Embracing Our Eroticism: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of Women’s Eroticism

Women’s sexuality has been examined through political, religious, scientific, and social lenses. Despite advances, discourses driving sexual expression embody double standards, pathologizing, and silencing. Women’s own experiences are largely ignored in existing literatures. Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) is a qualitative methodology rooted in Foucault’s examinations of power and discourse construction. In this FDA, 111 women answered questions about their erotic definitions, experiences, and barriers to expression. Discourses emerging from the data included my own definitions, free but caged, voices of influence, and caution. These discourses are situated within social and institutional contexts, and therapeutic considerations discussed.