Cultured Bodies

Question 1

What is cultural shaping?

Answer 1

• Developing and refining bodies in certain ways over others based on how we are socialised

Question 2

Name five features that distinguish humans as a species

Answer 2

1. Capacity for Binocular Vision
2. Audio-vocalic system
3. Bipedalism
4. Hands
5. Expressive capacity

Question 3

What is capacity for binocular vision?

Answer 3

Coordinator of senses
- Most social encounters begin with an appearance assessment of the other

As coordinator of senses:
- Allows awareness of body
- Capacity to scan and monitor areas of your own body

Question 4

What is the audio-vocalic system made up of and what is it coordinated by?

Answer 4

Comprises of:
- Ears
- Throat
- Mouth

Coordinated by the central nervous system

Question 5

What is bipedalism and its relation to the ability to see?

Answer 5

It is walking upright, which enhances the way our vision works

Question 6

What are human hands able to do?

Answer 6

With fingers and an opposing thumb, they are able to manipulate objects in a precise and coordinated way.

Question 7

What is the expressive capacity that humans have?

Answer 7

The ability for greater gestural complexity than other primates.

Examples:
- Human faces allowing for wide range of emotions
- Laughter
- Embodies gestures

Question 8

What does cultural studies emphasise about the body?

Answer 8

It is not just a material entity, biological datum or physiological fact a social construction.

Question 9

What is the ‘mind’?

Answer 9

Capacity for reasoned thought and reflection that is carried out by the brain but not reducible to it.

Question 10

Differentiate between the mind and the body:

Answer 10

Mind
- Private
- Inner
- Culture
- Reason

Body
- Public
- Outer
- Nature
- Passion

Question 11

Describe the body at its best and at its worst and state how it needs the mind.

Answer 11

At its best:
- It is the vehicle of the mind
At its worst:
- It is driven by desire and appetite

It needs the mind’s restraining influence, guidance and command

Question 12

How does the self differ from the body?

Answer 12

• It has the characteristic of being an object to itself

Question 13

What does the self’s ability of ‘being an object to itself’ mean?

Answer 13

We are able to:
1. Reflect on things we have done
2. Contemplate alternative scenarios
3. Choose between alternative lines of action

Question 14

Explain the relationship between nature and culture with the human body in terms of constructionism.

Answer 14

The human body straddles on the realms of nature and culture.

Question 15

Who created the concept ‘body techniques’ and how did they define it?

Answer 15

Marcel Mauss defined as the ways in which from society to society men know how to use their bodies.

Question 16

True or False:
Bodily actions are acquired skills that arise because we belong to specific cultural groups

Answer 16

True, as they are historically and culturally variable

Question 17

What traits did Iris Young identify in Western industrial societies regarding the conditions that shape women?

Answer 17

1. How women ‘hold’ themselves (comportment)
2. The manner which they move (motility)
3. Their relation to space (spatiality)

Question 18

How is the response by women towards the conditions faced in Western industrial societies different to men?

Answer 18

Behaviours of women are more limited and circumscribed than men.

Question 19

What is feminine comportment?

Answer 19

Movement that is characteristically defined as a failure to use the body’s full potential range of motion.

Question 20

What differences does Young make between men and women’s comportment?

Answer 20

How they:
1. Throw
2. Walk
3. Sit
4. Lean
5. Carry parcels (e.g.: books)

Question 21

What does Maurice Ponty say about the primary locus of human beings in the world?

Answer 21

The body orienting itself to its surroundings

Question 22

Define ‘interaction order’

Answer 22

It is a special set of understandings that are gathered by individuals when they are in the physical presence of one another.

As individuals we have a practical pressing need to acquire information about others:
- status and identity
- mood
- orientation towards us

Can be obtained verbally or non-verbally (facially expressions, tone, body language)

Question 23

Explain the concept of body idiom

Answer 23

Not so much a language but a standardised mode of expression that relies on non-verbal body language and presentation:
- dress
- movements
- sound level
- physical gestures

Question 24

What is ‘body gloss’?

Answer 24

Gestures that are broadcasted to anyone who witnesses them our attitude towards some real or potentially threatening act.

Question 25

Explain the phrase, "The personal is political".

Answer 25

Developed in feminist thought, the concept entails that personal experiences/private issues are often reflective of much broader power structures (i.e.: patriarchy, capitalism). This illustrates how our lives are influenced by these forces.

Question 26

What does the notion "all relationships and social interactions are political" mean?

Answer 26

Every social interaction that involves power dynamics.

Question 27

What does the statement "everything is matter of contested power relations" mean?

Answer 27

Social life is structured around ongoing power struggles as individuals and groups negotiate influence and authority. Highlights the depth of the tie between personal lives and political forces.

Question 28

What does Michel Foucault mean when he refers to the 'panopticon prison'?

Answer 28

He uses it as a metaphor to describe the process of normalisation and surveillance in regulating and 'disciplining' various aspects of our lives such as our bodies.

Question 29

Where do the potential dangers of BMI lie?

Answer 29

The societal normalisation and disciplinary practices by being the defining model of whether individuals are obese or healthy based on the score.

Question 30

What do disciplinary discourses do regarding the body?

Answer 30

They regulate how the body is represented, expressed and embodied in both everyday life and popular culture - especially in media

Question 31

What identities are female and male gendered individuals susceptible to embodying?

Answer 31

Female gender - hypersexualised identities Male gender - aggression and violence

Question 32

Differentiate between sex and gender

Answer 32

Sex are the biological differences that distinguishes individuals as male or female Gender are the culturally specific ways of thinking, acting and feeling

Question 33

Taking the definition of gender into consideration, what do the terms 'femininity' and 'masculinity' refer to?

Answer 33

They are gendered terms to refer to the ways of thinking, acting and feeling that are considered appropriate by society for female and males.

Question 34

According to Laura Mulvey, what is the male gaze?

Answer 34

It is the act of depicting women and the world, in the sphere of visual arts and in literature, from a masculine perspective that presents and represents women as objects for male pleasure.

Question 35

How does Judith Butler define gender?

Answer 35

She states that gender is stylised repetition of acts through time.