The Seduction of the Female Body: Women’s Rights in Need of a New Body Politics PDF
Preview The Seduction of the Female Body: Women’s Rights in Need of a New Body Politics
The Seduction of the Female Body This page intentionally left blank The Seduction of the Female Body Women’s Rights in Need of a New Body Politics Eva De Clercq University of Pisa, Italy © Eva De Clercq 2013 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-03071-9 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-44057-3 ISBN 978-1-137-03072-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137030726 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 To Marco, for seducing me, time and again This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 1 Feminism: A Trouble Spot 7 2 The Adventures of the Body 46 3 The Problem of Human Vulnerability 76 4 Bodily Uniqueness and Symbolization 116 5 Contemporary Society and its Body Politics 150 Bibliography 172 Index 187 vii Acknowledgements You should see my favorite people, they are my army of fortune and they win every war. (Boy: Mutual friends, Army) The last pages of this book were written during the arrival of the h eatwave Charon in Florence. The ferryman of Hades was just the last barrier I had to overcome in order to reach an important milestone not only in my professional, but also in my personal life. In the same week, I became godmother of Jelena, the baby girl of one of my best friends in Belgium. If I look back, then I realize that in the critical moments of the writing process my friends were always there to s upport me. Special thanks go to Maria, Liesbet, Luca, Un Young, Elizabeth, Truus, Simona, Margarita, Viola, Nadia, Massimo, Steve, Donato, Rosy, Alberto, Angela, Katja, Sara, Melissa, Linde, Angelo, Michele, Dirk, Silvia, Claudia, Chandra, Rita, Tony, and Laura. Deep appreciation goes to my parents, Ingrid and Edmond, to my sister Sofie, to my aunt and uncle, Eugenie and Victor, and to my parents- in-law, Maria Assunta and Renato whose unconditional love always made my stubbornness outstrip my insecurity. I would like to thank the staff of the Institute Niels Stensen in Florence for their friendship, especially, P. E. Brovedani SJ, whose loving support turned Florence into my second home. Very special thanks go to Martin Moors for his contagious passion for philosophy and his affection. Sincere thanks also go to Adriano Fabris for his intellectual sharpness and for teaching me that the best way to get my work published is to submit it for publication. I am equally grateful to Rudi Visker for his constant inspiration. I am extremely thankful to Priyanka Gibbons, my editor at Palgrave Macmillan, for believing in this project and for supporting me in all the phases of its realization. Finally, I would like to thank Alberto Giammaruco, for his friendship and his beautiful gift: the cover image of this book. The Seduction of the Female Body is dedicated to Marco, for his patience and his love, but most of all for turning life into such a wonderful place. Florence, July 2012 viii Introduction The Seduction of the Female Body: Women’s Rights in Need of a New Body Politics. At first glance, it is a rather puzzling title. If the first part hints at a sensual book written by a young female scholar attempting to make ‘male’-stream philosophy sexy again, the second evokes the repetitious feminist claim that women are the victims of an oppressive patriarchal structure. However, this book is neither a feminist manifesto nor a cleverly marketed erotic novel lacking in substance. My aim is both more ambitious and provocative. While I do not wish to discount the importance of the political struggle to give women control over their bodies, the politics of rights is not my primary focus. The emphasis rather lies on the need of a new body politics, suggesting that a pure politics of rights, when mechanically applied, is not enough. The book’s provocative thesis is that women are more likely than men to let them- selves be seduced by symbolization and that this has something to do with the female body which is specifically vulnerable. Many people, both women and men, would contest my starting point. The stumbling block is not so much that I am preoccupied with the woman question; what is so worrying about my title is that it puts forward the concept of the female body, risking advancing an essentialist argument about the difference between women and men. Since I am not in search of a concealed, female essence in the body – which deter- mines what women are, how they act and think – why then insist on the notion of the female body in relation to women’s rights? Two distinct, but closely related, perplexities regarding the female body underlie this book. First, everyone would agree that, on the whole (aside from differences between cultures and historical periods), women’s bodies have been much more restricted by cultural frameworks than men’s. To overlook this difference is to remain blind to the many 1
The list of books you might like
