Virginia Braun

Using thematic analysis in psychology

Thematic analysis is a poorly demarcated, rarely acknowledged, yet widely used qualitative analytic method within psychology. In this paper, we argue that it offers an accessible and theoretically flexible approach to analysing qualitative data. We outline what thematic analysis is, locating it in relation to other qualitative analytic methods that search for themes or patterns, and in relation to different epistemological and ontological positions. We then provide clear guidelines to those wanting to start thematic analysis, or conduct it in a more deliberate and rigorous way, and consider potential pitfalls in conducting thematic analysis. Finally, we outline the disadvantages and advantages of thematic analysis. We conclude by advocating thematic analysis as a useful and flexible method for qualitative research in and beyond psychology.

What can ‘‘thematic analysis’’ offer health and wellbeing researchers?

The field of health and wellbeing scholarship has a strong tradition of qualitative research*and rightly so. Qualitative research offers rich and compelling insights into the real worlds, experiences, and perspectives of patients and health care professionals in ways that are completely different to, but also sometimes complimentary to, the knowledge we can obtain through quantitative methods. (Published: 16 October 2014) Citation: Int J Qualitative Stud Health Well-being 2014, 9 : 26152 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v9.26152

In Search of (Better) Sexual Pleasure: Female Genital ‘Cosmetic’ Surgery

Female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS) procedures are new, but increasing in popularity. In this article, I examine the role of female sexual pleasure in media (31 magazine items) and surgeon (15 interviews) accounts. FGCS was framed as enhancing female sexual pleasure, or specifically orgasm. I argue that the focus on female sexual pleasure functions to legitimate, and promote, FGCS. Further, it reaffirms normative heterosexuality, and promotes a generic model of bodies and sex. Moreover, in the context of consumer culture, media accounts have the possibility of creating problems, and their solutions, simultaneously.

Socio-cultural representations of the vagina

Although the vagina is a rare topic in the social science literature, numerous socio-cultural representations of the vagina can be found throughout Western societies. Such representations offer a range of cultural resources for making sense of the vagina and its functions, and have implications for womens health and well-being. In this paper, we identify and overview seven persistent negative representations of the vagina: the vagina as inferior to the penis; the vagina as absence; the vagina as (passive) receptacle for the penis; the vagina as sexually inadequate; the vagina as disgusting; the vagina as vulnerable and abused; and the vagina as dangerous. In the last sections, we argue that in order to promote womens sexual and reproductive health, it is necessary to challenge such negative representations, and we offer some alternative - and much more positive - representations of the vagina.

“Snatch,” “Hole,” or “Honey‐pot”? Semantic categories and the problem of nonspecificity in female genital slang

Two questionnaire studies on female genital slang (FGTs) are presented. Study One explored semantic categories in 317 different FGTs (and 351 different male genital terms [MGTs]) collected from 156 females and 125 males. Data were coded into 17 categories, and tested for sex differences. More FGTs were coded standard slang, euphemism, space, receptacle, abjection, hair, animal, or money. More MGTs were coded personification, gender identity, edibility, danger, or nonsense. Study Two used 49 FGTs to investigate the extent to which slang provides a consistent specific vocabulary for female genitals. The 251 respondents commented on 5 terms each. Respondents absolutely agreed on meaning for only 4% of terms. The implications of both findings for womens genital experiences and sexuality are discussed.

Telling it straight? Dictionary definitions of women's genitals

Feminist concerns about the social representation of sex, sexuality, and sexual organs have included analyses of their representation both in dictionaries and in medical texts. Drawing on feminist and social constructionist work, we analysed entries for ‘clitoris’ and ‘vagina’, using entries for ‘penis’ as a comparison, in 12 medical and 16 English language dictionaries. Both ‘vagina’ and ‘clitoris’ were overwhelmingly defined by their location in a female body, whereas the penis was defined in terms of function. Description of sex/sexuality was frequently omitted from both vaginal and clitoral definitions, and womens genitals continue to be defined in relation to an implicit penile norm. Three assumptions informed these definitions – that female sexuality is passive (and male sexuality active), that womens genitals are ‘absence’ (and men’s are ‘presence’), and that genitals are used for heterosexual sex – explicitly coitus. We suggest that these definitions present, as natural biological fact, common sense sexist and heterosexist assumptions about female and male bodies and sexualities.

“It shouldn’t stick out from your bikini at the beach”: Meaning, gender, and the hairy/hairless body

Women’s and men’s bodies and sexuality can be understood as socially situated and socially produced. This means they are affected by, and developed in relation to, patterned sociocultural meanings and representations. We aim here to understand a recently emergent, and potentially gendered, body practice—pubic hair removal—by examining the meanings people ascribe to pubic hair and its removal. Extending the widespread hairless bodily norm for Anglo/Western women, pubic hair removal is an apparently rapidly growing phenomenon. Men, too, are seemingly practicing pubic hair removal in significant numbers, raising the question of to what extent pubic hair removal should be understood as a gendered phenomenon. What we do not yet know is what people’s understandings and perceptions of pubic hair are, and how they make sense of its removal. Using a qualitative survey, the current study asked a series of questions about pubic hair and its removal, both in general and related to men’s and women’s bodies. In total, 67 participants (100% response rate; 50 female; mean age 29, diverse ethnically, predominantly heterosexual) completed the survey. Thematic analysis identified five key themes in the way people made sense of pubic hair and pubic hair removal that related to choice, privacy, physical attractiveness, sexual impacts, and cleanliness. Meanings around pubic hair and its removal were not consistently gendered, but it was still situated as more of an issue for women. With potential impacts on sexual and psychological well-being, sexuality education provides an important venue for discussing, and questioning, normative ideas about pubic hair.

Heterosexism in Focus Group Research: Collusion and Challenge

Like maleness, whiteness or middle-classness, heterosexuality has been, and continues to be, the assumed norm of psychological research and theorizing. Even feminist psychology, which has recognized, and challenged, the androcentric bias in psychology, has often failed to recognize, let alone challenge, heterosexist bias. Much feminist psychology continues to assume a generic heterosexual woman (Kitzinger, 1996), and lesbian women’s experiences have usually been addressed either as a deviation from, or as identical to, this heterosexual norm. This assumption reflects our society as a whole: heterosexuality is normal, unquestioned, compulsory (Rich, 1980; Rothblum and Bond, 1996). The term ‘heterosexism’ has been used, in preference to the term ‘homophobia’ (e.g. see Kitzinger and Perkins, 1993), to refer both to this assumption of heterosexual normalcy (e.g. Bohan, 1996), and to discrimination based on sexual orientation (e.g. Rothblum and Bond, 1996). In this paper I am concerned by what I refer to as ‘everyday’ heterosexism – the articulation of heterosexual norms in talk by (heterosexual) people who are ‘tolerant’ or ‘liberal’. Everyday heterosexism is thus both insidious and pervasive. It is similar to the concept of ‘cultural heterosexism’, which,

Breaking a Taboo? Talking (and Laughing) about the Vagina

For my PhD, I am researching social/cultural constructions of the vagina, and whether, and if so how, the vagina is part of women’s identity aswomen. In this context, the vagina can be a ‘sensitive’ (see Lee and Renzetti, 1993) issue and, like Ensler (1998), I sometimes have difficulty talking about it. In this article, I explore how a critical examination of reactions to hearing and talking about my research can be used to enhance my analysis, and consider how these might impact on our ‘obligations’ as feminist researchers.

Spreading the Word, but What Word is That? Viagra and Male Sexuality in Popular Culture

Viagra was released in 1998 and, as Abraham Morgentaler so aptly wrote in his book The Viagra Myth (2003), ‘the world has not been the same since’. Representations of Viagra appeared in a variety of popular cultural and media texts and participated in the ‘craze’ known as ‘Viagramania’. Drawing on, and extending the work of Meika Loe, The Rise of Viagra (2004) in the United States, we explore some of the changes in depictions of Viagra and masculine sexualities in the New Zealand context under the framings: ‘Viagra-as-Joke’, ‘Legitimate Viagra’ (which includes ‘Romance Drug Viagra’ and ‘Masculinity Pill Viagra’), and ‘Party Pill Viagra’. We suggest that changes in popular portrayals of Viagra from 1998 to the present, as well as a decrease in the range of popular genres/forms in which Viagra appears, contribute to a narrowing in discourses of masculine sexuality in which the emphasis is increasingly on penile performance and enhancement.