Rethinking the Female Body: A Phenomenological Account

Abstract

Throughout much of human history, the detachment of the mind from the body seems to be the conspicuous antagonism that permeates the Western philosophy. René Descarte's decisive premise « I think, therefore I am » usurped the body's role in rational thought, relegating it into a state where it has almost no relevance in philosophical discourse. As a result of this exclusion, women were seen as creatures of nature and emotion and therefore deterritorialized from the realm of the rational as their bodies are intrinsically associated with their identities which are much more likely to be marked by defectiveness. Because phenomenology is concerned with the lived experience of subjects, it serves as a major impetus for understanding subjective embodiment. In this vein, Maurice Merleau Ponty, a 20th century French philosopher, argues that the body is an essential agent in the world since it is the implied sine qua none for making any orientation when the subject perceives. In Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau Ponty dissects how embodiment is experienced by humans in a universal account assuming that the male body remains an asset of all types of embodiment. This paper juxtaposes Merleau Ponty and philosophy's deliberate omission of the female body. I claim that the superiority of the mind/reason over the body/emotion is used as a pretext to separate men and women. Drawing on Iris Marison Young's feminist phenomenology, I contend that Merleau Ponty's phenomenological account is so problematic since he merely reversed the binary while still maintaining the privileged status of the male subject. I call attention to the essential need to interrogate the sexual difference when addressing the issue of embodiment. Because bringing back the body to the philosophical interest seems to offer "an Archimedean point of stability” in a cultural condition where, according to Sarah Coakly, no "universal ‘grand narrative'” is plausible anymore, I reflect on the essential account of the liberating potential of the female body drawing on my moral convictions.