“Gender“ in the Flesh—A Phenomenological Trail Hunt

Abstract

Feelings, sensations, and corporeal impulses often go unaccounted for in sociological (body) studies. However, they play a meaningful role for the individual’s practice in daily social life. Ulle Jäger attempts to rectify this neglect in her book by undertaking a trail hunt for useful terms and concepts from phenomenology and anthropology. Jäger’s explicit goal during the course of the search is to describe the body as on the one hand socially formed, but on the other hand not to set aside its materiality and, by extension, the bodily experience of the self. She fortifies the knowledge she has gained on her journey into vocabulary using the category of gender.