The Civilized Body

NORBERT ELIAS: The Social History of Bodily Conduct and the Civilized Body

• The human body is simultaneously a social and biological entity
• human body conduct is a process of social and historical forces which become ingrained in CULTURE and internalized in the individual (INTERNALIZED CONTROLS)
• 11th century: emphasis toward a more "mannered", structured bodily pattern of conduct (Western Culture)
• CIVILIZED is...
• self-discipline
• restraint
• degree of pacification in social interactions
• conceals rhythms
• exercises emotional restraint
• control over bodily impulses
• tamed aggression of masculinity (inner restraint as social status rather than violence as prowess)
• concealment of disgust
• control and management of bodily functions, rhythms, products and noises
• internalized shame and embarrassment
• children learn to become aware of their bodies and conceal their functions
• linked to intensification of distinction between PUBLIC and PRIVATE spaces
• civilized habits (TECHNIQUES OF THE BODY) refer to a full renege of manners of daily life in Western contemporary societies
• managed through INTERNAL RESTRAINTS over time

DO YOU SEE ANY WAYS THAT THESE HABITS HAVE CHANGED GENERATIONALLY?

 1. INTERNALIZED RESTRAINT

• shifted from external (restraint by others) to INTERNAL (self-restraint)
• accompanied by a higher threshold of shame and embarrassment
• acts are refrained from even discussion in public
• SLEEP and SEx (relegated to the private sphere and made more and more individualized)
• governed by codes of privacy, heterosexuality and modesty
• shame and embarrassment if transgressed
• CIVILIZING BODILY WASTE
• social management of disposal of bodily waste
• outhouses are now IN
• part of capitalism and individualization of body management
• required to subordinate their bodies to the formal regime
• children learn restraint rules in school (public sphere)

BATHROOM HUMOR (violation)

• GENDER AND RESTRAINT

• modern obsession with GERMS (more on this later)
• spatial reorganization based on gender
• women need more time but there are fewer facilities for them
• modesty rules for women
• clothing/makeup requirements
• toilette ettiquette
• teach techniques for concealing and managing bodily functions but TOILET TRAINING is a fraught process

 2.  INDIVIDUALIZATION (Bounded Self)third aspect of the civilizing process is the change in consciousness, so that people are much more aware of themselves as individuals

• creating and maintaining BOUNDARIES becomes important
• body becomes an armor or shield used to EXPRESS or expertly PROTECT oneself.
• each person has a discrete self encased body

TABLE MANNERS AND SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS

after the middle ages, laws were put in place to protect people from over-indulging during times when food was scarce.Over time, these became more detailed in respect to attitudes and meaning about food and the manner in which they should be eaten.

•   value food for DELICACY and ELEGANCE
• development of UTENSILS for eating
• eating with your hands as undignified and unrefined

• DINING OUT as an example of the ritualization of these manners
• restaurant conduct entails activities that are both stylized and ritualized
• stifles emotion 

  3. EMOTIONAL RESTRAINT

emphasis on increasing control of the expression of emotions and physical gestures toward others

• How? (Elias)
• diminution of displays of aggression
• attention and ability to discerning the thoughts and feelings of others , which are increasingly hidden behind the "mask' of politeness

THE BODY AS A NATURAL SYMBOL

• MATTER OUT-OF-PLACE
• Mary Douglass (Purity and Danger)
• Douglas views the human body as a natural symbol, or as a classification system which is common to all human beings and which is used to express ideas about the social order
• beliefs reveal what a society thinks is SACRED or PROFANE (Durkheim) or PURE or IMPURE
• beliefs and rituals play a part in upholding these distinctions
• DIRT: matter out-of-place (contaminating and therefore dangerous- LIMINAL)
• Dirt is uncivilized (barbaric)
• The meanings of PHYSICAL BODY and THE SOCIAL BODY reinforce each other
• "...the social body constrains the way in which the physical body is perceived. The physical experience of the body is always modified by the social categories through which it is known, sustains a particular view of society.There is a continual exchange of meanings between the two forms of bodily experience so that each reinforces the categories of the other. As a result of this interaction, the body is a highly restricted medium of expression. The forms that it adopts in movement and repose, express social pressures in manifold ways...all the cultural categories in which it is perceived must correlate closely with the categories in which society is seen in so far as these draw upon the same culturally processed idea of the body" (Douglas)

• Dirt and Dirty Work
• the body is a natural symbol which cultures use to make distinctions between what is pure or dirty
• ORIFICES
• potent because they are portals for body products. make private public and are DISRUPTIVE, because they then need to be managed
• BODILY SUBSTANCES
• DIRT: they have designat6ed places where they can be expelled, and techniques for expolsion
• these are generally hidden from public view
• when such products leave the body they are considered out-of-place and therefore DIRTY
• TABOOS
• Beliefs and rules which society construct to make sure that dirt stays in its rightful place.
• way of maintaining the social order
• DIRTY PROFESSIONS: this dirty work renders practitioners morally and socially tainted to some extent. Often the "nurses" in these professions are in charge of the actual bodily pollution. The taint is based on the fact that what is PRIVATE, should remain PRIVATE. When the invisible is made public, it is made visible (dirt)
• proctology
• gynocology
• urology
• home health care/nursing

• DIRTY PLACES
• trash dumps, morgues, sewage facilities 
• become a marker of class distinction depending on your proximity

DIRT IS THEREFORE A RELATIVE CONCEPT SINCE ALL SUBSTANCES ARE POTENTIALLY POLLUTING

CLEANLINESS AND GERMS

• Contemporary ideas about disease are largely based on the cleanliness of the body and the significance of bodily boundaries
• HYGIENE: is principally defined as the correct maintenance of a germ free environment
• the GERM is invisible to the naked eye and is potentially everywhere (HIDDEN)
• ubiquitous
• anxiety producing

• PERSONAL CLEANLINESS becomes the focus for both health (germ free) and moral purity
• clean body=clean mind
• PRODUCTS: plethora to eradicate every color, odor or other indication of a potential germ (bacteria, virus, decay, dirt)
• social concealment of SMELL

• GERM=INVASION (Military Metaphors) Susan Sontag
• cross over from one place to another
• do not belong
• invade from other places where they are not civilized
• language and metaphor frame this (Plague,epidemic,etc.)
• HIV/AIDS
• gay
• promiscuous
• iv drug users
• prostitutes
• Tuberculosis
• homeless
• drug addicts
• poverty
• Leprocy
• moral transgression
• poverty
• Cancer
• risky behavior (smoking, sun, fat consumption)
• emotionally witheld
• other bad behaviors in LIFESTYLE

• lead to stigmatization of individuals with certain diseases and moral judgement about their character as social actors (LIFESTYLE INFRACTIONS)
• deserve what they get
• are a threat to the larger community
• justify discrimination
• immigration restrictions
• quarentine
• job/housing/occupation discrimination
• decontamination practices
• etc.

"A polluting person is always wrong. He has developed some wrong condition or has simply crossed some line which should not have been crossed and this displacement unleashes danger for someone." (Douglas)

• Pollution beliefs associated with sexual activity and the exchange of body fluids uphold a particular version of the moral order
• homosexuality is POLLUTING
• SYMBOLIC CONTAMINATION
• bodies of gay men are contaminating

BODY TABOOS

Body orifices are sites of danger because they are places where things can cross in BOTH DIRECTIONS between the private and public sphere.

• blood
• feces
• urine
• saliva
• mucus
• pus
• semen

disrupt bodily order, so the way in which they are dealt with tells us a lot about the way that SOCIETY is ORDERED.

• Douglas:
• important to maintain boundaries between what is clean/dirty, pure/contaminated
• have well-defined social place and space in which to deal with things like body orifices
• substances that leave the body represent the movement from the NATURAL WORLD to the SOCIAL WORLD (and vsia-versa)
• this reinforces the significance of MARGINS of the body

• MENSTRUATION TABOOS
•  many cultures have menstrual taboos because blood, in particular menstrual blood is liminal and carries strong meaning.
• failure of conception
• bleeding without cause/dying (supernatural???)
• periodic rhythm of the body

• Tribal Religions

• Menstrual huts and other taboos were common among tribal cultures. 
• The Huaulu of Indonesia, for instance, have a menstrual hut on the edge of village. While Huaulu women must live in these huts during menstruation, they are not confined to them – they can wander through the forest, if they stay away from hunting trails. However, they must refrain from eating game, and they must bathe at special fountains forbidden to men. These rituals are performed to spare the men from harm (Hoskins, 2002).

• The Dogon (a group of people living in the central plateau region of Mali, south of the Niger bend near the city of Bandiagara in the Mopti region) believe that women must stay in a special hut during the course of their menstrual period. During menstruation, Dogon women get no relief from their usual agricultural labor and spend most of their days working in the fields. However, village streets and family compounds are off-limits. Furthermore, sexual intercourse and cooking for a husband are strictly forbidden (Strassmann, 1996).

• In the cultures of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea (i.e., the Hagen, Duna, and Pangia areas), menstrual huts were once the norm. However, these groups have now abolished the practice of using these huts, along with other ritual practices (Stewart & Strathern, 2002).

• The Enga, Kaulong, and Sengseng cultures of New Guinea believe that sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman will drain and weaken a man (Montgomery, 1974).

• Judaism

• The Jewish code of law, Halakha, details strict rules governing every aspect of the daily lives of Jews, including their sexual lives. Jewish law expressly forbids literally any physical contact between males and females during the days of menstruation and for a week thereafter (Eider, 1999; Keshet-Orr, 2003). 
• This includes passing objects between each other, sharing a bed (most couples have two separate beds, which can be pulled apart during Niddah), sitting together on the same cushion of a couch, eating directly from the wife's leftovers, smelling her perfume, gazing upon her clothing (whether or not it has been worn), or listening to her sing (Steinberg, 1997). 
• According to stipulated ritual, an Orthodox Jewish wife is responsible for immersing in the Mikvah, the ritual bath, following these 2 weeks. This entire period of time, from the beginning of the “bleeding days”, until the end of the 7 “clean days”, when the woman immerses herself in the ritual bath, is called the “Niddah (ritually unclean) period” (Guterman, 2006).

• The reason behind these “Laws of Family Purity” is that menstrual blood (defined as the uterine lining) is considered ritually unclean. The source for this law is Leviticus 18:19, which reads, “You shall not approach a woman in her time of unclean separation, to uncover her nakedness.” Chapter 18 of Leviticus discusses all of the different types of forbidden relationships, such as bestiality and incest. All of the verses explicitly state that one may not have intercourse with the forbidden. The fact that the nineteenth verse mentions “approach”, as opposed to actually having intercourse, is the reasoning behind these menstrual laws (Eider, 1999).

• Although the laws of family purity are only required with one's own wife, any form of physical contact with pleasurable intent (including holding hands, hugging, and kissing) is prohibited with any menstrual woman who has not yet immersed in the Mikvah (Eider, 1999). 
• Since brides will immerse in the Mikvah for the first time before their weddings, all unmarried women are presumed to be in a state of Niddah (Eider, 1999). Therefore, every woman who has had her first period is not allowed to be touched, according to Jewish law. 
• Additional restrictions are put on the married woman while she is a Niddah. These taboos include playing games and sports together (e.g., ping-pong, tennis), directly handing or receiving objects (they must be placed down onto a surface, and then may be picked up by the spouse), and eating together from the same plate (Eider, 1999).

• Physical danger and disgust were used as mechanisms to keep compliance to these laws among the Jews in the Middle Ages (Steinberg, 1997). When a woman was menstruating, she was seen as a physical and spiritual danger to all men. Nahmanides states that her breath is harmful, and her gaze is detrimental. A woman was instructed not to walk between two men, because, if she did so at the end of her period, she would cause strife between them, and if she passed between them at the beginning of her period, she would cause one of them to die. This shows that the “danger” of the menstrual woman is not simply the blood, but even the atmosphere around her. Additionally, a woman is instructed to be careful when cutting her toenails during her menses, for fear that her toenail clippings would spread infection to anyone who stepped on them (Steinberg, 1997).

• Christianity

• The history of the menstrual taboo has been a major reason in the decision to keep women from positions of authority in Christianity (Phipps, 1980; Ruether, 1990). Additionally, there are some Christian denominations, including many authorities of the Orthodox Church, who will not allow women to receive communion during their menstrual period (Barnes, n.d.; Phipps, 1980). 
• Menstruation taboos are also responsible for the belief of many Catholics that a woman should not have intercourse during her monthly period (Phipps, 1980). Catholic canon law refuses to allow women or girls to be in any semi-sacerdotal roles, such as altar server (Ruether, 1990).

• Russian Orthodox Christians believe in menstrual taboos as well. Menstruating women must live secluded in a little hut during this time. They do not attend church services, cannot have any contact with men, and may not touch raw or fresh food. Menstruating women are also thought to offend and repel fish and game. The air surrounding menstruating women is believed to be especially polluting to young hunters; if a hunter gets close enough to a women to touch, then all animals will be able to see him and he won't be able to hunt them. A menstruating woman's gaze is even thought to affect the weather negatively (Morrow, 2002).

• Islam

• In Muslim cultures, “impure” (i.e., menstruating) women are to be avoided by men (Whelan, 1975). These laws are derived from the Qur'an (2:222), which reads, “They question thee (O Muhammad) concerning menstruation. Say it is an illness so let women alone at such times and go not into them til they are cleansed. And when they have purified themselves, then go unto them as Allah hath enjoined upon you.”

• Islam does not consider a menstruating woman to possess any kind of “contagious uncleanness” (Azeem, 1995). The Islamic law treats menstruation as impure for religious functions only (Engineer, 1987).

• There are two main prohibitions placed upon the menstruating woman. First, she may not enter any shrine or mosque (Engineer, 1987; Fischer, 1978). In fact, she may not pray or fast during Ramadan while she is menstruating (Engineer, 1987). She may not touch the Qur'anic codex or even recite its contents (Fischer, 1978; Maghen, 1999; Whelan, 1975). Secondly, she is not allowed to have sexual intercourse for seven full days (beginning when the bleeding starts). She is “exempted” from rituals such as daily prayers and fasting, although she is not given the option of performing these rituals, even if she wants to (Azeem, 1995).

• In addition, the woman must complete a “ritual washing” before she becomes “clean” again (Fischer, 1978; Whelan, 1975). Following this washing she is able to perform prayers, fasting, and allowed to enter the mosque.

• Following a lengthy discussion of the Islamic laws of purity, Maghen (1999) concludes that “the ‘problem' with menstruating women (reflected in the restrictions placed upon certain of their activities) is confined to the ritually threatening properties of their menstrual blood per se” (p. 381).

• Hinduism

• Hinduism views the menstruating woman as “impure” (Chawla, 1992), or “polluted” (Apffel-Marglin, 1994). In fact, menstruation is referred to in some places as a “curse” (Sharma, Vaid, & Manhas, 2006). The impurity lasts only during the menses, and ends immediately thereafter. During their menstruation, women must leave the main house, and live in a small hut outside the village (Apffel-Marglin, 1994; Phipps, 1980). They must rest, and do no work; they cannot comb their hair or bathe (Apffel-Marglin, 1994). They are not allowed to partake in the Naulas, or traditional water springs. 
• In other words, menstruating women do not have access to water when they need it for personal hygiene. They are not allowed to cook food (Joshi & Fawcett, 2001), and must keep separate utensils (Sharma, et. al., 2006). Women may not enter the pooja room (the prayer room within each home) and may not enter the temple (Chawla, 1992; Ferro-Luzzi, 1980; Phipps, 1980; Sharma, et. al., 2006). Women may not mount a horse, ox, or elephant, nor may they drive a vehicle (Whelan, 1975). Ferro-Luzzi (1980) also found various food restrictions during menstruation, including fish and meat. In particular, menstruation is to be a private event. There is a strong taboo against menstruation being made known in a public sphere (Apffel-Marglin, 1994).

• Buddhism

• In Buddhism, menstruation is generally viewed as “a natural physical excretion that women have to go through on a monthly basis, nothing more or less” (Buddha Dharma Education Association, 2004). However, Hindu belief and practice has carried over into some categories of Buddhist culture.

• In Taiwan, Buddhists characterized menstruating women as polluted, and restricted them with taboos. Women were taught that their menstrual periods were a dangerous vulnerability (Furth & Shu-Yueh, 1992). Menstrual blood, itself, was viewed as “dirt” or “poison” (Furth & Shu-Yueh, 1992). Japanese Buddhism, in particular, has been characterized by a persistent anti-feministic attitude (Jnanavira, 2006).

• Buddhist scriptures state that all human bodies, male and female alike, are flawed and are leaking filthy substances. While authentic Buddhist sutras do not explicitly say the female body is polluted, many still discriminate against women because of their menstruation. Some common taboos include women being banned from participating in folk rituals, and that they must avoid temples (Furth & Shu-Yueh, 1992). Menstruating women cannot meditate (though some women do, as they feel particularly “connected”), nor can they have contact with priests (Furth & Shu-Yueh, 1992). They cannot take part in ceremonies, such as weddings, either (Furth & Shu-Yueh, 1992).

• During menstruation, women are thought to lose Qi. (Qi, also commonly spelled chi, is believed to be part of everything that exists, as in “life force”, or “spiritual energy”.) There is also a Buddhist belief that ghosts eat blood; a menstruating woman, then, is thought to attract ghosts, and is therefore a threat to herself and others (Lhamo, 2003).

• Women supposedly stop menstruating when they enter the first level of arhatship (“stream-enterer”). (An arhat is “one who is worthy”, the perfected person who attains nirvana through his or her own efforts.) It is believed that they prove their ability to control their bodies and eradicate the greatest barrier to enlightenment (Lhamo, 2003).

Similarities among Religions

• The similarities among the major religions regarding their beliefs about menstruation are striking. Even though Christianity and Islam were influenced by Judaism, Buddhism was influenced by Hinduism, and primitive religions influenced more contemporary ones, it is nonetheless surprising to see that similar taboos exist across religions and cultures. 
• Some of the more consistent themes include: 
• isolation, 
• exclusion from religious services, and 
• restraint from sexual intercourse.

• The concept of ‘menstrual huts' can be observed across most tribal religions. Many of the so-called ‘modern' religions still prohibit menstruating women from entering temples for prayer. Menstruating women may already feel isolated from other people due to their “impure” status. During this time of isolation, many would want to turn to their religion. Without being able to enter temples (or even to pray privately, in some religions), women may feel even more isolated.

• A second consistent theme across religions is the idea of impurity. Every major religion views the menstruating woman as impure, despite the fact that there is nothing inherently impure about the process. Some religions view the impurity as strictly spiritual; others fear physical danger and harm as well.

• A third major theme that is found, consistently, across religions and cultures is the notion that during the menstrual period, there must be restraint from sexual intercourse.

• Finally, it is interesting to note that a number of religions also believe that a woman who ends her menstruation must immerse herself in a ritual bath before resuming her status as “pure”.

In secular Western culture, where taboos are not as obvious, do we maintain these through SILENCE???

(Emily Martin): Metaphors of menstruation for women:

• hassle ("THE CURSE!")
• messy
• gross
• dirty

• draw attention away from it at all costs WATCH (9:32 minutes)
• the menstrual etiquette of concealment
• jokes and euphemisms
• red flag
• lady in red
• jam
• the curse

• men unaware that women were menstruating, especially their mothers, friends and sisters and saw it as an excuse to withdraw from sex by their partners
•  (LAWS) women must buy, store & use and dispose of menstrual products without anyone knowing, especially the men with whom they live.
• SHAME

• FEMININE HYGIENE: what's the deal???? And why can't you say vagina? 
• deodorants (conceal and control smells)
• douches and washes (ditto)
•  "hair care" (less an less there. What does this say about the feminine body in our culture
• infantalization?
• appear sanitary/clean
• body on display for "gaze"

Extra credit opportunity: THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, March 21 & 22

• RESISTING TABOO
• for Martin women internalize shame in ways that create tensions between the social requirements to conceal menstruation and the practical difficulties of doing so in environments that are often male dominated like WORK or tightly timetabled like EDUCATION=Not always bad for women, can use them to REBELL
• back regions/out of bounds for men
• "time off"
• organize and socialize in ways that they can scrutinize men
• for Laws, it is because pollution beliefs stem from male disgust and so they conceal menstruation in order to prevent men from having to confront female bodies= ALWAYS BAD FOR WOMEN, controls them.

BODY BOUNDARIES
(Douglas): The body symbolizes society and society symbolizes the body. Care and control over the human body reflects care and concern over the social body.

• stuff: blood, and babies comes out of women's bodies without their control. This creates a "boundary" problem that must be dealt with in society

• Body Fluidity and the Bounded Self
• (Haraway): the development of biotechnology has expanded body boundaries.
• parts of the body can be installed in others or replaced with inorganic parts
• bodies are not just reproductive, but productive
• body parts (organs, uterus, eyes)
• tissues (bone marrow, bone, blood, skin)
• patentable cell lines (Henrietta lacks= immortal cell line for cervical cancer)
• African American woman-was unaware
• used indefinitely for conducting many experiments
• genetic information (sperm, egges)
• pharmaceuticals

• Body boundaries have become FLUID/bodies are now true COMMODITIES
• what does it mean to be an individual?

• Cyborgs dys/topias: the nature of the body?
• Cybersex (video)

MANSCAPING: making the male Body Civilized

Manscaping essentials

• The contemporary stigma of male body hair has become symbolically linked with all forms of unwanted and grotesque nature.
• man against unwanted nature
• boundary breaking hairs of the male body
• subjected to a number of civilizing regimes

• Influences in culture
• spread of "muscle culture"
• influences of youth and youthfulness
• influence of gay culture on hetero men
• pornography (capitalism and the body)
• desire to control the natural (culture controls nature...what men do)

• Like a well manicured lawn, the male body and its hairs have become the site of cultivation-pulling out and cutting back the unwanted weeds to create the desired aesthetic. Like LANDSCAPING, MANSCAPING entails human alteration of the external environment, only that environment is not the lawn or land, but hair
• Male/Female=Culture/Nature (dualism).
• hairy bodies have slipped into the natural side of this equation
• two prominent views of nature
• alluring
• sealed, closed, individually intact
• Barbie & Ken; Have no orifices and are smooth, no nipples, nothing sticking out!
• grotesque
• in order to be alluring, nature must STAY PUT, it MUST BE CONTROLLED-CIVILIZED!
• grotesque nature blurs or obscures symbolic or physical boundaries (liminal) established by humans
• penetrates the world and also lets stuff in (hair) from the skin (interchnage  with its surroundings)-ORGAN OF GROTESQUE INTERCHANGE
• body hairs break borders
• retain odors
• fall out and pollute (anti-hygienic)
• connection to "dirty creatures" (Animal nature)-may disrupt culturally enduring division between human and nonhumans

• Capitalism: To domesticate all dimensions of sexuality (and nature) and sell them
• market regulated obsession with classically styled, purified, individual bodies-look good rather than indulge in wild pleasure. Sex is messy.
• Dr. Oz and "Say no to sharing towels"

• All exaggerated in the face of ecological anxiety!!!! hmmm?

midterm course evaluations

Please Copy, print and complete this form without your name or any identification on it. this truly helps me to know how you are all faring at this point in the term. THANK YOU

Student to Teacher Feedback

Class__________________________________Professor____________________________

Please rate your teacher on the effectiveness of the indicated aspects of teaching in this course.  Circle the number that most closely reflects your perception.

		1 Hardly ever	2 Occasionally	3 Sometimes	4 Frequently	5 Almost always
1	Clearly communicates the goals of the class, a lesson, or an assignment	1	2	3	4	5
2	Is organized	1	2	3	4	5
3	Explains things so that I can understand them	1	2	3	4	5
4	Encourages me to participate in class (completing activities, discussing)	1	2	3	4	5
5	Responds to questions	1	2	3	4	5
6	Challenges me intellectually	1	2	3	4	5
7	Gives me timely feedback	1	2	3	4	5
8	Treats me with respect	1	2	3	4	5
9	Evaluates me fairly	1	2	3	4	5
10	Helps me learn	1	2	3	4	5

1)    Briefly explain one way in which this instructor’s teaching is effective.

2)    Briefly explain one way in which this instructor’s teaching could be more effective.

3)    What would you like to do more of in this class?

4)    What would you like to do less of in this class?

5)    With respect to his/her ability to help you learn, how is this professor compared to your other professors this semester? Circle the appropriate term.

Better than                        As good as                             About the same as                               Not as good as

Adapted from a form developed by Sonia Gonsalves.

Performing Femininity & Masculinity

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Autobiography of a Face: Lucy Grealy & The Experience of Self

Quotes I like from the text relevant to this class: Hope these will further your thinking on the matter of Self-identity and the centrality of our "face" as a medium for INTERACTION in society. This is central to "social interactionism" proposed by Goffman and others as well as part of what phenomenologists call the experience of the "lived body".

DEFINING OURSELVES AS SOCITY SEES US: OUR FACE

"This singular meaning-I was my face, I was ugliness-though sometimes unbearable offered a possible point of escape. It became the launching pad from which to lift off, the one immediately recognizable place to point to when asked what was wrong with my life. Everything led to it. Everything receded from it-my face as a personal vanishing point. (7)"

THE INTERACTION BETWEEN BODY & MIND

"While our bodies move ever forward on the timeline, our minds continuously trace backward, seeking shape and meaning as deftly as any arrow seeking its mark. (27)"

WE GET OUR SELF_PERCEPTION AS WE INTERACT WITH THOSE AROUND US AND SEE OURSELVES AS WE THINK THEY SEE US. BEFORE THE "REJECTION" OF OTHERS, WE HAVE MORE POSITIVE VIEWS

"Though I had looked at the scar running down my face, it had not occurred to me to scrutinize how I looked. I was missing a section of my jaw, but the extreme swelling, which stayed with me for two months hid the defect. Before the operation I hadn't had a strong sense of what I looked like anyway. Proud of my tomboyish heritage, I'd dogmatically scorned any attempts to look pretty or girlish…on the day I went home I felt proud of my new dramatic scar and eager to show it off" (62)

THE SOMATIC SENSE OF EXISTING IN A BODY IN SPACE CAN SHIFT WHEN WE EXPERIENCE OUR BODIES IN DIFFERENT WAYS

"Suddenly, my perception of the world shifted. I wasn't the only person in the world who suffered…my sense of space and self lengthened and transformed, extending itself out the door and down the corridor, while at the same time staying present with me…" (86)

HEIGHTENED SENSE OF AWARENESS THAT MAY COME OUT OF HEIGHTENED EXPERIENCES WITH OUR BODIES (PHENOMENOLOGY). IN THESE STATES WE SEARCH FOR OUR SENSE OF SELF WHICH HAS COME INTO QUESTION

"I was becoming aware that I was experiencing my body, and the world differently from other people…At times I was desperate and could find no solace anywhere…the weight of being trapped in my own body made it difficult to lift even a hand off the sheets. Other times a sort of physical awareness would take hold of me. Each breath was an important exchange with the world around me, each sensation on my skin a tender brush from a reality so beautiful and so mysterious that i would sometimes find myself squealing with the delight of being alive" (91)

WE CAN NEVER SEE HOW OTHERS REALLY SEE US

"I knew I was going bald. I knew I was pale and painfully thin. i knew I had a big scar on my face. In short I was different looking, and I knew my appearance had an effect on other people…but I was still keeping myself ignorant of the details of my appearance, of the specific logic of it. My intuition must have known it was better this way." (104)

FACE=IDENTITY

"Assuming this was how other people felt all the time, I again named my face as the thing that kept me apart, as the tangible element of what was wrong with my life and with me…it was easier to slip back into my depression and blame my face for everything." (127)

"My face may have closed the door to love and beauty in their fleeting states, but didn't my face also open me up to perceptions I might have otherwise been blind to? …I considered my powers, my heightened sense of self-awareness, feeling not as if I had chosen this path, but that it had been chosed for me. " (150-1)

"When I awake I was in a lot of pain, but the pain was in my hip where the graft came from, far away from my face, my "self", so it was easier to deal with." (170)

SOCIETY AND OUR DEFINITIONS OF BEAUTY AND OUR SELF ESTEEMED WHICH IUS ATTACHED TO THIS INTERACTION.

"The people in the plastic surgery ward hated their gorgeously hooked noses, their wise lines, their exquisitely thin lips. Beauty as defined by society at large seemed to be only about who was best at looking like everyone else. If I had my original face, an undamaged face, I would know how to appreciate it, know how to see the beauty of it….I knew there would always be a next operation and a new chance for my life to finally begin." (187)

The Body, Gender and Sex

SEX: bodily Type classifiaction, usually into 1 of two possibilities

• male
• female
• others (in some cultures we have other options)
• berdache, nadal, hijra, etc.

GENDER: refers to the socially determined psychology and roles ascribed to sex (men and women)

Gender has traditionally be seen as a social construct and sex as a biological construct governed only by natural forces. This assumption means that sex is not manipulated in any way by society or culture.

• contemporary DUALISTIC ideas about sex are in fact a RESULT of our cultural beliefs (in the Cartesian tradition)
• other models and understandings focus on the SIMILARITIES rather than oppositions between the sexes.

• SUPPORTED by the fact the biological sex itself is difficult to define
• internal organs
• external organs and secondary sexual characteristics
• hormones
• chromosomes (XX or XY)
• Sometimes, a child is born with sex chromosomes that are different from the usual XX of the female or the XY of the male. The child may develop sex and/or reproductive organs that are ambiguous — not completely female and not completely male.
  
  • Ambiguous sex organs can develop for other reasons, as well. These are called intersex conditions.
  • Most people agree that babies with intersex conditions should be assigned a gender at birth. Some people believe that assigning a gender means performing surgery on the baby's genitals, while others believe that a baby can be raised as a girl or boy without surgery. Some people believe surgery should be postponed until intersex people are old enough to decide for themselves. 
  • Genitals that are not easily identifiable as female or male are sometimes apparent at birth. But sometimes it is not obvious until puberty. People with intersex conditions may be considered sexually ambiguous in different ways:
    
  • They may have sex organs that appear to be somewhat female or male or both. They do not, however, have complete female genitals and complete male genitals.
  • They may have a large clitoris — more than two-fifths of an inch long.
  • They may have a small penis — less than an inch long.
  • Some babies are born with both ovarian and testicular tissue.
  • Some people have chromosomes that are different. Two common chromosomal intersex conditions are:
• Turner Syndrome = XO (45)
• Klienfelter’s Syndrome = XXY (47)
• XYY Syndrome (47)

• There are other differences a person could have that cannot be found without testing chromosomes and hormones, or examining internal sex organs. Sometimes the difference is never noticed, so some people have intersex conditions for their whole lives and never know.

So, our cultures does determine to some extent SEX and how people are SEXED.

GENDERING THE BODY: THE BODY IN SCIENCE

• Thomas Laqueur's book Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud 
• The one-sex and two-sex theory are two models of human anatomy or fetal development -He theorizes that a fundamental change in attitudes toward human sexual anatomy occurred in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. 
• Prior to the eighteenth century, it was a common belief that women and men represented two different forms of one essential sex: that is, women were seen to possess the same fundamental reproductive structure as men, the only difference being that female genitalia was inside the body, not outside of it. 
• Anatomists saw the vagina as an interior penis, the labia as foreskin, the uterus as scrotum, and the ovaries as testicles. 
• Around the 18th century, the dominant view became that of two sexes directly opposite to each other. There was an abundance of literature written in the 18th century supporting the two sex model. 
• Jacques-Louis Moreau wrote that "not only are the sexes different, but they are different in every conceivable aspect of body and soul, in every physical and moral aspect. To the physician or the naturalist, the relation of woman to man is a series of opposites and contrasts" 
• Women and men began to be seen as polar opposites and each sex was compared in relation to the other. 
• Gender, prior to the eighteenth century, was not prescribed upon individual; a man could be physically male, but he could have a feminine gender identity. This was seen as being normal and even acceptable. 
• With the switch to the two sex model, differences that had been expressed with reference to gender now came to be expressed with reference to sex and to biology.

• Renaissance anatomical illustrations depicted a woman as a man turned inside out. Male and female organs were often depicted side by side to demonstrate their correspondence to one another.
• Anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius, represented women's organs as versions of man's in all three of his influential works.The vagina was often depicted as long, phallic and almost indistinguishable from a penis. Representation of the anatomical difference between men and women were independent of the actual structures of these organs and "ideology, not accuracy of observation, determined how they were seen and which differences would matter." 
• Often, the only way to distinguish a female set of organs from a male set of organs would be if the illustrator were to cut away the front of what appears to be a womb in his drawing to reveal a child inside. This is because "the more Renaissance anatomists dissected, looked into and visually represented the female body, the more powerfully and convincingly they saw it to be a version of the males"

• Physiologically, the one sex model explains that "in the blood, semen, milk and other fluids of the one sex body, there is no female and no sharp boundary between the sexes" 
• Different levels of each of the fluids are what would determine gender. 
• The body was also seen as composed of four humours: cold, hot, moist, and dry. Just like with fluid composition, individuals varied in the humoral composition as well. "Though women were always dominated by cold and moist humours, and men by hot and dry humours, difference in sex were seen as differences of degree." 
• In terms of reproduction in the one sex model, the sex of the child produced by a couple was based on the intermixing of the fluid of a couple. Both males and females were thought to emit a sperm like substance during intercourse. If both partners produce a strong sperm, then a male will result; if both produce weak sperm, a female is born; and if in one partner the battle has gone to the weak and in the other to the strong, then the sex of the offspring is determined by the quantity of sperm produced". 

• Scientific advancements in the eighteenth century were not reason enough to bring about the two sex model. Knowledge about the differences in the male and female anatomy had been around since antiquity, but many people chose not to focus on the differences, but rather the similarities. 
• In the eighteenth century "distinct sexual anatomy was adduced to support or deny all matter of claims in a variety of specific social, economic, political, cultural or erotic contexts."
•  In the Eighteenth century people deliberately tried to find differences between the sexes and "wherever boundaries were threatened or new ones erected, newly discovered fundamental sexual differences provided the material".
• In the eighteenth century, anatomists began to produce a female skeleton to demonstrate that women and men are not only different on the inside, but on the outside as well. Gradually, the genitals of the female anatomy began to move on the anatomical illustrations and the vagina began to look less penis like. 
• Organs that used to be associated with both sexes started to have their own names as a result of the discovery of the sperm and egg. "'Testicle' could not stand alone to designate unambiguously the male gonad; it no longer carries the modifiers 'masculine' or 'feminine'. 'Ovary' not 'female stones' or 'testicle feminine' came to designate the female equivalent.
• Language was important in the development of the two sex model. As soon as organs were given different medical names, they were seen to be markedly different from each other.

• In terms of reproduction, in the two sex model it was now thought that the male sperm was superior to the female egg. 
• Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovered that the male ejaculate was not just liquid but "he detected innumerable small animals in the masculine sperm" and "sperm and egg could now stand for man and woman."
• The egg quickly began to be seen as just a source of nourishment for the sperm and the sperm was viewed as being far superior to the egg. 

• Female body as the "DARK CONTINENT" to be studied by science
• natural, weak, troublesome
• naturally inferior to the male body, reason for exclusion from society
• UNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT THE HUMAN BODY BECAME THE WAY THE GENDER WAS NOW UNDERSTOOD BY SOCIETY-MEN AND WOMEN ARE NATURALLY SOCIALLY DIFFERENT

THE FEMALE BODY AS AN OBJECT OF SCRUTINY

• examining the female body
• development of medicine which emphasizes the differences between the male and female body with specialists who examine, scrutinize and evaluate the female body
• gynecology
• the body can be compartmentalized like a machine and inspected and then repaired by technology
• women's bodies are more subject to malfunction in this respect

•  HYSTERICAL BODIES (Hysteria)
• "wandering womb"
• symptoms (Uterine malfunction)
• fainting
• weeping
• weight loss
• loss of appetite
• excessive screaming or laughing

•  heightened the notion that women were irrational and out of control because of their bodies
• women's bodies were pathological and in need of containment and control
• PMS today??????
• reaction to inability to have access to social and political structures, failure to meet standards of beauty or success or femininity?????
• SERVED TO JUSTIFY EXCLUDING WOMEN FROM THE PUBLIC SPHERE

• Modern medicine as a patriarchal structure based on these ideas
• demise of midwifery
• rise of "witches"
• medicalization of natural processes
• menstruation
• menopause
• pregnancy/childbirth

• BLEEDING WOMEN: Views of menstruation and female body processes
• PMS as hormonal imbalance
• symbolic "safety valve" where women give expressions to the social contradictions that accompany expectations which can not be met around production and reproduction in capitalist society.
• why didnt my grandma get PMS?

• CULTURE and the female Body
• The obvious fact that the female body is naturally weaker, inferior, unstable, different and deviant when compared to the male body continues to be used as evidence of women's moral and intellectual inferiority
• FEMALE =NATURE/MALE=CULTURE (metaphorical associations)
• female body
• commodified (prostitution, pornography, nudes in art!)
• subject to medical scrutiny
• contained (for instance menstruation taboos)
• controlled (violence, abortion laws, contraception laws, uniforms)
• association of women's ROLES as the result of natural processes
• pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, nurturing "INSTINCT"
• menstruation
• physical strength (lack of)

• Male body 
• Rarely viewed in this way (associated with or reduced to the body)
• exception: sports/activities which emphasize physicality and strength

Modern Day anthropological theory sees gender as a PERFORMANCE, and the body as a MEDIUM for this display, rather than gender as an innate display of bodily differences.

CONFOUNDING CATEGORIES

• Native American categories
• BERDACHES (bodies are accepted and perform roles in costume, not sexualized)
• Two-spirit people” is an umbrella term sometimes used for what was once commonly known as berdaches, indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles in First Nations and Native American tribes.
• Third gender roles historically embodied by two-spirit people include performing work and wearing clothing associated with both men and women. 
• The presence of male two-spirits was a fundamental institution among most tribal peoples. Male and female two-spirits have been "documented in over 130 North America tribes, in every region of the continent.
• There are many indigenous terms for two-spirit individuals in the various Native American languages — including Lakota: wíŋkte, Navajo: nádleehé, and Mohave: hwame. Koskalaka is another word used in some languages for a two-spirit person or berdache.
  

  

  
  
  
•  HIJRAS (bodies are rejected and castrated, then costumed & sexualized)
• Hijra", is one of the many terms in the culture of South Asia used to refer individuals who consider themselves as transexual or transgendered. 
  • Transgenders are also known as Aravani, Aruvani or Jagappa in other areas of India. Hijras, are also known as chhakka in Kannada , khusra in Punjabi and kojja in Telugu
  • InPakistan, the hijras identify themselves as either female, male, or third gender.  'khwaaja sira'(Urduا), and can identify themselves as transexual person, transgender person (khusras), cross-dressers (zenanas) and eunuchs (narnbans). 
  • In general hijras are born with typically male physiology, only a few having been born with male intersex variations. Some Hijras undergo an initiation rite into the hijra community called nirwaan, which refers to the removal of penis, testicles and scrotum (everything off!)
  • Since the late 20th century, some hijra activists and Western non-government organizations (NGOs) have been lobbying for official recognition of the hijra as a kind of "third sex" or "third gender," as neither man nor woman. 
   
  
  
  

• Masculinity, Physicality & Space
• The body is a CULTURAL ARTIFACT SHAPED BY IDEAS
• dominant versions of masculinity and femininity will inform how poeple DO GENDER
• 3 main characteristics of HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY
• emphasizes herterosexuality
• exists in relation to emphasized FEMININITY (and visa-versa)
• provides a particular kind of male body , a MUSCULAR BODY/PHYSICALITY
• adult males and boys need to occupy space as an aspect of muscularity.  as boys learn the social significance of SIZE, GESTURE and ACTIVE ORIENTATION
• sitting with legs apart
• positioning themselves in the center
• walking styles
• rough and tumble games and other interactions with boys help to develop coordination, physical confidence and an active sense of being-in-the-world (Phenom.)=a sense of oneself as an active subject (not so often with girls...TOMBOYS????)
• SPORTS: affects this as well if one participates. -particular forms of physicality shape identity during our developmental years (jocks???)

• These images influences self-identity and shape bodily conduct

Race and Masculinity

• Black athletes become subject to the commodified gaze of wealthy white owner
•  draft is a time when bodies are deconstructed and evaluated
• scrutiny normalizes a conception of masculinity that controls the labor potential of "hyper-masculine" physique, while reasserting class dominance and White privileged

.Men Doing Gender as a Social Practice

• Male Dancers: challenge ways in which men should use their bodies- physicality is not enough. it is a certain TYPE of physicality
•  masculine ideal has to distinguish itself from this "feminized" body (in the process) by redefing muscularity
• Women who are physically active also challenge this masculine body. Women who lift weights are considered different from other women (freaks=manlike)
• no man wants a woman who is physically stronger or bigger than him

"Looking-glass Self" (Coolie)

•  "throwing like a girl"
• know how to properly throw and are in the process of looking at yourself doing it to see how you measure up ( in your view and society's)

The Objectified Body (& femininity)

•  (Rich) Woman's body is a "problem" to her
• female body as an object (De Beauviour)  that can be seen in many cultural practices
• foot binding, corseting, plastic surgery, fattening, circumcision, 
• (Berger) men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at (ART, for example)
• womens bodies must be displayed and produced (as spectacle)
• women are conscious of being watched and so invest in their bodies and present them as an expression of themselves(clothing, makeup, etc.)
• RACISM: exacerbates the power asymmetry of this "gaze" (Foucoult) so much so that black women have been objectified to the point of being painted as breeders, sexualized, and body parts have been coopted and explained as enlarged for these pursuits.
• Black women will aim to reproduce white female norns of beauty in public display because of this gaze
•  (Merlaeu-Ponty) awareness of one's own body as an object is experienced as ALIENATION (lack of embodiment)
• feminine modality (Young): Women comport and carry themselves in certain ways
• short strides
• pull back to catch things
• arms near their sides when they walk
• avoid the gaze of others in public
• use their arms to shield and protect themselves

• why should women do this?
• they exist in a CLOSED SPACE which has discouraged physical engagement (lack of confidence due to under-use)
• they are conscious of the "male gaze" which acts to discipline them and encourage docility

THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF BODY IDIOM (in both men and women)-the knowledge of how to comport oneself as a man or a women and how to move in space as well.

CHALLENGING GENDER BOUNDARIES

• doing gender in ways which confound norms  and expectations typically to gain access to some activity or occupation that is restricted or exclusionary-PASS AS MEN

• BILLY TIPTON: Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Tipton grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was raised by an aunt after his parents' divorce. He subsequently rarely saw his father, G. W. Tipton, a pilot who sometimes took him for airplane rides. As a high-school student, Tipton went by the nickname Tippy and became interested in music, especially jazz, studying piano and saxophone. He returned to Oklahoma for his final year of high school and joined the school band there^.
  As Tipton began a more serious music career, he adopted his father's nickname, Billy, and more actively worked to pass as male by binding his breasts and padding his pants. At first, Tipton only presented as male in performance, but by 1940 was living as a man in private life as well^. Two of Tipton's female cousins, with whom Tipton maintained contact over the years, and perhaps some of his later paramours, were the only persons privy to both sides of Tipton's life

• Cross-gendering (transvestism)
• takes a huge amount of work to perform gender through exaggerations of female performance and BODY IDIOM
• conceal body parts/create body parts
• emphasis on achieving a credible performance. 
• RuPAul "drag queens"
• "drag kings"

these presentation lead us to QUESTION the innateness of gender and sex "norms/constructions based on heterosexuality) and see them as OVERT PERFORMANCES.

• women (and men) may also assume/perform varient and multiple styles of femininity and masculinity in different context. 
• (example of girls and how they represent themselves in dance spaces)
• girls in sports versus going out (cleaning up well)
• professional/back presentations

JUDITH BUTLER: Bodies That Matter

• sex and gender are not separate, but both are implicated in the other in a discursive loop.
• ideas about sex and gender are tied to the LANGUAGE we use, which fixes our conceptions of the body over time. As we create a new category which we name, does this help create other possibilities?
• FACEBOOK
• now 50 ways you may describe your "GENDER"
• what is the significance of this?
• Does Butler's view dismiss the significance of the body as FLESH and its experience in the world when it takes this largely philosophical view of gender? Or is there an aspect of gender identity which is wholly  part of experience?

HOW DO PEOPLE DO GENDER ONLINE????

• do people draw heavily on the physical body as a common point of reference, still? Even though they might avoid this with text?
• SNAPCHAT? INSTAGRAM? How are the visual still important in our "doing of gender"?

CHANGING BODIES: Transsexuality & Transgendering

• Transvestism is about surface change, transsexuality is about changing the physical structures of the body.
• transgendering is about surgically changing body parts to identify with another sex ("substituting")
• not just about replacement of body parts and hormones, but also about PERFORMING gender in CONVINCING WAYS
• appearance & dress
• gesture: learning to "act" like a woman to be taken for granted as a women for instance
• voice quality and tone
• movement
• posture
• language
• 
  
• BOYS DONT CRY (click here to watch)