Den handlande kroppen. Flickor, pojkar, idrott och subjektivitet

Abstract

With the aid of theorists such as Maurice Merleau- Ponty, Toril Moi and Gail Weiss, this article looks at the process where gender takes hold of the body and becomes the co-creator of children'ssubjectivity.Theaim is to understand children'sassertionsabout the body and in particular their assertions about the physical female body, which boys as well as girls belittle and to which they associate fear and weakness. Furthermore, the article pays attention to and problematizes how girls in particular, due to the experiences from their own gender impregnated living world and experiences, can have a more difficult time in utilizing the full capacity of their physical body. It is especially importantto note that gender often reflects different opinions and meanings of the physical body to a girl and to a boy. Merleau-Ponty's body phenomenology gives us the tool to understand how girls are able to develop an image of themselves as being worse at sport than boys, despite the fact that physiological research shows the opposite. It is obvious that opinions and experiences from our living world are of great importance. It is in the living world that one's own body gets to test its own potential and develops alternative ways of acting and it is here that the child embodies gender structures. Since this acting is often based on the physical activities that demand a certain measure of physical competence, women will embody other physical experiences than men. Already at the age of eight both girls and boys consider the female physical body as week and less competent. When this image of the female body is embodied as something normal, it will then be one of many obstacles in the equality work. It is important for those who have genderequality on their agenda, for gender theorists, researchers of masculinity and feminists, to establish more firmly the living and acting body.