Even in the most simple body orientations of men and women as they sit, stand, and walk, one can observe a typical difference in body style and extension. Women are generally not as open with their bodies as men are in their gait and stride. Typically, the masculine stride is longer proportional to a man’s body than is the feminine to a woman’s. The man typically swings his arms in a more open and loose fashion than does a woman and typically has more up and down rhythm in his step. (Young, 1990: 145)
It is important to explode myths about the naturalness and fixity of sex differences (see Chapter 2), but this does not mean denying that bodies have any role in how gender is lived. This chapter is therefore an attempt to explain how sociologists, partly in response to the cultural turn, have tried to ‘bring the body back in’ to their understandings of gender. Sociological analysis of how bodies become gendered has focused on challenging essentialist approaches. Early second-wave feminism was extremely influential in providing insights into the social construction of women’s (and men’s) bodies as oppressed or resisting. In further exploring the ways in which the gendering of bodies is a social process, the importance of Foucault’s work is examined. Alternative approaches such as corporeal feminism and phenomenology are then critically assessed. Overall this chapter centres around debates about the strengths and limitations of emphasizing the social construction of bodies and considers the possibilities of thinking of the body as both a material and a symbolic entity.