Technologies of the Gendered Body (Week 11)

OutlineThe body in late modernity

Body projects / reflexive body techniques

Presentation (week 15)

The body in late modernityWhat is late / high modernity?

Giddens (1991) – a “radicalising” of modern trends

Both “modernity” and “self” are neither redundant nor anachronistic

Late / high modernity is characterised by a process of continual questioning; reflexivity

The body in late modernityThe self / identity is intimately bound up with

these processes of questioning / reflexivity

Growing importance of the body as constitutive of self-identity

Body is something to be worked on

The body in high modernityBut… a central body paradox:

“We now have the means to exert an unprecedented degree of control over bodies, yet we are also living in an age which has thrown into radical doubt our knowledge of what bodies are and how we should control them.” (Shilling 1993: 3)

The body in high modernity

The body is becoming “increasingly a phenomenon of options and choices” (Shilling 1993: 3)

But these “choices” also produce related dilemmas re: ownership of bodies and body parts / tissues; who should be allowed to do what to and with their bodies.

Body projectsIncreasing investment of self-identity in our bodiesThe body is increasingly viewed as an entity in the

process of becoming; it can be accomplished reflexively as part of an individual’s self-identity

Appearance, size, shape, content / constitution seen as always potentially open to (re)construction in line with the desires, plans and purposes of their “owners”

Bodies are treated as malleable; moulded as a trait of personality; honed through vigilance and hard work.

A somatic ethic.

Body projects“Body projects are attempts to

construct and maintain a coherent and viable sense of self-identity through attention to the body, particularly the body’s surface” (Gill et al 2005: 40)

Reflexive body techniques“body techniques whose primary purpose is

to work back upon the body, so as to modify, maintain or thematize it in some way” (2006: 104)

May involve two or more embodied agents, or a single body working on itself

Each society has a repertoire of RBTs. There is a wide variation in the distribution of

RBTs

Mapping RBTs (Crossley 2005)100% had washed hands in past 7 days99.7% had bathed / showered in past 7 days41.8% had flossed in the last 4 weeks41.1% had “eaten carefully” for weight loss

reasons in the last 4 weeks 36.2% had manicure in the past 4 weeks25.3% had used a sunbed in the last 12 months6.9% had 1-3 tatoos6.7% had a pierced belly button1.6% had cosmetic surgery0.3% had ever used steroids for body building

Mapping RBTsIncorporates the idea that we “have” a body

and “are” a body.

Resists mind / body dualism (“the body I “have” is a moral, aesthetic, acting and sensuous being” (Crossley 2005: 2)

Can core zone RBTs and marginal zone RBTs be explained in the same way?

PresentationChoose up to 3 images / textual materials

around a central themeProvide a commentary on those images,

drawing on the relevant literatureWhat assumptions of gender, technology and

the body are at work in those materials?What is the preferred reading of those

materials? How have those ideas been critiqued? Is there an alternative reading?

Like an essay – make an argument. What’s your overall point?

PresentationEach presentation should last no more than

15 minutes (with 5 mins for questions); All group members should contribute equally

to the preparation and final presentation;You will have access to Powerpoint. If you

need anything further, please discuss with Katy, Mark and I well in advance.

Each group will get written feedback on your own presentation.

Additional readingCrossley, N (2005) “Mapping reflexive body

techniques: on body modification and maintenance” Body and Society 11 (1): 1-35

Shilling, C (2010) “Exploring the society-body-school nexus: theoretical and methodology issues in the study of body pedagogics”. Sport, Education and Society 15(2): 151-167