28 The Body and Embodiment

Mind/body dualism is pervasive in western metaphysics. The idea is that the mind is the seat and driver of the self, and the body is just a fleshy machine, animated by the mind. In this way, the mind/body dichotomy is also the subject/object dichotomy. Dominant gender ideology aligns women with the body and the object, and men with the mind and the subject.

One consequence of this dualistic alignment is the denial of full personhood rights to women  and their subsequent objectification. Objectification is the degrading treatment of a person as an object. One of the major concerns of liberal feminism is the denial of full personhood to women both historically – such as not having the right to vote – as well as contemporarily. Women are frequently objectified in media, reduced to sexual objects for the gratification of men. When women are represented in media as objects for men’s sexual gratification, we can say that they are being framed by the so-called male gaze. Objectification of women is part of a broader social phenomenon called “rape culture,” or the normalization of sexual abuse and assault.

Another consequences of mind/body dualism is the alienation of ourselves from our bodies. While “the body” is an object that we “have,” feminists have drawn attention to the idea of “embodiment,” or the idea that we “are” a body. This is a unified understanding of the body, where the body has corporeal, subjective, and cultural significance. Social inequalities materialize in bodies, such that some bodies are seen to be more acceptable that others. For instance, fat bodies are especially denigrated in western society, a phenomenon called fatphobia. Bodies are not neutral flesh. Rather, they are political.

Objectification: the degrading treatment of a person as an object
Embodiment: a unified understanding of the body, where the body has corporeal, subjective, and cultural significance
Male gaze: the representation of women in media as objects for men’s sexual gratification
Corporeal: of or relating to the body
Fatphobia: denigration of fat bodies and discrimination against fat people
Rape culture: the normalizing and trivializing of sexual assault