title: Hysterical again: the gastrointestinal woman in medical discourse.
abstract: This article suggests increased attention to how medical discourses of gastrointestinal (GI) disorder and distress are fraught with social assumptions and consequences by examining nineteenth-century and contemporary medical texts focused on chronic constipation and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). I suggest that these medical discourses present what I call the "gastrointestinal woman," who is characterized as having unjustified anxiety and is to blame for her condition. My approach to understanding, and ultimately revising, the representation of the gastrointestinal woman is shaped by disability studies scholarship, which encourages intervention in problematic medical discourses and more active shaping of discourses of chronic pain and illness by those who have these conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of English, University of Colorado Denver, Campus Box 175, P.O. Box 173364, Denver, CO 80217-3364, USA. amy.vidali@ucdenver.edu
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vidali
mesh_terms: D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000266:history*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000266:history*; D003248:Constipation / Q000266:history*; D005260:Female; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007046:Hysteria / Q000266:history*; D043183:Irritable Bowel Syndrome / Q000266:history*; D012803:Sick Role; D014481:United States