‘I think my body knew what it was before I did’: Affirming women’s embodied experiences as a conduit to knowing

Abstract

This paper focuses on ignorance within the phenomenon of women who experience female ejaculation. Based on ethnographic research, I show how the experience of the phenomenon in the absence of propositional knowledge about it results in what I term ‘experiential ignorance.’ This type of ignorance is caused by the cultural positioning of propositional knowledge as the most valid and reliable form of knowledge about the body. Experiential ignorance can be manifested in many different ways, such as an inability to categorize and validate subjective bodily experiences, resulting in feelings of doubt, shame, and can even lead to somatic effects. Nevertheless, some women challenge this knowledge hierarchy by valuing their bodily sensations as legitimate sources of information. The paper concludes that reconceptualizing ignorance to include experiential dimensions reveals the power dynamics inherent in knowledge production and provides opportunities for women to reclaim authority over their bodies and pleasurable experiences. This framework has broader implications for understanding embodied knowledge and ignorance across diverse sociocultural contexts.