Sensibility in the world of science and gendered society: the ethics and aesthetics of skin in The Skin I Live In

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the aesthetical and ethical representations of skin in Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In (2011). By emphasising the interconnectedness of the skin as an expressive interface mediating between the inner self and the material world, this paper examines how the image of skin extends beyond the visual aesthetics to engage viewers in a haptic sense. I argue that the haptic experience, when actively engaged, can transcend bodily suffering from unjust treatment, charging moving images with ethical consideration and envisioning alternative human bonds in a posthuman condition. By engaging with phenomenological concepts of flesh, intersubjectivity, and interobjectivity, this paper criticises the mistreatment of beings in the scientific field and the objectification of human bodies to sustain a gendered and patriarchal structure. Instead of solely attributing abusive and controlling masculinity and the oppression of women to the patriarchy, it is essential to go beyond traditional categories of male/female and masculinity/femininity and examine the modern systems that excessively alienate human beings. The paper proposes that an individual’s existence precedes social and political identification and advocates for a dynamic way to recognise and describe the process of becoming-body as it continuously undergoes qualitative changes through lived experiences.