In contemporary society, women live a contradiction – they exist as a subject as well as an object. Drawing upon the works of de Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty, Iris Marion Young explores feminine embodiment in her works called “Throwing like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment, Motility, and Spatiality.”1 She combines the lived body theory of Merleau-Ponty and the theory of the situation of women expressed by Beauvoir to explore the modalities of feminine body experience. 2,3 By investigating the different ways men and women hold themselves and use their body, one can comprehend the root of the differences between the sexes. By exploring observations in daily life, such as throwing a ball, Young explores the reason for terms such …show more content…
She believes that the source of the situation that women find themselves in is due to conditioning by sexist oppression in contemporary society.19, 20 Young believes that women experience a certain existence defined by that which the patriarchal culture of contemporary society assigns us. Women are physically inhibited, confined, positioned, and objectified. The feminine lived body experience is not open, they experience an unambiguous transcendence and inhibited intentionality. Even in today’s society, I cannot deny how many times I have heard “that’s a boys game” or “you throw like a girl.” Girls are not encouraged to participate in sport to the same extent males are, we get little practice at developing spatial skills, and are not asked to perform physically demanding tasks. It is ideas and practices like this that have detrimental consequences for women. We are told “don’t get hurt… don’t get dirty… keep those clothes pristine.” I believe women have come to believe the fragility and immobility society has cast upon them, and by doing so is enabling her own inhibition. Young now explores the objectification of women or the objectified bodily existence, where woman views herself as a mere thing. Due to the threat of rape and objectification, women tend to live less openly, more protected and guarded.21 She lives her space as confined, only existing as a free subject in a small area which she projects. Women are victims of patriarchal objectification and Young stresses the need for women to resist and transcend this