To what degree is gender embodied

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To what degree is gender embodied?

• Lecture 8

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outline gendered bodies

• 1. introduction some historical and theoretical
  issues
• 2. is there a natural body?
• 3. mens bodies
• 4. woman as body
• 5. gender women as more than bodies
• 6. bringing bodies back in
• 7. doing/disciplining bodies
• 8. gendered bodies final observations

3
introduction some historical and theoretical
issues

• Plato and somatophobia (Spelman 1982 118)
• Cartesian dualism mind/body gendered split
  men/culture and women/nature
• how to understand the body? much debate the
  extent to which the body is real and/or
  discursive - 3 main perspectives

4
3 main perspectives

• body as nature biological entity
• e.g. Firestone reproductive differences
• body as socially constructed continuum
• - sex/gender distinction socialisation
  theories
• - critique of sex/gender distinction is the
  body a coat - rack?
• - Butler sex socially constructed what
  happens to the body?
• embodiment the lived body we are bodies

5
is there a natural body (1)?see Diana Fuss in
Kemp and Squires (1997250-258)

• essentialism true essence
• feminist theory
• - female essence- pure femininity
• - universal female oppression
• - female voice- Irigaray
• - feminist discourse- category of women

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is there a natural body (2)?

• essentialism
• the natural or real body
• underlies gender
• real femininity and womens bodies are
  repressed or unrepresentable in patriarchy
• often recognise importance of the social

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is there a natural body (2)?

• constructionism
• opposed to essentialism
• focuses on the social
• - natural socially produced
• - bodies shaped by social factors/meanings
• - representations of bodies change
• involve essentialism?

8
mens bodies

• men seen as disembodied - mind reigns
• - men can transcend their bodies
• - male bodies not problematic privileged
  position marginalised groups?
• - construction of masculinity (hegemonic)
  physical bodily performance injured?
• e.g. male labourers

9
woman as body (1)

• women historically associated more with nature
  and disordered (reproductive) bodies
• de Beauvoir anatomy is not destiny
• body in trouble (Moi in Hughes Witz 1997)
• dualistic account of the female body positive
  and negative?
• reproductive body - bodily-related crises
  source of alienation?

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woman as body (2)

• second-wave Feminism highly influenced by de
  Beauvoirs argument that patriarchy shapes
  womens bodies but biology does not determine
  women can change
• but de Beauvoir did not escape patriarchal notion
  of womens bodies as repulsive
• body as source of womans alienation (self
  species) crises
• privilege gender does body slip out of view?

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gender women as more than their bodies

• domination of female body source of womens
  oppression?
• body politics e.g. womens health movement
• Our Bodies, Our Selves (1971)
• challenge medical expert knowledge/discourses

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bringing bodies back in

• sociology of the body from 1980s, lots of work
• Butler refutes distinction between sex and
  gender.
• discourses have material effects.
• bodies that conform to the heterosexual
  imperative (boy/girl) matter and others do not
• positive - allows criticism of how some bodies
  delegitimated
• problem because bodies - especially as
  experienced by women lived body - get lost
  under gender as fluid?

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doing/disciplining bodies (1)

• doing gender means bodily doing (West
  Zimmerman)
• e.g. Iris Young femininity and space
• see also (Mauss (19731934) walking
• techniques of the body developed in line with
  disciplinary regimes - reinforce gender
  opposition?

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doing/disciplining bodies (2)

• techniques involve surveillance and discipline of
  our bodies in effort to fit with social norms
• e.g. Brush (1998) cosmetic surgery rhetoric
  of choice
• e.g. Bordo (1993) on diet/ing
• Tyler Abbott (1998) make-up weight,
• e.g. Mansfield Mcginn in Morgan (1993)
  pumping irony
• norms often unrealistic and/or contradictory
• always resistance - alternatives womens
  football female body building?

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gendered bodies final points (1)

• how are bodies socially constructed?
• materially - through social institutions (e.g.
  work, media) and social practices (e.g. ways of
  walking, beauty)
• are mens bodies increasingly subject to
  disciplinary processes previously aimed at women?

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gendered bodies final points (2)

• symbolically - produced by representation/
  discourses?
• social constructionism criticised for still
  assuming that there is a natural sexed body on
  which gendered meanings are written
• is the body a tabula rasa (blank slate)?
• are womens bodies a problem to be gone beyond or
  something to think through?

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some extra references

• Hughes, A Witz, A (1997) Feminism and the
  matter of bodies from de Beauvoir to Butler,
  Body and Society, 3(1) 47-60.
• Johnston, L (1996) Flexing Femininity female
  body-builders refiguring the body, Gender,
  Place and Culture, 3(3) 327-340
• Martin, E (1987) The Woman in the Body A
  Cultural Analysis of Reproduction, Milton Keynes
  Open University Press
• Mauss, M (1973) Techniques of the Body, Economy
  and Society, vol 2, pp. 70-88.
• Spelman, E (1982) Woman as Body Ancient and
  Contemporary Views, Feminist Studies, 8(1)
  109-131.
• Stanley, L Should sex really be gender or
  gender really be sex? In Jackson, S Scott,
  S (2002) (eds.) Gender A Sociological Reader,
  London Routledge.
• Tyler, M Abbott, P (1998) Chocs away weight
  watching in the contemporary airline industry,
  Sociology, 32(3) 433-450.