The language of the bodies

Authors

  • Ulla Bock ZE Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung an der Freien Universität Berlin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14766/5

Keywords:

Körper, Kommunikation, Kultur, Sozialisation, Sprache, Geschlecht, Gender

Abstract

What does gender mean? The author offers an answer against the theoretical background of ‘doing gender’, whereby gender is understood not as what we have or are but what we do. Mühlen Achs comes to the conclusion that we naturally have a gender but there are no natural categories of gender. She clearly shows that our bodies have a gender specific language, and how we symbolize and stabilizise existing hierarchies with our body language not only between men and women. In the second section of the book she uses an extensive range of pictures to illustrate her thesis. In the end she points out that we cannot avoid communicating gender. But if we become more sensitive to our body language we can at least counter traditional patterns of behaviour.

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Published

2000-07-01

Issue

No. 1 (2000): Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Entwicklungen, Tendenzen, Perspektiven

Section

Schwerpunkt

License

Copyright (c) 2000 Ulla Bock

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