Is the body natural? The impact of culture

1. Is the body natural? The impact of culture Week 2 Embodiment & Feminist Theory

2. Recap • Introduced the importance of understanding bodies in understanding society • We considered the body as a site of social divisions, norms and values • Considered the importance of the body in the development of feminist thinking

3. Outline • Look at the sex/gender division (Oakley) • Considered the ideas of pure and polluted bodies (Douglas) • Consider how feminist theorising has moved beyond dualism (Butler)

4. Sex and Gender • 2nd wave feminists such as Ann Oakley introduced the distinction between sex and gender • Sex was the biological differences between men and women • Gender described the socially constructed norms associated with biological sex.

5. Sex and Gender • Sex was seen as biological and physical • Genitalia, chromosomes, hormones etc • Stable, natural • Gender was socially based • Masculinity/Femininity are learnt behaviours • Cultural and therefore challengeable

6. Sex and Gender • Powerful move within feminist theorising • Allowed challenges to divisions based on these ‘natural’ ideas • Showed differences in achievement as outcome of sexual divisions • Challenged women’s association with caring roles • Illustrated how women have been denied social/political power because of these assumptions

7. Sex and Gender • But this division arose from the Cartesian dualism it sought to challenge • A division that is hierarchal in its construction

8. Sex and Gender • Discuss with the person next to you about the ways in which the idea of the sex/gender division affects the organisation of society.

9. Pure and polluted bodies • Mary Douglas developed Durkheim’s sacred/profane divide in relation to bodies • She saw the divide between pure and polluted –reinforced through beliefs, rituals and taboos • The meanings of the physical body and the social body are interrelated

10. Pure and polluted bodies • Body orifices are important as they constitute the boundary • Some bodies/orifaces/body substances are seen as pure • Others are defined by pollution

11. Pure and polluted bodies

12. Pure and polluted bodies • During the 19th Century, ‘Germs’ were identified through scientific developments • In the West, personal cleanliness became associated with moral purity • Body odours and smelly houses need to be eliminated through personal hygiene and cleaning products • Yet most ‘bad’ smells are rarely harmful

13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRlGQvOxDwI

14. Pure and polluted bodies • Of all the body substances menstrual blood is a seen as particularly polluting • Women physically isolated or forbidden from certain acts • Considered as dirty, messy, rarely openly acknowledged • Adverts focus on discretion, concealment and being able to be ‘normal’

15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4cR2mPCNTU

16. Pure and polluted bodies • Women’s leaky and messy bodies can lead them into being seen as polluted and polluting • This fits into the Cartesian division of women’s association with • Body rather than the mind • Nature rather than culture

17. Pure and polluted bodies • Do you agree with Douglas that the way we perceive bodies is interrelated to ideas about purity and pollution?

18. Gendered embodiment • The work of Douglas shows us how ‘natural’ bodily functions are understood in particular ways • So we cannot think about our or any other bodies without thinking about these normative understandings • We become a woman or man rather than being born a particular sex

19. Gendered embodiment • Feminist theorising has often seen women as a group in opposition to men • Judith Butler argues that this reinforces binary divisions rather than overcome them • If sex as natural, this still means biology is destiny • Sex causes gender causes desire (heterosexuality)

20. Gendered embodiment • Butler argues that sex is not a foundation for any identity or behaviour • Rather the sexed body is constructed through the discourses of gender • Gender is produced though performativity • Gender is what you do, not how you are

21. Pantomimes and other performances play on the idea of gender Those who are transgendered or intersexed also disrupt the binary oppositions Gendered embodiment

22. To what extend do you think that ‘sex’ as well as ‘gender’ should be seen as socially constructed?

23. Gendered embodiment • Butler highlights the problems with the sex/gender distinction • But ignores the embodied experience of gender • Highlights the complex interrelationships between bodies, sex and gender

24. Summary • We have look at how Oakley used the sex/gender distinction to denaturalise femininity and masculinity • We considered how norms and taboos are constructed through ideas of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’ (Douglas) • We have introduced how Butler understands gender as a performance

25. Next week • Look more closely at how bodies are markers of class, race and gender • Consider how this impacts on our identities • Look at how it shapes our physical bodies