Hyperandrogenism and the Marginalization of Pathologized Bodies : Exploring Therapeutic Storytelling in Hypertext Illness Narratives

In the current sociopolitical landscape, hyperandrogenism has become a lightning rod for collective anxieties about transgender identities and “preserving” women’s sports, as well as misunderstandings about the inherent fairness of sport and the biological mechanisms that quantify athletic advantage. Perched behind this discourse, people living with hyperandrogenism face ongoing destabilization of healthcare access and find their experiences are often silenced and marginalized. This book offers a novel therapeutic method for individuals with hyperandrogenism to share their experiences using literary hypertext–a form of digital storytelling that invites readers to participate by selecting hyperlinks. Focusing on a case study of women and nonbinary individuals with hyperandrogenism, ten hypertext authors' narratives are explored. Their experiences highlight the therapeutic value of writing a hypertext illness narrative by mapping reflective experiences through hyperlinks and sharing their narrative with the broader community. Providing interdisciplinary insights into the lived experience of hyperandrogenism, as well as practical guidance on the clinical use of literary text, this book will appeal to researchers and clinicians interested in hyperandrogenism, gender studies, health humanities, narrative therapy, electronic media, game design and feminist media studies. Chapter 4 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.