This thesis illuminates the ways that medicalization of female sexual desire disorder lends authority to and is legitimized by heteronormative, patriarchal sexual norms. The Food and Drug Administrationâs approval of Flibanserin, a drug intended to treat this disorder, solidifies low libidoâs classification as a medical dysfunction. Through a review of relevant biomedical literature and semi-structured interviews with ten women who have low libido, I demonstrate that this disorderâs medicalization strips women of their subjectivity and disregards the contextual factors that influence sexual desire and attitudes toward sex. This thesis relies upon social constructionist approaches to conceptualize sexuality, underscoring the biomedical approachâs failure to account for the complex sociocultural expectations that shape understandings of sexual normalcy. The first section of this thesis employs feminist critiques to problematize conventional understandings of female sexuality and to reveal that female sexual desire disorder represents an additional attempt to exert social control over womenâs bodies. The second section analyzes interviews with a nurse practitioner working for a womenâs sexual health clinic and the manager of an adult entertainment store to exemplify medicalized and non-medicalized treatments of low libido. The third and final section examines interview data from ten women with low libido, revealing that their low libido-induced distress stems from their self-perceived inability to meet the sociocultural expectations required for successful romantic relationships. Ultimately, I argue medicalization legitimizes the idea that womenâs sexualitiesâand not the narrow constructions of normalcy with which they must attempt to align themselvesâexist as the primary issue necessitating alteration.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03272017-111854 |
| Date | 05 April 2017 |
| Creators | Moreau, Molly Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Kenneth MacLeish, Gabriel Mendes |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03272017-111854/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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