“Dramatic”, “crazy”, and “unworthy” women : endometriosis and the (medical) perceptions of female pain

Kosi, Teja (author)

Taking a critical feminist cultural studies approach, this article describes, analyses, reflects and theorises women’s pain in the case of endometriosis. Western historical discourses on endometriosis over the last 2,500 years offer a basis for analysing the position the disease holds in contemporary society. Using locally limited digital ethnography (the stories of 33 women published on the website of Endozavest – Society for Raising Awareness for Endometriosis between 16 January 2017 and 24 April 2023), supported by secondary sources, three ways in which women’s pain is perceived and managed are presented and contextualised: dramatised pain, mental illness, and “female deficit”. The article reveals how patriarchal violence within the medical system perpetuates aspects of physical pain that directly/indirectly discipline women’s bodies and push them into a variety of unwanted sexual and reproductive roles.

• Language: English
• Keywords: endometriosis, female pain, medical violence, contemorary perceptions of femininity, unwanted patriarchal roles
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.12.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 43-64
• Numbering: Letn. 41, št. 108/109
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177135
• UDC: 314.35:613.9
• ISSN on article: 0352-3608
• DOI: 10.51936/dr.41.108-109.43-64
• COBISS.SI-ID: 259367427
• Publication date in RUL: 16.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Družboslovne razprave
• Shortened title: Družbosl. razpr.
• Publisher: Slovensko sociološko društvo, Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0352-3608
• COBISS.SI-ID: 7530242

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: »Dramatične«, »nore« in »problematične« ženske

Abstract

Članek s feministično-kulturološke kritične pozicije opisuje, analizira, reflektira in teoretizira žensko bolečino na primeru endometrioze. Zgodovinski diskurzi o endometriozi, ki so (bili) prisotni na zahodu zadnjih 2500 let, ponujajo podstat za analizo endometrioze v sodobnih družbah. Z lokalno zamejeno digitalno etnografijo (33 ženskih pripovedi, objavljenih na spletni strani Društva za ozaveščanje o endometriozi – Endozavest med 16. 1. 2017 in 21. 4. 2023), ki jo podpirajo sekundarni viri, se predstavi in kontekstualizira tri načine dojemanja in upravljanja z žensko bolečino: dramatizirane bolečine, duševne bolezeni in »ženskega primanjkljaja«. Članek osvetljuje vlogo fizične bolečine znotraj medicinskega sistema, ki s tem, ko ohranja telesa v bolečini, ženske potiska v nezaželjene seksualne in reproduktivne patriarhalne vloge.

• Keywords: endometrioza, ženska bolečina, medicinsko nasilje, sodobne percepcije ženskosti, neželene patriarhalne vloge

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0203
• Name: Produkcija smisla in znanja v času krize: kulturološki, religiološki in znanstveno-razvojni vidiki družb v Sloveniji, na Balkanu, v Evropi