Nomenclature and knowledge-culture, or, we don’t call semen ‘penile mucous’

Abstract

Science reflects cultural practices and also occurs within them, and this ‘knowledge-culture’ is constituted by the public imaginary (general understandings and perceptions of phenomena) and the ‘scientific imaginary’ (the ability to envision scientific questions, methods, meanings and material possibilities for studying phenomena). In this feminist science laboratory case study, I argue that nomenclature contributes to epistemologies of ignorance, delimiting knowledge-culture and the scientific imaginary about vaginal fluid, which has implications for understandings of women’s bodies as well as sexual health potentials. Abject terms for vaginal fluid (vaginal mucous; vaginal discharge) preclude its existence in the scientific imaginary except as passive signs of dis-ease. I argue for a gendered abjectness of vaginal fluid’s names by situating it next to fluids that are tied to other mucosal surfaces, thus showing that even when gender is not involved in the name, gendered knowledge-culture can still affect science. I discuss how my ongoing lab research in social neuroendocrinology attends to the immune properties of vaginal fluid and positions women’s bodies as agentic, taking seriously the promise that ‘vaginal fluid’ might afford.

Keywords:

• vaginal fluid
• mucus
• discharge
• gender
• sex
• nomenclature

Notes

1. Oestrogens were first measured from fluid samples collected from women at Women’s Health Clinics, which were largely organised around reproductive issues (e.g. related to menstrual cycles, fertility, menopause, pregnancy) (Oudshoorn, 1994). ‘Oestrogen’ comes from creating ‘oestrus’, which is the reproductive phase of female non-human animal cycles. ‘Oestrus’ itself linguistically means ‘possessed by the gadfly’, referring to the ‘madness’ that was said to characterise non-human female sexual behaviour during their fertile phases (Fausto-Sterling, 2000). Because there were no comparable Men’s Health clinics, androgens were not first measured in relation to reproductive or clinical issues per se, and ‘androgen’ simply refers to creating man; the parallel term for oestrogens would have been gynogen.

2. As the lead scientist on the project is widely reported to have said (CBC News & Morales, 2007): ‘Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn’t think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton’s’.

3. A term used in behavioural neuroendocrinology to denote effects, or downstream events in a chain.

4. But see (Mbikusita-Lewanika, Stephen, & Thomas, 2009) for interesting discussions on dry sex.

5. I use ‘gender/sex’ in most of my studies (at least when editors will allow it) because I study adults and typically cannot know whether any given phenomenon I am studying is related to gender (i.e. social, historical, contextual) or sex (i.e. innate, inborn, evolved, fixed). This is true even when I am studying biological processes, because social context can influence biology.

6. And, we only enrol women who are comfortable using tampons and have a history of using them.

7. At least, its clinical version.

8. I say ‘perceived’ because people with menstruating vaginas, including transmen, also use tampons.

9. I would like to be clear that I do not mean to imply all folks here. If you are a health professional or scientist or generally awesome person that uses ‘vaginal fluid’, I congratulate you and do not mean you here. In fact, I do not mean any one person in this article; I’m talking about cultural norms that influence how each of us think and act, even the most progressive and feminist of us (who hopefully would be interested in reflecting upon practices that may contain hegemonic norms, and changing them).

10. I want to briefly mention that vaginal fluid alone will not prevent STIs and that use of barrier methods like condoms or dams are the only known methods for reducing the risk of STIs.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sari M. van Anders

Sari van Anders is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies. The lab’s research focuses on hormones and intimacy in social and evolutionary context, with attention to gender/sex, sexual diversity and feminist science practice, as well as the health implications of dynamic social (and socially situated) endocrinology.