Embodying class, ‘race’ and gender Week 16 Embodiment & Feminist Theory

Recap Considered how feminist theory developed the division between sex and gender to expose and challenge the social construction of masculinity and femininity Considered bodies as sites of purity and pollution Considered how postmodernism has argued against any form of ‘natural’ body, but argues that the sexed body arises from discursive understandings

Outline Look at the interrelationships between embodied class, ‘race’ and gender Consider how femininity is a classed position (Skeggs) Consider how bodies become racialised (Ahmed)

Classifying Bodies? At the beginning of the module you all agreed that these pictures were of women in different social classes. Why?

Embodying Class Bourdieu argued that social class is not just an economic position or identity but becomes embodied –Economic capital money other assets –Cultural capital dispositions of mind and body, cultural goods, institutionalized state –Social capital through group membership/networks –Symbolic capital the legitimation of the above

Cultural capital and Habitus The embodied part of cultural capital is not genetic, but arises though the acquisition of one’s place in world though the family. Bourdieu uses the example of ‘taste’ in the acquisition of habitus So the food or cultural activities we enjoy are ones we were raised to consider enjoyable

Lacking in taste? But ‘taste’ is not just different but also often hierarchal –Dress/food/activities are all classed.

Classed Society GSMwZY&NR=1

Working-class femininity Skeggs has argued that the ideas of femininity are based on the norms of white middle-class women 19 th association between behaviour appearance and moral purity led to particular ideas about femininity Respectability became key marker

Working-class femininity Skeggs agues that working-class women are ‘aware’ of their generally devalued position They take steps to become ‘respectable’ through femininity –Occupations –Appearance

Working-class femininity Femininity can be the only cultural capital that they can use to improve their situation But their habitus marks them in such a way that its use may heighten their position as working-class

Working-class femininity Coleeen McLoughlin ‘Queen of Chavs’? Jade Goody ‘Essex Girl’

Working-class femininity To what extent to you agree that working- class women have devalued bodies?

Racialised bodies Ahmed has argued that the history of colonialism is key to understanding racialised bodies The subjugation of peoples from around the word was premised on the notion that their bodies were not the same as ours

Slaves and Servants Non-white bodies were positioned and investigated to prove their ‘lack’ –Compared to animals –In need of instruction like children Scientists investigated and ‘proved’ their position

Racialised bodies Science gradually disproved the idea of separate races But the markers of race continued to position some as the ‘other’ Non-white bodies continue to be positioned as different/dangerous

Pathologised bodies In 1991, Police officers in Los Angeles viciously beat motorist Rodney King. But the incident was caught on video.

Racialised vision Four officers were tried but found not guilty The jury agreed that the beaten man was a source of danger Butler argues that this is only possible because our field of visibility is racialised The jury identified the police as protecting them from the threat of the Black body

Pathologised Bodies Some racialised bodies become positioned as more deviant than others

Summary Bodies are always marked by social divisions, through both appearance and the physical body Skeggs argues that the habitus of working-class women leads to their devaluation Ahmed argues that the historical positioning as ‘others’ contributes to the racialisation of bodies today

Next week Continue to look at embodied social divisions Introduce the social model of disability Look at how gender impacts on the ageing body