The Body is the Message: Cultural Stereotypes Around Invisible Femininity

Abstract

This paper reflects theoretically, from the perspective of the sociology of the body and cultural studies, on the cultural stereotypes surrounding iconographic femininity in the public space imaginary. According to these approaches, there is a discrepancy between the bodies of women subjected to violence, exclusion, and extermination, and the iconic women’s bodies, which are visible yet controlled by a new subjectivity. This subjectivity includes them in the imaginary of the public sphere but simultaneously depoliticizes them.

Female bodies are confronted with dispositifs of “intimate space” and “beauty” as conditions imposed by media stereotypes, which in turn challenge the possibility of their freedom. Women's struggle for freedom must involve abandoning the desire to embody the iconic image that markets, filled with exploiters, have imposed as a way to control female subjectivity.

Freedom is a political matter and involves reconfiguring public spaces. When women reclaim those spaces, we will approach a horizon of resistance that may, hopefully, foster new social interactions.