Gendered Bodies. Notes on Embodiment and Gender

Gendered bodies are increasingly important objects of sociological investigations. We have come to understand that bodies have histories, and their experiences vary across epochs and cultures, while social action is not simply a cognitive operation: it is situated in time and space, incarnated, and importantly codified through gender. Gender and embodiment are therefore two fundamental elements of contemporary sociological understanding of subjectivity. Gender in fact illuminates embodiment and helps us understand how society, through interaction, institutions and culture shapes the way we inhabit, feel, and manage our bodies. A perspective on gender can be particularly pregnant to understand the way embodiment takes place in daily life. In this paper I retrace some of the most fertile tracks in contemporary classics such as Goffman and Bourdieu for the sociological understanding of embodied subjectivity and hint at the way they have addressed gender as a fundamental dimension of embodiment. Gendered embodiment is revealed at the foundation of the gender differences which are commanded by the gender order, underscoring its relevance to understand today’s reality.