Bodies and Words on Fire. A Collaborative Feminist Duo-Ethnography on TikTok and Instagram Communities about Pelvic and Vulvar Pain

ABSTRACT. Over the last years, in Italy, digital platforms and social media have taken on a central role in raising public awareness and in prompting processes of destigmatization of conditions characterized by pelvic and vulvar pain. These platforms, in fact, have been used by many as spaces for information, influence, mutual support, advocacy, struggle and resistance, both individual and collective, against experiences characterized by pain and medical, institutional, and social delegitimization of women, trans*, gender-fluid and non-binary people, and, more generally, people with vulvas (Holowka, 2022; Buonaguidi, Perin, 2023). This contribution will present the research design processes and the methodology we employed to analyze and make visible the main discourses and narratives about bodies, health, and needs, created and shared by the users of these platforms, and to highlight their transformative (or not) potential. In particular, we adopted a collaborative digital duo-ethnography (Burleigh, Burm 2022), employing non-participant observation, conducted across two major social media platforms: TikTok and Instagram. The presentation will highlight how this collaborative, situated and transfeminist approach facilitated the creation of spaces for dialogue, for the exploration of critical issues, including ethical ones, for unforeseen trajectories, and for the implementation of moments of dialogical and shared self-reflection (Wiant Cummins, Brannon 2021). The situated approach of this duoethnography aims to primarily recognize the epistemic value of the embodied experiences of power and oppression of those suffering from pelvic and vulvar pain.