Research project What do stories about hormones do to our contemporary understanding of women?
This project studies how hormones are given meaning in stories about change processes in women's lives. More specifically, the aim is to explore hormone narratives as part of a modern self-help culture, where the hormonal body has become a popular topic for discussion about gender, age, performance, etc.
Hormonal processes are associated with specific events in many women's lives, such as menstruation, pregnancy and menopause, and have become essential in narratives about bodies and identities. However, there is a lack of research on how hormone stories affect how women understand themselves and their life cycle. This project therefore examines how talk about hormones affects an everyday self-perception, and ideas about what is normal and what is not. In order to get an answer to the project's overall question, the study includes interviews, as well as examination of media material and self-help books in the field.
