Term Paper on "What Have Been Feminist Sociologist Contribution to the Sociology of the Body"

Term Paper 8 pages (2894 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Feminist Sociologist's Contribution to the Sociology of the Body?

While the concept of Sociology of the body has been around for millennia it has now taken on a form in the area of research and sociological theory that helps us to understand prejudice, chauvinism and discrimination at its subliminal roots. Dominant in our culture for centuries was the concept that the human body was first and primarily male, as pointed out in the bible and then secondarily and almost as an afterthought, female. To make matters worse, the body image in most cultures that are theistically male oriented view the female body and females in general as a degraded from of human being. This imagery has and still does haunt the sociology of the body till this day despite any biological facts concerning the propagation of the species and the resilience to pain the female anatomy can endure. Feminist in the last two hundred years have made great strides in changing the collective mindset of the male dominated culture in regards to the sociology of the body. There are of course certain, as it were, pre-social fact about the body such as gender, race, abilities and disabilities, psychical proportions and so on. These facts then become characteristics that are translated by society into cultural nuances that can elevate or reduce the stature of the human being involved. Feminist Sociologists have helped to change and equalise the mindset of the cultural perception of the body so that certain socially implied inequities have been remedied. Others, it is sad to say, still await the passage of change.

One of the most important constructs underlying the feminist approach to the sociology of the body is the fact that society in general has defined a woman strictly upon their physiology and very rarely in any other relevant or even personal terms. Largely this has been biased in the physiological relationship to motherhood and the woman's ability to produce children, crating a slew of implied social structures and cultural contexts in regards to a 'woman's role' in society and especially in relationship to men. In this simplistic concept "...all women are defined as potential, actual or failed mothers.' (Morgan and Scott 1993:11) So in this sense the physiology of the body breeds its perceived sociology and the role of the woman becomes confined into a narrow stereotype from the sociological perspective of their reproductive capabilities, and little more.

Even the psychopathology of this dichotomy between the male and female bodily perspectives are legitimised by such past lofty figures as Sigmund Freud, whose ability to inspire great angst among feminists is renowned:

Freud provided an explanation of sexual relations and power which was fixed and immutable, where man'...always feels his sexual activity hampered by his respect for the woman and only develops full sexual potency when he finds himself in the presence of a lower type of sexual object' (Freud, 1974:649). Such propaganda allows for and legitimates patriarchy and male supremacy in many of its grosser manifestations thereby lending support to the 'cultural ideology of sadism'. (Edwards 1993:97)

Only within the last few decades has it become even permissible to talk about the sociology of the body. Prior to this the cultural beliefs and stereotypes were merely takes as facts of nature and simply obvious for anyone to see. However, s diverse group of social changes have attributed to the finer focus of interest in body sociology and body politics. Feminism has had a great deal to do with many of those changes and will most likely continue to do so for some time in the future.

In particular, feminism has drawn attention to women's bodies as being central to a political analysis of a gender structured society. Feminist discourses have politicised the body, and, in doing so, have drawn attention to the ways in which bodies are products of social beliefs and practices. (Hyde 2000:157)

The first large scale and public demonstration of the influence that feminists had on body image was perhaps the massive protest in 1968 of the Miss America Beauty pageant. The pagent has always been the target of many women's rights groups. They perceive it as a shameless public demonstration of the objectification of women's bodies and the further stereotyping of women and their submissive social roles dominated by a male society. This well attended media protest inflamed many more people that just the activists to rethink and re-evaluate the sociology of the body and women in society. (Synnott 1993:60)

This 'gendered structured' society in no small part has come about due to religious and other cultural influences that have given a male dominated view of society and social interaction such a strong foothold. For centuries under the guise of religious and family beliefs, these sociological contrivances were considered private and personal so that society at large would have no influence to change them. As previously mentioned these beliefs were merely viewed as facts and other social institutions backed up the proof. Religious institutions have a tremendous impact on family and marriage rites, regulating sexual behaviour and conditions of passage as well as strict regulation of gender roles, many predicated on religious concepts of body image. Take for instance the idea from the bible that a woman's is really an offshoot of man, using a rib and some clay to make her body. This single concept alone, along with the woman tempting the man with the apple in the Garden of Eden, has shaped the almost demonisation of women's bodies and their lack of rights for centuries.

Here, a brief look at the 1912 Catholic Encyclopaedia and Pope John Paul sheds some light on this influence:

The encyclopaedia admonishes: 'Just as it is not permissible to take one sex as the standard of the other, so from the social point-of-view it is not allowable to confuse the vocational activities of both.' John Paul sounds the same theme: 'In the name of liberation from male "domination," women must not appropriate to themselves male characteristics contrary to their own feminine originality."(Kaverny 2008: 8)

So even though the 1912 tome has some more current influence in seeing the unfairness of comparing the standards of one sex to another sociological, it holds fast to the archaic moral structure and codes that relegate women's bodies to a substandard cohort. The Pope then concurs and the stage is set for a few more decades of trouble.

It is important for sociology, as well as other humanist disciplines, to take into account both the differences and the similarities between the genders. Most religions, and the Roman Catholic religion is often an unfortunate and certainly an excellent example of this, has been extremely concerned about the erosion of the differences between men and women. Religion in general is afraid that this equality of the sexes would dethrone their male-based ruling structure. They are probably correct. Religion has more often than not used these very bodily differences to relegate function and form to both genders, sublimating the woman's body to the man's in most cases. 'With the rise of religious fundamentalism... It will be equally important to emphasise the common gifts and abilities of men and women -- including a common right and duty to participate in the political life of the nation.' (Kaverny 2008: 8)

Sister Karen Armstrong, a Catholic nun and a feminist, takes umbrage at these misconceptions of biblical interpretation and blames the male dominated society for its translation of the bible during the Reformation some four centuries ago, and not the Bible itself, for fostering these inequities. 'No wonder the modern feminist spies grist for her cause, railing against the idea that a male deity should approve the iniquity of patriarchy and, by identifying the sacred with the masculine, should marginalise women in the religious world.' (Armstrong 1996: 66) She comes from a more philosophically fundamentalist approach and feels that any intellectual understating of a concept of the supreme deity must come to this conclusion:

God is spirit and transcends all human categories "he" cannot be confined to a particular gender. The very first chapter of the Bible says firmly that both male and female human beings were created in God's image (Genesis 1:27); both sexes, therefore, are capable of expressing the mysterious divine essence. (Armstrong 1996: 66)

It is these feminist approaches that begin to bring a universality of body socialisation concepts to the world. By restoring the facts and eliminating the bias that social prejudices have attached to body sociology, feminist sociologists have made great strides.

Furthermore, using the concept of the sociology of the body, feminist have been able to put a rest to many sub-conscious and insidious prejudices and myths regarding the inequality of the sexes:

Utilising some of the insights of Foucault, feminist theorists have increasingly paid attention to the ways in which power operates on women's bodies. Foucault's (1979) notion of power circulating everywhere as an interconnecting network has led Bordo (1989: 15) to suggest that there is a need… READ MORE

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