Gilchrist, Kate R;
(2021)
Silencing the single woman: Negotiating the ‘failed’ feminine subject in contemporary UK society.
Sexualities
10.1177/13634607211041100.
(In press).
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Abstract
Despite a growth in single women in UK society over the past two decades, single femininity continues to be highly stigmatised. Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of the heterosexual matrix and applying this to qualitative interview data with 25 single women, I argue that single femininity is produced as abject through processes of silencing which render the single female a ‘failed’ subject and reinscribe heteronormative coupled femininity. Yet while deeply painful, such ‘failures’ may also be productive, offering moments where the boundaries of heteronormative feminine subjectivity and hierarchies of intimate life are troubled and transformed. This article complicates understandings of stigma and resistance through a nuanced analysis of processes of abjectification and ambivalence.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Silencing the single woman: Negotiating the ‘failed’ feminine subject in contemporary UK society |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/13634607211041100 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1177%2F13634607211041100 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2022 by SAGE Publications. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10147134 |
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