ENGL 2Q99 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Vivek Shraya, Exoticism, Exchangeable Random Variables
19 Mar 2017
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The body: in western thought bodies have historically been distinct from minds; the mind is privileged ( i think, therefore i am ) and the province of men/rational beings, whereas bodies are denigrated and associated with women. Because women have been linked with the material world though their bodies, they have become objects, property, and valuable for their exchangeability among men. Because of their reproductive capacities, their pregnant bodies and monthly cycles, culture marks women as mysterious, taboo, or dangerous Thus societies assign them to the private sphere, denying them access to employment, education, and civic life. Such assumptions about unambiguous anatomical and physiological distinctions of sexual difference have grounded both historical and contemporary discussions of men" and women. ": race and class also determine the use of women"s bodies. One body is for leisure, decoration, and protection (the middle or upper-class woman"s body) and another is for labor and exploitation (the working-class/woman of colour"s body) (kolmar and.
