and the Medicalisation Critique', pp. 94-112 in A. Petersen and R. Bunton (eds) Foucault: Health and Medicine. London: Routledge.
24.
Matthews, J.
(ed.) (1994) Jane Gallop Seminar Papers, Proceedings of the Jane Gallop Seminar and Public Lecture `The Teacher's Breasts', June 1993. Canberra: The Humanities Research Council.
25.
Miller, S.
, Y. Shoda and K. Hurley (1996) `Applying Cognitive-Social Theory to Health-Protective Behavior: Breast Self-Examination in Cancer Screening', Psychological Bulletin111(1): 70-94.
26.
Patton, C.
(1994) Last Served? Gendering the HIV Pandemic. London: Taylor and Francis.
27.
`The Pedagogical Imperative: Teaching as a Literary Genre' (1982) Yale French Studies (Special Edition) No. 63.
28.
Rachlis, M.
and C. Kushler (1989) Second Opinion: What's Wrong with Canada's Health System and How to Fix it. Toronto: Harper and Collins.
29.
Riessman, C.K.
(1992) `Women and Medicalization: A New Perspective', pp. 123-144 in G. Kirkup and L. Smith (eds) Inventing Women: Science, Technology and Gender. Cambridge: Polity/Open University Press.
30.
Rhodes, T.
(1997) `Individual and Community Action in HIV Prevention: An Introduction', pp. 1-9 in T. Rhodes and R. Hartnoll (eds) AIDS, Drugs and Prevention: Perspectives on Individual and Community Action. London: Routledge.
31.
Ritchley, F.J.
, W.C. Yoels, J.M. Claire and R.M. Allman (1995) `Competing Medical and Social Ideologies and Communication Accuracy in Medical Encounters', Research in the Sociology of Health Care12: 189-211.
32.
Shilling, C.
(1993) The Body and Social Theory. London: Sage.
33.
Taylor, S.
and D. Field (eds) (1993) Sociology of Health and Health Care. London: Blackwell.
34.
Too, Yun Lee (1995) `False Premises: Revisiting the Pedagogical Contract', unpublished paper, School of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies, University of Liverpool.
35.
Turner, B.S.
(1997) `Foreword: From Governmentality to Risk: Some Reflections on Foucault's Contribution to Medical Sociology', pp. ix-xxii in A. Petersen and R. Bunton (eds) Foucault: Health and Medicine. London: Routledge.
