Feminism and the Biological Body [Paperback]

Lynda Birke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2000

Bodies may be currently fashionable in social and feminist theory, but their insides are not. Biological bodies always seem to drop out of debates about the body and its importance in Western culture. They are assumed to be fixed, their workings uninteresting or irrelevant to theory. Birke argues that these static views of biology do not serve feminist politics well. As a trained biologist, she uses ideas in anatomy and physiology to develop the feminist view that the biological body is socially and culturally constructed. She rejects the assumption that the body's functioning is somehow fixed and unchanging, claiming that biological science offers more than just a deterministic narrative of 'how nature works'. Feminism and the Biological Body puts biological science and feminist theory together and suggests that we need a politics which includes, rather than denies, our bodily flesh.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A fascinating and successful narrative which simultaneously embodies feminist theory and centers the female body within the discipline of biology. Effectively probes beneath the female body's well-theorised outer surfaces, to explore the cultural valency of its inner mechanisms. The effect of this 're-telling' of biological narratives effectively dismantles the gendered and often dualistic biomedical stories told about it. A fascinating and successful narrative which simultaneously embodies feminist theory and centers the female body within the discipline of biology. Effectively probes beneath the female body's well-theorised outer surfaces, to explore the cultural valency of its inner mechanisms. The effect of this 're-telling' of biological narratives effectively dismantles the gendered and often dualistic biomedical stories told about it. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover

What is a body? What are our perceptions of our inner body? How are these perceptions influenced? Thinking about the body has become highly fashionable, but the renew focus, while certainly welcome, seems to always end at the body's surface. Recent sociological and feminist theory has made important claims about the prowess of cultural inscription on the body, and about the cultural representation of the body, but the body that appears in this new theory seems to be, ironically, disembodied. If this newly theorized body has interioriy, it is one that is explained predominantly through psychoanalysis. The physiological processes inside the body remain a mystery to be explained, if at all, only in the esoteric language of biomedicine. As a trained biologist, Lynda Birke was frustrated by the gap between feminist cultural analysis and her won scientific background. In this book, she seeks to bridge the this gap by looking "inside" the body, using ideas in anatomy and physiology to develop the feminist view that the biological body is socially and culturally constructed. Birke rejects the assumption that the body's functioning is somehow fixed and unchanging, claiming that biological science offers more than just a deterministic narrative of how nature works. Feminism and the Biological Body puts biological science and feminist theory together and suggests that we need a new politics that includes , rather than denies, our bodily flesh.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813528232
• ISBN-13: 978-0813528236
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,256,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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