Reinard 1 Kate Reinard Body Discourses Soheila Ghaussy February 22, 2023 Reading both Skeletons in the Closet and Amor Veneris, I found both chapters to be illuminating on the ways in which the female body has been historically constructed and deconstructed. The idea of the vagina as the inverted counterpart to the penis was an alien framework to me, as were the historical views on male versus female skeletons and their implications. However, throughout both readings, I was overly distracted by the intensity of the misogyny present throughout the histories they were recounting, and additionally by the feeling of abject hopelessness at the lack of progress towards women’s liberation from the historical biases and norms illustrated in both texts. For me, these readings were difficult to get through, and I will explain why. Whether I like it or not, as a female-presenting individual, I am treated as a woman, as a girl, often as an object. It is inescapable - it always has been and it feels like it always will be. I am a woman when I am catcalled at a rest stop on the New York freeway when I am 18, I am a woman when my high school teacher tells me I am too emotional for the class discussion when I am 16, and I am a woman when my male friends stop being my friends when they find out they can’t sleep with me when I am 20. I am not saying that to be a woman, one must feel pain or oppression, but rather I am asking for the space to talk about how I felt as I read Skeletons in the Closet, and for how I felt to be important in this class. Reinard 2 In Skeletons in the Closet, I was struck by the subjugation of women, from Aristotle calling women colder and weaker than men, to the examination of the female skeleton as a means of justifying women’s position as mothers in European society. I found myself horrified at the idea that defining women’s anatomy was just a means to an end - women must be mothers because they have wider pelvises, women can’t be scientists because they have smaller skulls and when women’s skulls are measured to be proportionally larger than men’s, it’s actually because they are childlike, as children have proportionally large heads as well. The woman as a sex object, having a narrow ribcage and a curvier spine, was especially poignant to me as someone who has internalized the male gaze, judged myself throughout my life - as someone who has stared at my body in the mirror and told myself my shoulders are too broad and my legs are too short. I have critiqued both inner and outer construction of my body, wishing for my skeleton to transform or for my skin to be clearer, and it was all reflected back at me as I read. It was saddening to me to be able to connect so intensely with a book about a history, and eye-opening for me to recognize that while we have come so far in women’s liberation, at the same time we have barely strayed from the frameworks and structures encountered in the 1600’s. I am reminded of Andrew Tate, the popular celebrity and alleged sex trafficker and rapist, saying women should “shut the fuck up, have kids, sit at home, be quiet and make coffee” as I read about how women were destined to be mothers because of their bone structure. I hope that talking about how I was able - or unable - to engage with the readings sheds some light on the state of misogyny today, or at least on my personal experience as a woman. I struggle with the inescapability of my identity often, and Skeletons in the Closet obviously struck a chord in me that I couldn’t ignore. It is hard for me to dismiss the way society deems me lesser-than, and as I finished the reading, my only thought was on the future. The woman Reinard 3 subjugated and defined as submissive, as childlike, as sexual object, as less intelligent, as weaker, as imperfect, and as inferior, is still occurring today, and it is ingrained within me, it is ingrained within my mother, and my grandmother, but I hope that it will not be ingrained within our daughters.
