Gender as style: phenomenology of sexual difference and gender performativity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62876/lr.vi46.6679Keywords:
institution, type, Beauvoir, Heinämaa, genealogyAbstract
This paper explores the phenomenological approach to sexual difference in Sara Heinämaa's (2003) interpretation of Simone de Beauvoir's work, whose main thesis consists in understanding sexual difference as a difference of style, a notion of Husserlian phenomenology taken up by Merleau-Ponty, which in this context refers to a shared way of relating to things and the world. Despite the richness of this approach, certain aspects related to the origin and reproduction of this style are not explicitly explored. This can be remedied, on the one hand, by attending to the difference between styles and types; and on the other, by recovering the close link between style and institution in Merleau-Ponty's work. This implies bringing our understanding of gender closer to a theory of performativity, understanding gender as instituted style.
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