Lesbian women's experience of coming out in an Irish hospital Setting: a hermeneutic phenomenological approach
Duffy, MelORCID: 0000-0001-8091-7406
(2011)
Lesbian women's experience of coming out in an Irish hospital Setting: a hermeneutic phenomenological approach.
Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 8
.
pp. 335-347.
ISSN 1553-6610
There is a dearth of knowledge about lesbian
women’s lives and social experiences in Irish society. In
their day to day living, lesbian women know how to act,
react and behave to exist within society, having developed
what Draucker (Journal of Advanced Nursing, 30(2), p. 361;
1999) calls ‘everyday skilful coping’. However, these
taken-for-granted ways of understanding of being in the
world are thrown or brought to the forefront when
lesbian women seek health care. The overall aim of the
research is to investigate lesbian women’s experiences
of Irish health care as service users. Within this article,
I will explore how four lesbian women understand and
give meaning to ‘coming out’ to a health care provider.
Coming out is a precarious affair whereby lesbian
women choose when, where and to whom to relate
their sexuality. The experiences of these women are
explored by utilising Sartre’s (1969) concepts of being
objectified by the Other, shame, freedom, illustrating how
the self can be disrupted.
Metadata
Item Type:
Article (Published)
Refereed:
Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Lesbian women; Hermeneutic phenomenology; Health care; Heidegger; sartre