SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In this paper, I focus on applying Kristie Dotson's (2011) critical social epistemological framework to the topic of women's sexual arousal. My paper is divided into three parts. In Section 1, I provide a brief history of the DSM sexological discourse about sexual arousal, and conclude by proposing that there is a mutually sustaining relationship between mainstream media, androcentric pornography, and the DSM-IV vocabulary, insofar as each of these feeds myths about arousal to each other. The mutually sustaining relationship between mainstream media, androcentric pornography, and the DSM-IV vocabulary (re)produces longstanding oppressive social norms and concomitant cultures of erotic expectation in western heteropatriarchal contexts. In Section 2, I contend that the epistemic harms of these erotically oppressive lifeworlds involve testimonial smothering as well as testimonial quieting. In Section 5, I conclude the paper with two critical responses to Richard Balon and Anita Clayton's objection to DSM-5's radical changes to conceptualizing issues with women's sexual arousal.