Skip to main content
Book cover

Handbook of the Sociology of Gender pp 95–107Cite as

Gendered Embodiment

Part of the Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research book series (HSSR)

Abstract

This chapter introduces social theories about gender and the body. Rather than focusing on sex (that is, the physiological characteristics typically associated with maleness and femaleness) this chapter instead looks at how cultural norms for femininity and masculinity shape people’s relationship to their own bodies and the bodies of others. Examining the association of masculinity with active bodily subjects—and of femininity with passive bodily objects—this chapter studies the ways bodies reproduce and, sometimes, challenge gendered power dynamics.

Keywords

  • Embodiment
  • Intersectionality
  • Discipline
  • Objectification

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-76333-0_7
  • Chapter length: 13 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-3-319-76333-0
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Hardcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    I intentionally use identity-first (“disabled people”) rather than people-first (“people with disabilities”) language here. I do so because the former reflects this chapter’s larger argument that the body—including its abilities and disabilities—is co-constitutive of self and identity, not merely a fleshy container for the self. This does not, however, mean that identity-first language is always correct; many people with disabilities prefer to use people-first language for self-identification and activism. See Liebowitz (2015) for further discussion of these two terms. https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/i-am-disabled-on-identity-first-versus-people-first-language/.

References

  • Ahmed, S. (2010). The promise of happiness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, E. A., England, P., & Fogarty, C. K. (2012). Accounting for women’s orgasm and sexual enjoyment in college hookups and relationships. American Sociological Review, 77(3), 435–462.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Averett, S., & Korenman, S. (1996). The economic reality of the beauty myth. Journal of Human Resources, 31, 304–330.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Barber, K., & Bridges, T. (2017). Marketing manhood in a ‘post-feminist’ age. Contexts, 16(2), 38–43.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Barounis, C. (2009). Cripping heterosexuality, queering able-bodiedness: murderball, brokeback mountain and the contested masculine body. Journal of Visual Culture, 8(1), 54–75.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Baynton, D. C. (2016). Disability and the justification of inequality in american history. In L. Davis (Ed.), The disability studies reader (5th ed.). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. New York: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bettie, J. (2003). Women without class: Girls, race, and identity. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogle, K. (2008). Hooking up: Sex, dating, and relationships on campus. New York: NYU Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bordo, S. (1999). The male body: A new look at men in public and in private. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bordo, S. (2003[1993]). Unbearable weight: Feminism, western culture, and the body, 10th anniversary edition. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bridges, T., & Pascoe, C. J. (2014). Hybrid masculinities: New directions in the sociology of men and masculinities. Sociology Compass, 8(3), 246–258.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, J. (2010). The female significant in all-women’s amateur roller derby. Sociology of Sport Journal, 27, 428–444.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Carter, J. A. (2015). Revealing the ‘Absent Body’: Embodied participant observation in women’s tackle football. http://sectionbodyembodiment.weebly.com/blog/revealing-the-absent-body-embodied-participant-observation-in-womens-tackle-football.

  • Cho, S. K. (1997). Converging stereotypes in racialized sexual harassment: Where the model minority meets Suzie Wong. Journal of Gender, Race, & Justice, 1, 177–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clare, E. (2015[1999]). Exile and pride: Disability, queerness, and liberation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clare, E. (2017). Brilliant imperfection: Grappling with cure. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (2005). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R.W. (2005[1995]). Masculinities (2nd ed.,). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, M. (2015). Misty Copeland is promoted to principal dancer at American Ballet Theater. New York Times, June 30, 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Courtenay, W. H. (2000). Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men’s wellbeing: A theory of gender and health. Social Science and Medicine, 50(10), 1385–1401.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Craig, M. L. (2014). Sorry I don’t dance: Why men refuse to move. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Beauvoir, S. (2011[1949]). The second sex (C. Borde & S. Malovany-Chevallier Trans.). New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyvik, S. (2016). ‘Valhalla rising’: Gender, embodiment, and experience in military memoirs. Security Dialogue, 47(2), 133–150.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Edelman, L. (2004). No future: Queer theory and the death drive. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenreich, B., & English, D. (2005 [1978]). For her own good: Two centuries of the experts’ advice to women. New York: Anchor Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ezzell, M. (2009). ‘Barbie Dolls’ on the pitch: Identity work, defensive othering, and inequality in women’s rugby. Social Problems, 56(1), 111–131.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Fausto-Sterling, A. (1992[1985]). Myths of gender: Biological theories about women and men (2nd ed.,). New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, A. A. (2000). Bad boys: Public schools in the making of black masculinity. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1995[1977]). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan Trans.). New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N., & Gordon, L. (1994). A genealogy of dependency: Tracing a keyword of the U.S. welfare state. Signs, 19(2), 309–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fung, R. (2008). Looking for my penis: The eroticized asian in gay video porn. In K. A. Ono (Ed.), A companion to Asian American studies. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garland-Thomson, R. (2002). Integrating disability, transforming feminist theory. NWSA Journal, 14(3), 1–32.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Grazian, D. (2007). The girl hunt: Urban nightlife and the performance of masculinity as collective activity. Symbolic Interaction, 30(2), 221–243.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Halberstam, J. (1997). Mackdaddy, superfly, rapper: Gender, race, and masculinity in the drag king scene. Social Text, 52(53), 104–131.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Halberstam, J. (2011). The queer art of failure. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Hammer, G. (2012). Blind women’s appearance management: Negotiating normalcy between discipline and pleasure. Gender & Society, 26(3), 406–432.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Hoang, K. (2014). Competing technologies of embodiment: Pan-asian modernity and third world dependency in vietnam’s contemporary sex industry. Gender & Society, 28(4), 513–536.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Hochschild, AR. (2012[1983]). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, K., Trawalter, S., Axt, J., & Normal Oliver, M. (2016). Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites. PNAS, 113(16), 4296–4301.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Kafer, A. (2016). At the same time, out of time: Ashley X. In Lennard Davis (Ed.), The disability studies reader (5th ed.). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kandiyoti, D. (1988). Bargaining with patriarchy. Gender & Society, 2(3), 274–290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, E. (2011). Asexuality in disability narratives. Sexualities, 14(4), 479–493.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Kimmel, M. (2005). The history of men: Essays on the history of American and British masculinities. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lande, B. (2007). Breathing like a soldier: Culture incarnate. The Sociological Review, 55(1), 95–108.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Lei, J. L. (2003). (Un)necessary toughness?: Those ‘loud Black girls’ and those ‘quiet Asian boys’. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 34(2), 158–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Livingston, J. (1990). Paris is burning (film). Miramax.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorber, J. (1993). Believing is seeing: Biology as ideology. Gender & Society, 7(4), 568–581.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Love, H. (2007). Feeling backward: Loss and the politics of queer history. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luttrell, W. (2003). Pregnant bodies, fertile minds: Gender, race, and the schooling of pregnant teens. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon, C. (1982). Feminism, marxism, method, and the state: An agenda for theory. Signs, 7(3), 515–544.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Malcom, N. (2006). ‘Shaking it off’ and ‘toughing it out’: Socialization to pain and injury in girls’ softball. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35(5), 495–525.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, K. (1998). Becoming a gendered body: Practices of preschools. American Sociological Review, 63(4), 494–511.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Mason, K. (2012). The unequal weight of discrimination: Gender, body size, and income inequality. Social Problems, 59(3), 411–435.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Messner, M., Dunbar, M., & Hunt, D. (2000). The televised sports manhood formula. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 24(4), 380–394.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Moore, S. E. H. (2010). Is the healthy body gendered? Toward a feminist critique of the new paradigm of health. Body and Society, 16(2), 95–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, E. (2005). ‘Tuck in that shirt!’ Race, class, gender, and discipline in an urban school. Sociological Perspectives, 48(1), 25–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6–18.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Ortner, S. (1972). Is female to male as nature is to culture? Feminist Studies, 1(2), 5–31.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Ortner, S. (1991). Reading America: Preliminary notes on class and culture. In R. G. Fox (Ed.), Recapturing anthropology: Working in the present. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paradis, E. (2012). Boxers, briefs, or bras? Bodies, gender, and change in the boxing gym. Body & Society, 18(2), 82–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pascoe, C. J. (2007). Dude, you’re a fag: Masculinity and sexuality in high school. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pavlidis, A., & Fullagar, S. (2015). The pain and pleasure of roller derby: Thinking through affect and subjectification. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(5), 483–499.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Peralta, R. (2007). College alcohol use and the embodiment of hegemonic masculinity among European American men. Sex Roles, 56(11–12), 741–756.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrzela, N. M. (2017). Why Trump’s diet is bad for America’s health. The Washington Post. June 28, 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raby, R. (2010). ‘Tank tops are OK but I don’t want to see her thong’: Girls’ engagements with secondary school dress codes. Youth & Society, 41(3), 333–356.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rich, A. (1980). Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs, 5(4), 631–660.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Risman, B. (1998). Gender vertigo: American families in transition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, G. (1975). The traffic in women: Notes on the ‘political economy’ of sex. In R. R. Reiter (Ed.), Toward an anthropology of women. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rushton, J. P., & Bogaert, A. F. (1987). Race differences in sexual behavior: Testing an evolutionary hypothesis. Journal of Research in Personality, 21(4), 529–551.

    Google Scholar 

  • Samakow, J. (2014). You are what you wear: The dangerous lessons kids learn from sexist t-shirts. The Huffington Post, December 4, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/03/dangerous-lessons-from-sexist-shirts_n_6102096.html.

  • Samimian-Darash, L. (2013). Rebuilding the body through violence and control. Ethnography, 14(1), 46–63.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Schilt, K., & Westbrook, L. (2009). Doing gender, doing heteronormativity: ‘Gender normals’, transgender people, and the social maintenance of heterosexuality. Gender & Society, 23(4), 440–464.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Silva, J. M. (2008). A new generation of women? How female ROTC cadets negotiate the tension between masculine military culture and traditional femininity. Social Forces, 87(2), 937–960.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simula, B. (2013). Queer utopias in painful spaces: BDSM participants’ interrelational resistance to heteronormativity and gender regulation. In A. Jones (Ed.), A critical inquiry into queer utopias. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sorenson, S. (2011). Gender disparities in injury mortality: Consistent, persistent, and larger than you’d think. American Journal of Public Health 101(Supplement 1): S353-S358).

    Google Scholar 

  • Spencer, D. (2009). Habit(us), body techniques and body callusing: An ethnography of mixed martial arts. Body & Society, 15(4), 119–143.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Stone, A., & Shapiro, E. (2017). ‘You’re really just a gay man in a woman’s body!’ The possibilities and perils of queer sexuality. Men and Masculinities, 20(2), 254–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Theberge, N. (1997). ‘It’s part of the game’: Physicality and the production of gender in women’s hockey. Gender & Society, 11(1), 69–87.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Trawalter, S., Hoffman, K., & Waytz, A. (2012). Racial bias in perceptions of others’ pain. PLoS ONE, 7(11), e48546.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • USA Gymnastics. (2016). https://usagym.org/pages/gymnastics101/women/events.html.

  • Wacquant, L. (1998). The prizefighter’s three bodies. Ethnos, 63(3–4), 325–352.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Waskul, D., Vannini, P., & Wiesen, D. (2007). Women and their clitoris: Personal discovery, signification, and use. Symbolic Interaction, 30(2), 151–174.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • West, C., & Zimmerman, Don H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender & Society, 1(2), 125–151.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkerson, A. (2002). Disability, sex radicalism, and political agency. NWSA Journal, 14(3), 33–57.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Wittman, C. (1997 [1970]). A gay manifesto. In RN. Lancaster & M. di Leonardo (Eds.), The gender/sexuality reader: Culture, history, political economy. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, N. (2002 [1991]). The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used against women. New York: Harper Perennial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, I. M. (1990). Throwing like a girl and other essays in feminist philosophy and social theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wheaton College, Norton, MA, USA

    Katherine Mason

Authors
  1. Katherine Mason
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katherine Mason .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Barbara J. Risman

  2. University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA

    Carissa M. Froyum

  3. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    William J. Scarborough

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Mason, K. (2018). Gendered Embodiment. In: Risman, B., Froyum, C., Scarborough, W. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Gender. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76333-0_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76333-0_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76332-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76333-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)