TY - JOUR PY - 2021// TI - The violence of the cut: gendering self-harm JO - International journal of environmental research and public health A1 - Chandler, Amy A1 - Simopoulou, Zoi SP - EP - VL - 18 IS - 9 N2 - Taking as a starting point the frequent characterisation of self-harm as "an adolescent thing for girls," this paper offers a sociologically informed, qualitative exploration of self-harm as a gendered practice. We move beyond statistical constructions of this "reality," and critically examine how this characterisation comes to be, and some of its effects. Our data are drawn from a pilot study that developed a collaborative arts-based inquiry into meanings of self-harm. The authors worked with two groups: one of practitioners and another of people who had self-harmed, meeting over six sessions to discuss and make art in response to a range of themes relating to the interpretation and explanation of self-harm. Through data generation and analysis, we collaboratively seek to make sense of the gendering of self-harm, focusing on a series of dualistic Cartesian "cuts" between male and female, violence and vulnerability, and inside and outside. In conclusion, we call for more multi- and interdisciplinary explorations of self-harm, and greater use of diverse, arts-based, and qualitative methodologies, in order to further expand and nuance understandings and ethical engagements with self-harm, and those who are affected by it.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1661-7827 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094650 ID - ref1 ER -