The Violence of the Cut: Gendering Self-Harm

Taking as a starting point the frequent characterisation of self-harm as “an adolescent thing for girls,” this paper offers a sociologically informed, qualitative exploration of self-harm as a gendered practice. We move beyond statistical constructions of this “reality,” and critically examine how this characterisation comes to be, and some of its effects. Our data are drawn from a pilot study that developed a collaborative arts-based inquiry into meanings of self-harm. The authors worked with two groups: one of practitioners and another of people who had self-harmed, meeting over six sessions to discuss and make art in response to a range of themes relating to the interpretation and explanation of self-harm. Through data generation and analysis, we collaboratively seek to make sense of the gendering of self-harm, focusing on a series of dualistic Cartesian “cuts” between male and female, violence and vulnerability, and inside and outside. In conclusion, we call for more multi- and interdisciplinary explorations of self-harm, and greater use of diverse, arts-based, and qualitative methodologies, in order to further expand and nuance understandings and ethical engagements with self-harm, and those who are affected by it.