•  157
    Obstetric violence has been analyzed from various perspectives. Its psychological effects have been evaluated, and there have been several recent sociological and anthropological studies on the subject. But what I offer in this paper is a philosophical analysis of obstetric violence, particularly focused on how this violence is lived and experienced by women and why it is frequently described not only in terms of violence in general but specifically in terms of gender violence: as violence direc…Read more
  •  75
    Is Existentialist Authenticity Unethical? De Beauvoir on Ethics, Authenticity, and Embodiment
    with Yaki Menschenfreund
    Philosophy Today 52 (2): 150-156. 2008.
  •  47
    This paper addresses epistemic aspects of the phenomenon of obstetric violence—which has been described as a kind of gender violence—mainly from the perspective of recent theories on epistemic injustice. I argue that what is behind the dismissal of women’s voices in labor is mainly how the birthing subject, in general, is conceived. Thus, I develop a link between the phenomenon of testimonial injustice in labor and the marked irrationality that is seen as a core characteristic of birthing subjec…Read more
  •  46
    Domesticating Bodies: The Role of Shame in Obstetric Violence
    with Keshet Korem
    Hypatia 33 (3): 384-401. 2018.
    Obstetric violence—violence in the labor room—has been described in terms not only of violence in general but specifically of gender violence. We offer a philosophical analysis of obstetric violence, focused on the central role of gendered shame for construing and perpetuating such violence. Gendered shame in labor derives both from the reifying gaze that transforms women's laboring bodies into dirty, overly sexual, and “not‐feminine‐enough” dysfunctional bodies and from a structural tendency to…Read more
  •  25
    In this article, I argue that many women lack the epistemic resources that would allow them to recognise the practice of vaginal examinations during childbirth as violent or as unnecessary and potentially declinable. I address vaginal examinations during childbirth as a special case of obstetric violence, in which women frequently lack the epistemic resources necessary to recognise the practice as violent not only because of the inherent difficulty of recognising violence that happens in an ‘ess…Read more
  •  25
    Obstetric Violence and Vulnerability: A Bioethical Approach
    with Corinne Berzon
    International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 16 (1): 52-76. 2023.
    At healthcare facilities worldwide, women during childbirth undergo medical procedures they haven’t consented to and experience mistreatment and disrespect. This phenomenon is recognized as obstetric violence (OV), a distinct form of gender violence. The resulting trauma carries both immediate and long-term implications, making it vital to address for promoting women’s health. OV is partly shaped by a narrow, paternalistic conception of vulnerability. A flawed conception of the vulnerability of …Read more
  •  15
    Rethinking Feminist Phenomenology: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives (edited book)
    with Christinia Landry
    Rowman & Littlefield International. 2018.
    Ideal for advanced students across Philosophy, Women’s Studies, Anthropology, Sociology and more, this book focuses on emerging trends in feminist phenomenology. It covers foundational feminist issues in phenomenology, feminist phenomenological methods, and applied phenomenological work on the body, politics, ethics, and performance theory.
  •  15
    We birth with others: Towards a Beauvoirian understanding of obstetric violence
    European Journal of Women's Studies 28 (2): 213-228. 2021.
    Obstetric violence – psychological and physical violence by medical staff towards women giving birth – has been described as structural violence, specifically as gender violence. Many women are affected by obstetric violence, with awful consequences. The phenomenon has so far been mainly investigated by the health and social sciences, yet fundamental theoretical and conceptual questions have gone unnoticed. Until now, the phenomenon of obstetric violence has been understood as one impeding auton…Read more
  •  14
    On the Question of Woman
    Philosophy Today 51 (4): 369-382. 2007.
  •  11
    On the Question of Woman
    Philosophy Today 51 (4): 369-382. 2007.
  •  11
    On Motherhood as Ambiguity and Transcendence: Reevaluating Motherhood through the Beauvoirian Erotic
    Comparative and Continental Philosophy 13 (3): 207-219. 2021.
    ABSTRACT This paper presents an analysis of motherhood as potentially ambiguous and empowering, using the Beauvoirian concept of the erotic. I argue that Beauvoir’s notion of the erotic can allow us to reevaluate “nonproductive,” repetitive, apparently immanent activities—such as going through pregnancy, giving birth, breastfeeding, and raising a child—as projects through which we disclose freedom, and, thus, as projects that possibly lead to transcendence.It is often argued that Beauvoir consid…Read more
  •  9
    On the Question of Woman
    Philosophy Today 51 (4): 369-382. 2007.
  •  7
    2020 was a year of global crisis. During this time, I experienced crisis on a very personal level. For me this coincided with the beginning of the pandemic, when my older brother developed a kind of dementia. In this text, I briefly explore a few philosophical issues relating both to the spread of COVID-19 and to my brother’s disease. Reflecting on themes such as anxiety, uncertainty, grief, privilege, vulnerability, social distancing, and misfit bodies—mainly through critical phenomenology—I at…Read more
  •  7
    Constructing subjectivity through labour pain: A Beauvoirian analysis
    European Journal of Women's Studies 24 (2): 128-142. 2017.
    Traditional western conceptions of pain have commonly associated pain with the inability to communicate and with the absence of the self. Thus pain, it seems, must be avoided, since it is to blame for alienating the body from subjectivity and the self from others. Recent work on pain, however, has began to challenge these assumptions, mainly by discerning between different kinds of pain and by pointing out how some forms of pain might even constitute a crucial element in the production of subjec…Read more
  •  6
    One of the most important concepts in Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialist and phenomenological ethics is the concept of freedom. In this article, I would like to argue that Beauvoir’s concept of freedom is problematic in being strongly constrained by its essentially active character. This constraint contradicts some of Beauvoir’s major ideas, such as the one that considers the body as a situation, as a source of activity and of freedom in itself, as well as the idea of eroticism as one of the mo…Read more
  •  4
    Laboring with Beauvoir
    In Laura Hengehold & Nancy Bauer (eds.), A Companion to Simone de Beauvoir, Wiley. 2017.
    Using Beauvoir's existentialist and phenomenological ideas, this piece reflects on the embodied experience of childbirth, offering an alternative to the essentialist/postmodern dilemma concerning the feminist analysis of labor. When lived as an intense, embodied, painful experience, childbirth can be viewed as an empowering experience not in essentialist, but in phenomenological‐existentialist terms: an experience that (in Beauvoirian language) perfectly conjoins the immanent with the transcende…Read more