Material Shifts: Theorizing Endometriosis, Embodiment, and Experimental Art

Abstract

A body changed by illness demands new narrative modes. In this article, I use autothe- ory to foreground my experience of struggling with symptoms of endometriosis. I enter into conversation with feminist disability scholars who have theorized chronic illness and endometriosis as a disability, and think through some of the socio-eco- nomic effects of doing so, particularly within academia. I examine how an experi- mental arts-based practice can be a method of narrating chronic illness. Situated within a disability art aesthetic, I use textiles to represent a chronic pain episode. These images argue for the inherent worthiness of non-normative female embodiment.

Keywords

• feminist disability studies
• feminist cultural studies
• chronic illness
• endometriosis
• autotheory
• textile art