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Identity ambivalence and embodiment in women's accounts of the gynaecological examination

Dariusz Galasiski

University of Wolverhampton, UK, d.galasinski{at}wlv.ac.uk

Justyna Ziókowska

Warsaw School of Social Psychology, Poland

In this article we are interested in the negotiation of identities in women's narratives of their gynaecological examination and more particularly, the shifts of identity positions that permeate their stories.

Taking a constructionist view of discourse and identity, we make two arguments in the article. First, we demonstrate that women talking about their gynaecological examinations constructed their selves ambiguously. The identity spaces that they discursively opened in the narratives were not inhabited. Second, we show that the embodiment of their identities — the inclusion of the body into the construction of self — fluctuates depending on the stage of the narrative of the examination.

Key Words: embodiment • gynaecological examination • identity • narrative

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