Table Of ContentDifficult Conversations
This book explores ‘difficult conversations’ in feminist theory as an integral part of social
and theoretical transformations.
Focusing on intersectionality within feminist theory, the book critically addresses
questions of power and difference as a central feminist concern. It presents ethical,
political, social, and emotional dilemmas while negotiating difficult conversations,
particularly in terms of sexuality, class, ‘race’, ethnicity and cross-identification between
the researcher and researched. Topics covered include challenging cultural relativism;
queer marginalisation; research and affect; and feminism and the digital realm.
This book is aimed primarily at students, lecturers and researchers interested
in epistemology, research methodology, gender, identity, and social theory. The
interdisciplinary nature of the book is aimed at reaching the broadest possible audience,
including those engaged with feminist theory, anthropology, social policy, sociology,
psychology and geography.
Róisín Ryan-Flood is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre for Intimate
and Sexual Citizenship (CISC) at the University of Essex. Her research interests include
gender, sexuality, kinship, digital intimacies and feminist epistemology. She is the author of
Lesbian Motherhood: Gender, Sexuality and Citizenship (2009), and co-editor of Secrecy
and Silence in the Research Process (2010), Transnationalising Reproduction: Third
Party Conception in a Globalised World (2018), and Queering Methodology: Lessons
and Dilemmas from Lesbian Lives (2022). She is also co-editor of the journal Sexualities:
Studies in Culture and Society.
Isabel Crowhurst is Reader in Sociology at the University of Essex. Her work explores
the construction of social norms around sexual practices and intimate lives. Her recent
books include The Tenacity of Couple Norm (with Sasha Roseneil, Tone Hellesund, Ana
Cristina Santos and Mariya Stoilova), and Third Sector Organizations in Sex Work and
Prostitution (with Susan Dewey and Chimaraoke Izugbara).
Laurie James-Hawkins is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Deputy Director of the Centre
for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship (CISC) at the University of Essex. She is a sociologist
of health and gender, and her research interests include reproductive health, contraception,
abortion, gender and sexuality among emerging adults. She has published widely on
these topics. In recent years Dr. James-Hawkins has been studying sexual consent among
university student populations.
Transformations
Series Editors
Dr Laura Clancy
Lancaster University, UK
Dr Rachael Eastham
Lancaster University, UK
Dr Patricia Prieto-Blanco
Lancaster University, UK
Feminist Cultural Studies of Science and Technology
Maureen McNeil
Arab, Muslim, Woman: Voice and Vision in Postcolonial Literature
and Film
Lindsey Moore
Secrecy and Silence in the Research Process: Feminist Reflections
Róisín Ryan-Flood and Rosalind Gill
Working with Affect in Feminist Readings: Disturbing Differences
Marianne Liljeström and Susanna Paasonen
Feminism, Culture and Embodied Practice: The Rhetoric’s of Comparison
Carolyn Pedwell
Gender, Sexuality and Reproduction in Evolutionary Narratives
Venla Oikkonen
Feminism’s Queer Temporalities
Sam McBean
Irish Feminist Futures
Claire Bracken
Power, Knowledge and Feminist Scholarship
An Ethnography of Academia
Maria do Mar Pereira
Difficult Conversations
A Feminist Dialogue
Edited by Róisín Ryan-Flood, Isabel Crowhurst and Laurie James-Hawkins
Difficult Conversations
A Feminist Dialogue
Edited by Róisín Ryan-Flood,
Isabel Crowhurst and
Laurie James-Hawkins
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Róisín Ryan-Flood, Isabel
Crowhurst and Laurie James-Hawkins; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Róisín Ryan-Flood, Isabel Crowhurst and Laurie James-
Hawkins to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the
authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ryan-Flood, Róisín, editor. | Crowhurst, Isabel, editor. |
James-Hawkins, Laurie, editor.
Title: Difficult conversations : a feminist dialogue / edited by Róisín
Ryan-Flood, Isabel Crowhurst, Laurie James-Hawkins.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Series: Transformations | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022047616 (print) | LCCN 2022047617 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367542603 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367542627 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003088417 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Feminist theory. | Feminism.
Classification: LCC HQ1190 .D573 2023 (print) | LCC HQ1190 (ebook) |
DDC 305.4201—dc23/eng/20221027
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022047616
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022047617
ISBN: 978-0-367-54260-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-54262-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-08841-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003088417
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Contents
List of Illustrations viii
List of Contributors ix
Foreword xiii
Acknowledgements xvii
Introduction 1
RÓISÍN RYAN-FLOOD; ISABEL CROWHURST
AND LAURIE JAMES-HAWKINS
SECTION 1
Difficult knowledge 9
1 The gender wars and difficult conversations about trans:
an interview with Meg-John Barker 11
MEG-JOHN BARKER AND RÓISÍN RYAN-FLOOD
2 Facing uneasiness in feminist research: the case
of female genital cutting 27
KATHY DAVIS
3 Feminism and race in academia: an interview with Sandya
Hewamanne 39
SANDYA HEWAMANNE AND RÓISÍN RYAN-FLOOD
4 But you’re not defending sugar, are you? 50
KAREN THROSBY
vi Contents
SECTION 2
Gender, power and intimacy 61
5 Difficult research effects/affects: an intersectional-
discursive-material-affective look at racialised sexualisation
in public advertising 63
JESSICA RINGROSE AND KAITLYN REGEHR
6 Calling out and piling on: deliberation and difficult
conversations in feminist digital social spaces 90
AKANE KANAI
7 Interviewing with intimacy: negotiating vulnerability
and trust in difficult conversations 102
RIKKE AMUNDSEN
8 Co-existing with uncomfortable reflexivity: feminist
fieldwork abroad during the pandemic 113
XINTONG JIA
SECTION 3
Gender, sexuality and embodiment 131
9 Sexing in the cities: sex, desire, and sexual health of black
township women who love women 133
PHOEBE KISUBI MBASALAKI
10 Researching sex: gender, taboos and revealing the intimate 144
LAURIE JAMES-HAWKINS
11 Building a community of trust: participatory applied theatre
workshop techniques for difficult conversations on consent 159
NATASHA RICHARDS-CRISP
12 Women’s experiences of marital rape in Turkey: ethics,
voice and difficult conversations 172
GULCIMEN KARAKECI
Contents vii
SECTION 4
Bounded knowledge 189
13 Lost for words: difficult conversations about ethics,
reflexivity and research governance 191
SOPHIE HALES, PAUL GALBALLY AND MELISSA TYLER
14 Gender studies, academic purity and political relevance 206
SABINE GRENZ
15 The feminist classroom in a neoliberal university 218
AWINO OKECH
16 Focus groups and the ‘insider researcher’; difficult
conversations and intersectional complexities 231
CLARE BOWEN
17 Queering the academy 243
RÓISÍN RYAN-FLOOD
Index 254
Illustrations
Illustrations
5.1 Are you beach body ready advert (girls’ collaging exercise) 64
5.2 Participant talking about adverts including ‘punish yourself buff’
in the prompt binder 67
5.3 Disembodied Legs Treatwell Advert 68
5.4 Boohoo advert of a woman in tassel crop top and bikini bottoms
with glitter on her butt cheeks 69
5.5 Boohoo. Man advert of man in jacket and trousers standing
beside a Rolls Royce 70
5.6 Boohoo advert of woman in tassel bodysuit and thigh high boots 71
5.7 American Apparel Advert of woman in flesh coloured underwear
and thigh high socks 75
5.8 Sierra on the bus with her walking supports and recording device 77
5.9 Sierra engaging with the prompt book 80
5.10 Boohoo She.The.Don advert 83
5.11 Pretty Little Things advert next to Orphan’s in Need 85
Contributors
Contributors
Rikke Amundsen is Lecturer in Digital Innovation Management Education in the
Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London. Rikke’s research
is concerned with the digital mediation of intimacy, risk and trust, which is
something that she explores in relation to intimate digital practices, like the
creating and exchange of private sexual images and texts. Among Rikke’s most
recent publications is an article called “Hetero-sexting as mediated intimacy
work: ‘Putting something on the line’ ” (2022). In this article, Rikke looks
closer at adult women’s negotiations of risk and trust as they exchange private
sexual images with men.
Meg-John Barker is an independent scholar/writer and associate member of
the University of Brighton Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender.
Research Interests: Gender, Sex/Sexuality, Relationships, Trauma/Mental
Health. Recent Publications: Gender: A Graphic Guide (2019), Non-Binary
Lives (2020), Sexuality: A Graphic Guide (2021), Hell Yeah Self-Care (2021),
How To Understand Your Sexuality (2022)
Clare Bowen is a third-year PhD researcher studying at City University of Lon-
don. Her PhD is entitled “Scapegoating, Survival and Self-Actualisation: Rep-
resentations of single mothers in TV dramedies and the lived experiences of
single mothers”. This topic has been investigated via the use of ‘text-in-action’
research, combining focus group ‘watch parties’ with follow-up interviews and
in-depth textual analysis.
Kathy Davis is a Senior Research Fellow in the Sociology Department at the
VU University in the Netherlands. Her research interests include sociology of
the body, intersectionality, travelling theory and transnational practices, biog-
raphy as methodology and critical and creative strategies for academic writing.
She is the author of many books, including Reshaping the Female Body, Dubi-
ous Equalities and Embodied Differences, The Making of Our Bodies, Our-
selves: How Feminism Travels Across Borders and Dancing Tango: Passionate
Encounters in a Globalizing World. She has recently edited Silences, Neglected
Feelings, and Blind-spots in Research Practice with Janice Irvine and is cur-
rently editing a Handbook on Intersectionality Studies with Helma Lutz.
