Body Pedagogics, Transactional Identities and Human–Animal Relations

The sociology of the body developed as a reaction against Cartesian conceptions of homo clausus that haunted disciplinary thought in the late 20th century but exhibited anthropocentric tendencies in neglecting non-human animals. Building upon recent attempts to address this situation, I develop a transactional approach towards body pedagogics that explores how the shifting borders governing human–animal relations influence people’s embodied identities. Transactions between humans and (other) animals have been an historic constant across contrasting societies, but the patterning of these exchanges is framed by specific cultural body pedagogics. Focusing on the institutional means, characteristic experiences and corporeal outcomes of ‘civilising’ and ‘companionate’ human–animal body pedagogics, I explore the identity-shaping impact of these different modalities of inter-species inter-corporeality and demonstrate the sociological utility of this transactional approach.

Styling the Self: Clothing Practices, Personality Traits, and Body Image Among Israeli Women

Research has shown that women tend to use clothes to present or disguise their bodies and that clothing practices can be predicted by body image. This study explored the relationships between clothing practices, personality traits, and body image among Israeli women, using the Big Five personality traits model (NEO-FFI) and a body image measure (MBSRQ) to explore clothing styles and practices among Israeli women (N = 792, Mean age = 42.19). It found that women with are more openness to experience (OR = 1.8; IC 95%: 1.05–3.0), who seek fashion (OR = 2.05; IC 95%: 1.37–3.05) and individuality (OR = 3.96; IC 95%: 2.46–6.3) are more likely to exhibit a urban, sophisticated style of dress. These women are less motivated by comfort (OR = 0.49; IC 95%: 0.31–0.77) and camouflage (OR = 2.05; IC 95%: 1.37–3.05), that are associated with casual, minimalist style of dress. This study indicates that openness to experience may foster body-positive clothing practices. In this way, their choice of clothing can help women overcome objectification and cultural body-ideal pressures, promoting self-validation and mastery.

Bodily Changes: Castration as Cultural and Social Practice in the Space of the Forbidden City

This article examines the Chinese imperial body as “simultaneously part of nature and part of culture” and considers the interactions between the cultural body and physical body in sociological terms. The examination elaborates on the physical body as the manifestation of the demands of society mediated by cultural meanings. Bodily changes, such as castration, which Peng Liu argue is a trade between the physical body and cultural body in meeting the demands of Imperial Chinese society, affect the cultural embodiment of the body. This article examines the bodily actions of head eunuchs and how they interact with the emperor in the space of the Forbidden City during Imperial China. Eunuchs have undertaken an invasive physical operation to not only survive but thrive in imperial society. This reflects the constraints, struggles, and disciplining of the physically castrated and culturally embodied being.

Kerja Etnografi dan Imajinasi Sebagai Metode Penciptaan Teater Biografi Garam

Each of art creators has their own tendencies in producing their works. The choices of form and process are significantly influenced by their cultural and aesthetical experience. The objective is to obtain the originality of the ideas and to offer novelty among the development in the field of theatre todays. This writing is aimed to reveal the creative process of the producing of a theatre work entitled Biografi Garam (The Biography of Salt). Methodologically, this is a qualitative study to describe the method or the creative process. Ethnography and Estetika Paradoks are adopted to gain the structure of thoughts influencing the alternatives in constructing the performance aesthetic. The form of body theatre is chosen to obtain the natural structure of Madurese body as well as to release the identity to perform a free body. The creative process conducted through tubuh mengenal (the body knowing) and tubuh mengalami (the body experiencing) gives methodological experience on how the acts processed through natural body and situation becomes a theatre artwork. The background of Madurese people with all of the natural characteristics constructs the actor body so that a cultural body can be created on the stage. Ethnography and imagination process are the methods interrogating the body to become a theatre body performing Madura aesthetically to the stage. The form of a stage body is the construction result between the cultural Madura and the body execution in manifesting the ideas and imagination into an artwork that can be appreciated by the audience.

Edith Södergran’s Genderqueer Modernism

This essay reads Edith Södergran’s poetic subject in Dikter (Poems) (1916) as multiple and, in their complex negotiation and revision of the cultural body assigned female at birth, representative of a gender expansiveness that we can identify today as trans and genderqueer. These queer readings of Södergran’s poems seek to move away from traditional interpretations of her work while resisting the application of fixed meanings onto them. Locating potential manifestations, opposed to identifications, of trans expression can open up new possibilities for understanding the complexity of Södergran’s writing and how contemporary readers can consider their own positionality as they navigate and renegotiate their place in the queer worlds Södergran built. This essay argues that Edith Södergran’s avant-gardist world-building of materially and aesthetically genderqueer poetic subjects contributes to her own revolutionary brand of Finland-Swedish modernism.

Influence of exposure to high muscularity bodies on muscularity preferences and body satisfaction in young men.

The visual diet hypothesis suggests that exposure to a certain body type increases our preference for that type of body, and exposure to ideal bodies is proposed to lead to body dissatisfaction. Here we examined the effect of exposure to high/low muscularity bodies on muscularity preferences and, subsequently, on body satisfaction in men, as well as exploring how men’s pre-existing cognitions around their bodies might moderate susceptibility to these effects. Study 1 participants (80 women, 84 men) viewed high or low muscularity images of real and CGI male bodies and reported their preferences for pairs of bodies varying in muscularity before and after. They additionally completed the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire 4. Data replicated previous results showing that viewing low muscularity images reduces preferences for muscularity in participants. This was significantly moderated by SATAQ in men, such that those with higher internalisation of cultural body ideals (higher SATAQ scores) showed this effect more strongly. In Study 2, participants (81 Men) completed the same task, with the change that some viewed the CGI bodies, and some the real bodies, during the manipulation, and also completed the Drive for Muscularity Scale at pre-test and the Body Image States Scale at pre- and post-test. Results again showed that exposure to low muscularity bodies reduces muscularity preferences but there was no moderating effect of SATAQ or of drive for muscularity. There was also no impact of viewing the images on body satisfaction.

Co-evolution of Human Corporeality and the Technosphere: a Philosophical-Anthropological Discourse

This study reflects the development and transformation strategies of the anthropological situation in the context of technological progress. The change of the natural way of human existence to the technogenic method of communication leads to the formation of the image of «a virtual personality». The process of assimilation of natural and artificial takes place. Ethical alternatives of the human existence as a species within the Technosphere and the preservation of their humanistic imperative through the bodily projections of the personality are considered. Co-evolution of man and the Technosphere leads to a new way of their interaction and generates Technogenic Anthropology. The study of corporeality in various areas of human life is reflected in its ontological disclosure through the nominal classification: «biological body», «social body», «cultural body», and «virtual body». Plasticity is revealed as the main value and quality, which provides self-reflection in various forms of communication of modern man.

"The Patterns of Displacement”. From “I AM NOT FROM EAST OR WEST… MY PLACE IS PLACELESS" Series

“The Patterns of Displacement” from “I AM NOT FROM EAST OR WEST… MY PLACE IS PLACELESS" Series is an immersive social installation realized with the community of Arbat Refugee Camp, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Focusing on the plight of its youth, this ‘tent’ reveals the names of over 280 children whose identities are largely writ invisible, within a political landscape of ongoing international calamity. As an artwork of testimony, its nature (components in pieces that are put back together randomly each time it is displayed) is representative of a collective cultural body (refugees) with little control over their fate and mobility, reduced to a statistic. Rushdi Anwar reveals the dehumanizing reality of these people, his artwork a beacon of hope in increasing awareness of their fragile existence.