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Young And Feminine Comportment

Iris Marion Young- Feminine Comportment

The aim of this essay is to evaluate and discuss Iris Marion Young’s account of feminine comportment. Much of her essay is based on theories and ideas expressed in the work of Merleau-Ponty and so to evaluate Young, this essay shall briefly discuss the work of Merleau-Ponty. The essay shall then turn to the overview of Young’s essay. The evaluation of this argument shall be clearly and concisely encapsulated in a short conclusion.

The first point that Young concerns herself with is that Erwin Strauss in his study of body comportment takes but a moment to discuss why young girls have the ineffective throwing style that they do. Strauss finds no conclusion as to why young girls awkwardly throw a ball and so puts it down to an “effeminate essence or feminine attitude”. However attitudes are built through socialization as in the blank paper socialization view- that perhaps seems the most possible if not rational. What is apparent is that attitudes are learnt- not acquired so where would a five year old girl have learnt of her “feminine essence”? In her own words Young seeks to “…fill a gap that thus exists both in existential phenomenology and feminist theory.” (Young. 1990, p 145) Young seeks to find out how the body completes a definite task and this is done through combining the works of Merleau-Ponty and Beauvoir who both tackle and formulate different ideas concerning movement.

Awareness of body is inherent- our bodies have the ability to “learn” where we are in relation to space. With practice our bodies can act without cognitive thought, the things that we practice with thus become an extension of ourselves- as with an experienced typist that no longer needs to look at a computers keyboard, Merleau-Ponty likens this to his typewriter where a “motor space” opens under his hands and he is able to type without thinking about finding the letters. This can be noticed in sports too, for example when a squash player’s...