Feminine Body Research Articles

The masculinized feminine body: The body politics and the construction of female identity in Mohiniyattam

The article explores the sociocultural construction of aesthetic identities and the ways in which the dominant ideologies have perpetuated specific narratives of the development of Mohiniyattam. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of ‘episteme’ and Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, the study examines the femininity embodied in Mohiniyattam and argues that the dance form has been a tool for patriarchal ideologies, transmitted through generations of dancers manifested in their performance practice. The analysis extends to the contemporary scope of Mohiniyattam, questioning the rigid notion of femininity that has defined the dance form through erotic expressions of the dancer and exploring how innovative choreographies and performative interpretations can challenge such norms. The study uses oral histories and case studies to present a multifaceted view of Mohiniyattam’s historical evolution as a dance form. The revival of Mohiniyattam at different times reflects the dominant epistemes, marked by an embedded male gaze on the female dancing body. The performers’ own initiatives reframed the concept of femininity and its portrayal by exploring the potential of the trained dancing body.

We Write in Other People’s Blood: Troubling the Body Politics and Disability Representation of Yakuza 0

This paper takes Yakuza 0, a retrospective prequel and standalone entry to the Yakuza digital game franchise from Japan, as a case study for disabled feminine bodies vis-à-vis their male counterparts in game narratives. Of note is Makimura Makoto, a downtrodden Chinese-Japanese woman experiencing post-traumatic psychogenic blindness, who serves as the unwitting kingpin of the yakuza’s schemes. This paper posits that a reading of the game’s narrative (as supplemented by its gameplay mechanics) through the critical lens of disability studies offers a more affective and recuperative understanding of the game’s treatment of its marginalised characters. This paper first seeks to intervene in the game’s embodied and gendered power dynamics by attending to the body politics of its fictitious criminal underworld. Correspondingly, this paper troubles the game’s presentation of disability as a gendered performance, wherein feminine bodies disproportionately experience the material consequences and trauma of their disabilities, framed as pivotal narrative movements that spur the game’s male protagonists forward. Ultimately, this paper works towards a more empathetic reading of Yakuza 0 as a roadmap for how the franchise and digital games at large can address disability as a compounding, ever-evolving relational condition in addition to its physical and/or mental dimensions.

Afterword

Abstract In recent years, the portrayal of queer/LGBTQI+ existence as a foreign imposition, backed by western cultural hegemony, has gained currency in the Middle East and beyond. Worldwide, the demonization of queerness perpetuates hostility and violence. At the same time, the queer/LGBTQI+ and feminine body is becoming central to the functioning of capitalism and the nation-state at multiple levels. From economic arrangements to security policy, historically marginalized people are no longer only at the receiving end of violence and dispossession. Today, Kurdishness and queerness face comparable geopolitical contradictions that speak to the changing role of identity politics under neoliberalism and neo-colonialism in the age of mass communication. What interventions can Kurdish queer/LGBTQI+ studies make to retain their critical, emancipatory impetus a hundred years after Lausanne, amid global mechanisms of punishment and reward for the oppressed, under changing conditions for academia and identity politics, and in times of war and occupation?

Fragmented Bodies, Fractured Identities: Womanhood and Body Politics in Breasts and Eggs

This article employs feminist theory to explore the theme of fractured femininity in Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs. Through the three female characters in the novel, Kawakami highlights the scarring of womanhood in a contemporary, postmodern context. However, the concept of scarring follows Cixous’s metaphor in which literature becomes a liberating and transformative act that vindicates the wounding of womanhood through the imposition of repressive ideals. This is shown as each of these women comes to represent the resilience of women in the face of conventional definitions of femininity. Natsuko’s reluctant following of convention, Makiko’s pursuit of feminine body ideals, and Midoriko’s struggle with her biological self represent women's struggle to realize femininity in the 21st century. Ultimately, these women manage to sustain a level of empowerment by rejecting the socially constructed concept of femininity. Kawakami puts the concept of femininity to the test to prove that it is the result of nurture rather than nature, thus suggesting that constructing a feminine identity in a postmodern setting is much more complex than in theory.

CORPOS-MULHERES, CORPOS-FEMININOS

In this study, drawing on Pecheutian Discourse Analysis, we aim to analyze the processes of meaning production regarding women’s bodies and feminine bodies, with a specific focus on investigating counter-grammars. To accomplish this, we have selected six memes published on Instagram by Mona Ácida. From the Louvre Museum, like Mona Lisa, to the realm of cyberspace, like Mona Ácida, there are dynamic movements of meaning and meanings in motion that prompt us to reflect on the intricate relationship between discourses, bodies, and memes. Through our analysis, we demonstrate the functionality of serialized textuality, enriched with imagery. We posit that while the composition of memes comprises a network of memories that solidifies, regulates, and stabilizes meanings about the “same”, as an ideal(ized) body, resulting in effects of subjectification, silencing, and prohibition, it also provides space for the “new” elements that disrupt, destabilize, and challenge established meanings. We observe instances of resistance and confrontation, that counter the interpellation of the prevailing patriarchal ideology. Thus, the counter-grammars challenge normative and regulatory discourses surrounding women's bodies and feminine bodies.

Beauvoir and Lorde confront the honorary man trope: Toward a feminist theory of political resistance

Feminist historians of political resistance have drawn attention to the ‘honorary man’ tradition—the belief women resisters must overcome their feminine bodies and act like their male counterparts to be taken seriously in resistance movements. Yet they have not fully explored the resources of feminist theory to counter it. Building a bridge between history and theory, we address this gap by turning to the work of Simone de Beauvoir and Audre Lorde. We highlight their shared understanding that resistance is embodied and situated in social contexts shot through by oppressive gender, race, and class norms. We sketch out a view of feminist resistance that reveals that women resisters have novel possibilities for action, confront gendered vulnerabilities, and encounter difficult dilemmas that have no easy answers. Our paper deepens our understanding of the failures of the honorary man tradition, and it offers conceptual tools for scholars and activists to think beyond it.

Bodies to Reveal and Conceal: Baroque Dynamics of Obscenity (Heresy) and Modesty (Saintliness) in Feminine Bodies in the Peruvian Viceroyalty

Obscenity and modesty: at first glance, we recognise these terms a priori, as clear in their morality and limits. However, both concepts are ambiguous, porous, and paradoxical. Obscenity and modesty are complementary categories, and their definitions are circumstantial; that is, they depend on an interpretive framework as much as historical and textual context for substantiation. Using this brief reflection as a point of departure, the purpose of this work is to study the dynamics of the modest/obscene – framed by conceptualisations of saintliness and heresy – in the context of the Spanish colonies in America and using textualities associated with feminine spiritual devotion in the Peruvian Viceroyalty of the seventeenth century. To this end, two particularly resonant cases will be analysed: those of Saint Rose of Lima (1586–1617) and Ángela Carranza (1643–1694). This work’s hypothesis is that spiritual behaviours considered modest or obscene reveal themselves as paradoxical in the given context and that, despite initiatives by colonial powers to sustain the differences between the categories, many acts of feminine spiritual devotion become dislocated from their original modest context and intersect with elements of the obscene.

(Un)Mapping trajectories of fatness: a critical account of fat studies’ origin story and the reproduction of fat (white) normativity

Origin stories set the stage for the development of a field of study and are integral to the ways they grow and shift. Similar to other reclamation projects, fat studies aims to rewrite the history of ‘fat’ by subverting its violent use for surveillance and control, and positioning it as a natural human characteristic. Its origin story is inextricably linked to the activism and scholarship of white and white-passing women, and is often located in gendered expectations of the ‘appropriate’ feminine body. As a result, the racial origins and functionings of fatphobia become erased and create a normative fat subject that is typically cisgender, female and white, which is reproduced in much of the research emerging from the field. I, along with other fat activists and scholars, propose a fundamental shift towards an intersectional fat studies, with race as an entry point to analysis towards rewriting the field’s history and presence.

Red biases sex categorization of human bodies.

Color is associated with gender information (e.g., red-female). However, little has been known on the effect of color on sex recognition of human bodies. This study aimed to investigate whether the color red could influence the categorization of human bodies by sex, and the effect of contextual information. Visual stimuli were created using body silhouettes varying along the waist-to-hip ratio from female to male shapes. These stimuli were presented in conjunction with red, green, and gray colors, which were used either as body color (Experiment 1) or background color (Experiment 2). Participants were instructed to categorize the sex of the body stimuli as either male or female by pressing labeled keys. The results showed that when red was used as a body color, it induced a bias toward feminine body perception, while when used as a background color, it induced a bias toward masculine body perception. Thus, the color red influenced the sex categorization of human bodies, which being modulated by contextual information. These findings provided novel insights into the effect of contextual color cues in sex recognition of human bodies.

Sublingual Estradiol Offers No Apparent Advantage Over Combined Oral Estradiol and Cyproterone Acetate for Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy of Treatment-Naive Trans Women: Results of a Prospective Pilot Study.

Chronic gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) with sublingual estradiol (SLE) has not been studied. We aimed to compare GAHT with SLE only, to combined oral (CO) estradiol and cyproterone acetate, in treatment-naive trans women. Twenty-two trans women enrolled into either the CO arm or the SLE-only arm (0.5 mg four times daily) in this 6-month prospective study. Anthropometric and laboratory variables were collected at baseline and 3 and 6 months. At the study beginning and end, body composition was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and bioelectrical impedance, and gender dysphoria, sexual desire, and function were assessed by validated questionnaires. Subjects in the SLE were older, 26.3±5.8 years versus 20.1±2.3 years, p=0.006. All anthropometric, body composition, and laboratory variables were identical at baseline. Although dysphoria appeared greater, and sexual function lower at baseline in the CO group, this canceled out after age adjustment. Both treatments induced similar biochemical and hormonal changes. Creatinine, hemoglobin and cholesterol decreased significantly, while testosterone was suppressed to the same level in both groups: 3.22 [1.47-5.0] nmol/L in the SLE group and 2.41 [0.55-8.5] nmol/L in the CO, p=0.65. Significant changes in body composition toward a more feminine body were noted in both groups. Dysphoria did not significantly improve in either group, while sexual desire and function decreased at six months in both, p<0.001. Both treatments achieved similar clinical changes. At this stage, SLE, which repeatedly induces alarming excursions of serum estradiol throughout the day, appears to offer no advantage over the CO approach.

Narrating the Beauty Myth of Feminine Body Aesthetics in Classic Nepali Songs

This paper analyzes the most celebrated classic Nepali songs of all time – “Gaajalu Tee Thulaathulaa Aankhaa”, “Lolaaeka Tee Thulaa Timraa Dui Najarale”, “Timeelaai Ma Ke Bhanu”, and “Rhritu Harumaa Timee” – the former two songs are penned by M.B.B. Shah, the next one is by Dipak Jangam, and latter one is by Rajendra Rijal. These songs are sung by Gulam Ali, Narayan Gopal, and Arun Thapa respectively. This study aims to explore the mythical narratives of the mainstream feminine body aesthetics embedded in the songs – large and deep black eyes, long black eyebrows, long black blond hair, thin lips, delicate, white skin complexion, attractive, shy, and etc. – that are guided and constructed from the frame of the aesthetic standard that is set by mainstream patriarchal culture. The researcher has used the textual analysis method to analyze the selected texts. Roland Barthes’s concept of myth has been applied as a theoretical tool for the critical analysis of the selected songs to achieve the set objectives. As Barthes argues, myths are meta-language through which dominant and ruling power communicates its ideological standpoints and attempts to naturalize them. They function as a complex hierarchical semiotic register where the signifier transfers from first order referents of meaning to second order. As the songs are fabricated cultural products and myth narratives, they not only entertain the audience, but also innocently impose and disseminate the contingent ideas or ideologies that they carry. At the same time, they marginalize the feminine body aesthetics of minority groups who do not belong to the mainstream community. This study helps look critically at Nepali songs and any cultural products leading to rethinking and redefining the dominant body aesthetics and standardization.

AN INSIGHT INTO THE POSTCOLONIAL FEMINISM USING ABDULLAH’S SHORT STORY “ASHES TO ASHES AND DUST TO DUST”

Postcolonial feminism is a collection of numerous ideologies aimed at explaining, initiating and preserving social, economical, political and legal rights of women in post-colonial settings. Many literary figures have put down their minds on paper to elaborate the themes of postcolonial feminism; Shaila Abdullah is one of those writers who have painted the miseries of feminine bodies in postcolonial milieu. This study concentrates on one of the short stories of Shaila entitled “ashes to ashes and dust to dust”, to explore the notions of oppression, power, hegemony and patriarchy through gender lens. Under the light of postcolonial feminism, the paper examines the protagonist of the story, ‘Dhool’ and investigates the relations and interactions between opposite genders to analyze impact of patriarchal society on the lives of feminine segments of society. The analysis depicts that the instances of patriarchy are universalized in the text, which dominate the physical and psychological state of the genders, specifically females. Through the demonstration of the courageous opposition of the character Dhool against patriarchy, the writer symbolizes the traces of feminism among postcolonial women. However, the overall journey of Dhool in the story validates the prominence of male power which makes her identity and physical presence devalued as well as makes her appearance not more than an object for men to fulfill their desires.

Decision-making process for breast-conserving therapy from the perspective of women with breast cancer: A grounded theory study

PurposeTo explore the decision-making and coping processes of women with newly diagnosed breast cancer receiving breast-conserving therapy. MethodsThe grounded theory methodology approach was employed in this study. Purposive and theoretical sampling methods were used to enroll 27 women with stage I–III breast cancer. Individual interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide, and data were analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding. ResultsThe core category is “limitations of boundaries,” which includes three categories: feminine body boundary, emotional boundary, and knowledge boundary. Clusters, conflicts, and changeability were among the unique contextual conditions. The decision-making process became more challenging because of the differences between the levels of knowledge of physicians and patients receiving treatment information. Women's actions and interactions included information seeking, controlling, negotiating, and accepting nondecision-making support. The consequences of decisions included redecision and reoperation, and most women did not regret receiving breast-conserving therapy. ConclusionEven after choosing breast-conserving therapy, some women may experience changes in treatment procedures. Medical professionals should identify women's challenges and limitations during their decision-making process, explain the benefits and drawbacks of different surgical modalities, address concerns about the outcome of breast-conserving surgery, and provide intellectual and emotional support for decision-making.

Einblicke in den Streit zwischen Leib und Kopf – Eine Neuedition und Textanalyse von tTurin CGT 58004 (Cat. 6238)

Abstract This study of the Late Egyptian literary work, The Contendings between the Body and the Head, presents a new edition of the Turin writing tablet CGT 58004. Having visualised recent photos of the tablet with DStretch, a new transcription of the text can be presented, along with a new translation. A textual analysis, moreover, reveals the highly playful and metaphorical nature of the language, whereby the feminine body paints a vivid picture of her roles and responsibilities in order to challenge the primacy of the masculine head.

A Study on the Aesthetic Characteristics of Hetaira Beauty Style Expressed in Greek Pottery

This study studied the aesthetic characteristics of Hetaira's costume and beauty style expressed in pottery paintings of the Greek era as the contents of Greek mythology were recently re-examined as the subject of humanities interest. In ancient Greece, the common name for prostitutes was Hetaira, and she was a religious prostitute who was at the top of the list of prostitutes in Greek society, enjoying the wealth of freedom and status more than any other woman. The aesthetic characteristics of the Hetaira beauty style of the Greek era were largely shown as An ornament beauty, An ostentatious sensuality and symbolic beauty of power. First, An ornament beauty was the makeup of a Greek Hetaira woman, who emphasized her eyes with thick and dark black eyebrows and black eyeliner. The Hetaira woman's face was white with white lead, her eyes were emphasized with eyeshadow using black cowl, and she applied orange short yarn to her cheeks and mouth to put on intense color makeup. Hetara dyed her hair in all sorts of colors, decorated her hair with hairpieces, wore thin cloth ribbons and chest bands, and sprayed perfume made with special prescriptions. Second, ostentatious sensual beauty was applied to various sexual zones of the feminine body and the whole body, such as the nipple and buttocks, which can stimulate men's sexual pleasure, and Hetair's outfit was in the form of a full-body keyton or revealing the upper body. The hair was as voluminous as possible, and the method of dispersing the tarae on the forehead was used to make it look as sensual as possible. Curled hair with thick waves was naturally curled up and expressed sensibly using a signon shape and long hair. Third, the symbolic beauty of power is that ancient Greece's ‘privilege fashion’ was ‘nature’, a power that only men could have, but Hetaira had equal power with men in the symposium with nakedness. The hairstyle seems to have been able to wear a veil or a laurel crown, which is exclusively for men. In the form of a wig, he preferred a curling style with no forehead exposed, and it was found that he produced blade hair. Hetaira's style, represented in Greek pottery paintings, had hair, makeup, and fashion styles that represented the Greek era, possessed greater power and wealth than ordinary women in the Greek era, and was found to have the privilege of wearing heavy makeup, light hair colors and hair decorations that were not allowed by ordinary women. Therefore, it was found that it was very meaningful to study Hetaira's beauty style in studying the beauty culture of the Greek era.

‘I spend lots of time on my appearance’: unpacking Chinese academic women’s gendered subjectivities through the lens of bodily performance

ABSTRACT Through the use of photovoice interviews as a research method and drawing on Butler's performativity theory, this article investigates the performative constitution of the subjectivities of three academic women in Chinese non-elite universities by unpacking the multiple meanings of their aesthetic experiences. The study reveals that these women emphasized their bodily performance in the workplace, paying particular attention to their physical appearance, including dressing and using make-up, to explicitly perform their femininity. In this study, academic women’s gendered subjectivities are produced by repetitive performative feminine bodies under the control of wider regulatory forces in terms of gender norms and institutional discourses. Our findings suggest that gender norms of beauty in the Chinese context have a profound impact on the three Chinese academic women’s choice of dress and appearance management. We conclude that (i) femininity matters during the process of academic women’s gendered subjectivity construction in the Chinese academic context; and ii) multiple and sometimes contradictory wider regulatory forces within and beyond the academia shape Chinese academic women’s bodily performance and, therefore, produce academic women’s gendered subjectivities.

Practical, professional or patriarchal? An investigation into the socio-cultural impacts of gendered school sports uniform and the role uniform plays in shaping female experiences of school sport

ABSTRACT This paper reports the findings of a mixed-methods study which investigates the socio-cultural impacts of UK gendered school sport uniform and the role uniform plays in shaping female school sport experiences. Drawing on an extensive analytical survey with over 400 women of all-ages and 8 interviews with women aged 18–24, it explores how school sport uniform directly impacts female sporting experiences and participation in physical activity, and how uniform policy could be changed to promote greater female sport participation. Gendered school sport uniform continues to operate as a socio-spatial mechanism that names, frames and positions young people in heteronormative school sport spaces. This paper assesses how gendered school sport uniform contributes to the disciplining of the ‘ideal feminine body’ in schoolgirls and the construction of behavioural gender binaries in sport. The data reveal gendered sport uniform influences the development of a ‘fear of masculinisation’ in sport and common athletic-feminine identity tensions in teenage girls. The research finds gendered school sport uniform plays a major role in the high drop-out rates of teenage girls in school sport and offers practical insight into how policy could be changed to promote inclusivity, comfort and greater female sport participation. This paper proposes redesigning traditional gendered school sport policy to focus on ‘enabling’ participation has huge potential to transform female embodied and psychological experiences of school sport and increase school sport participation and enjoyment.

From aesthetic labour to affective labour: feminine beauty and body work as self-care in UK ‘lockdown’

This paper draws on qualitative survey and interview data with 72 participants focusing on feminine body and beauty work practices in the UK’s first Covid-19 ‘lockdown’ in 2020. The data suggest that the affective dimensions of beauty were intensified, accelerated, and expanded during this period. Feminine beauty and body work was deployed to produce desired affects: namely positivity, productivity, and the elimination of stress and anxiety. I argue, therefore, that beauty practices became oriented less around aesthetic labour – the work of improving and maintaining appearance – and more explicitly and substantially a project of affective labour – the deep feeling work of generating and maintaining a disposition that aligns with the needs of capital. Using the lens of affective labour provides insight into the way that the affective harms of the pandemic crisis were individualised and managed by feminine selves through practices of beauty and body work. Participants’ affective labour projects produced two interrelated sets of immaterial outcomes. First, they helped maintain a ‘market ready’ set of positive and productive dispositions that were particularly crucial for those subjects in heightened conditions of precarity, insecurity or isolation. Second, affective labour was key to the deeply gendered, racialised and classed moral formulation of the ‘good’ pandemic citizen who would, and could, follow the directive to ‘stay at home’ in order not only to care for themselves and others, but to use the ‘opportunity’ of lockdown to transform and improve the self.

Body image alteration in women with breast cancer: A concept analysis using an evolutionary method

ObjectiveWomen with breast cancer experience changes in body image, a key predictor of overall quality of life. Body image alteration has been recognized in scholarly circles and is actively being researched on; however, a comprehensive conceptualization of body image alteration from an oncological perspective is insufficient. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the concept of body image alteration in women within the context of breast cancer based on Rodgers’ evolutionary method. MethodsA literature search using a combination of the keywords “breast neoplasms” and “body image” was conducted via PubMed, CINAHL, EMbase, PsycInfo, KISS, and RISS. Peer-reviewed journal articles related to body image alteration in women with breast cancer, published from 2001 to 2020, were included in this study. ResultsThree critical attributes of body image alteration were identified: “dismantling the existing body image,” “transitioning to the altered body,” and “re-integrating a new body image.” Antecedents included “breast cancer and its treatment,” “awakening to the sociocultural norms of a feminine body,” and “triggering events for reflecting on one’s body.” The consequences were “psychological well-being or distress,” “strengthening or breakdown of intimate relationships,” “enhancement or impairment of social functioning,” and “adherence or resistance to breast cancer treatment.” ConclusionsThis study provides comprehensive conceptualizations that encompass individual, interpersonal, and sociocultural components and cover both negative and positive changes in body image from a long-term perspective. This may offer a useful framework that can be used to develop effective interventions for body image improvement and accelerate further research.

The Klinefelter Syndrome and Testicular Sperm Retrieval Outcomes

Klinefelter syndrome (KS), caused by the presence of an extra X chromosome, is the most prevalent chromosomal sexual anomaly, with an estimated incidence of 1:500/1000 per male live birth (karyotype 47,XXY). High stature, tiny testicles, small penis, gynecomastia, feminine body proportions and hair, visceral obesity, and testicular failure are all symptoms of KS. Endocrine (osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes), musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, autoimmune disorders, cancer, neurocognitive disabilities, and infertility are also outcomes of KS. Causal theories are discussed in addition to hormonal characteristics and testicular histology. The retrieval of spermatozoa from the testicles for subsequent use in assisted reproduction treatments is discussed in the final sections. Despite testicular atrophy, reproductive treatments allow excellent results, with rates of 40-60% of spermatozoa recovery, 60% of clinical pregnancy, and 50% of newborns. This is followed by a review on the predictive factors for successful sperm retrieval. The risks of passing on the genetic defect to children are also discussed. Although the risk is low (0.63%) when compared to the general population (0.5-1%), patients should be informed about embryo selection through pre-implantation genetic testing (avoids clinical termination of pregnancy). Finally, readers are directed to a number of reviews where they can enhance their understanding of comprehensive diagnosis, clinical care, and fertility preservation.