Editorial

Abstract

Although they are ordinary and almost everyone has them, genitals are riddled with controversies, taboos and anxieties. Despite their social and cultural importance, genitalia have been left out of systematic analysis and research in the context of social sciences and humanities. They are most often positioned in terms of dualisms that create, support and strengthen social distinctions, hierarchies and asymmetries. Transcending the essentialist gender ideas and binaries attributed to human bodies opens up space for new understandings of genitalia in movement, transformation and transition. The key question is: how do culture and media intersect/work through genital transformations? The papers featured here provide inspiring, innovative and research-stimulating responses to the complex presence and representation of genitalia through various media (online forums, novels, video art, performance art, television drama, reality television, mainstream news, feature film and vlogs). Each paper, as well as the entire thematic issue, represents a contribution to the further development of genital studies and strengthens the multidisciplinary questioning of genitalia, power, gender, differences, transgression and resistance.