ABSTRACT
In this chapter older women’s physical and psychical1 experience of early miscarriage is explored, in the context of theoretical debates on embodiment. I will outline theories of the sociology of the body (Frank 1991; Turner 1996), and argue that the gendered and subjective nature of women’s reproductive health has been overlooked. However, a rereading of classic feminist texts finds that here the body is equally constructed as troublesome (Butler 1990) and problematic (de Beauvoir 1997). In contrast, current postmodern feminist research transcends this thinking about women’s bodies-by proposing women’s embodied experiences as having both continuity (Grosz 1994), and leakiness (Shildrick 1997).
