Corollaries of Gendered Body Acts: A Theoretical Understanding

Abstract

The human body has only recently been recognized as an area of study within the realms of cultural studies. While the human body has a definitive biological foundation on which it works, it is invariably influenced by the cultural and social factors that shape its activities. Cultural studies consider these aspects of personhood that are created by the interdependent working of culture and societal hegemonies. In possessing a body of a certain age and gender, the respective human body is expected to behave in a certain manner. When these expectations are breached there is a sense of discomfort and amusement. The body has become a prominent arena of academic interest recently. These aspects were addressed by Foucauldian discourses, Feminist theories, and also the surging consumer culture. Gender is one of the most prominent types of categorization that works accordingly to culture. Cultural studies address gender as an exhaustive categorization and this classifiable organism is further categorized based on the cultural attributes of ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’. This paper seeks to explore how each of these categories governs the way these organisms act and behave.