Becoming (more) Dutch as medical recommendations: how understandings of national identity enter the medical practice of hymenoplasty consultations

In: Nations and nationalism: journal of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism, Band 24, Heft 2, S. 390-411

Abstract

AbstractThis article looks at how Dutch national identity enters the practical setting of a medical consultation. Extending the growing scholarships of everyday nationalism and engaging with the notion of multivocalism, this article shows how Dutchness is understood in the form of desirable personal characteristics. These characteristics are promoted by physicians to patients of migrant ancestry looking for a surgery called hymenoplasty. This article presents unique scholarly observations of a case where a particular understanding of national identity is recommended as part of medical advice. Furthermore, by closely examining exchanges between doctors and patients, this article argues that Dutchness is in a state of flux where a person of migrant ancestry can simultaneously be seen by others as Dutch and non‐Dutch.