Body as Site, Body as Space: Bodily Integrity and Women’s Empowerment in India
Abstract
The female body is a contested terrain the world over. Constructed differently in different contexts it remains a site where power is played out. Though the body is intensely ‘personal’ in that it rests in individuals, its manifestation is shaped by the same variables that influence social relations, genders, age, class and ethnicity. It is argued that the dichotomy between the woman’s body and the mind is a synthetic one and socially constructed. Most often women’s identification with their bodies and its physical manifestation results in suppression and denial of rights to emotional, mental, psychological and physical spaces. This demarcation into mutually exclusive categories of mind and body results in loss of ‘personhood’, loss of control and autonomy over their bodies and violation of bodily integrity. Women live in constant threat of violence; are discriminated against and exploited, are denied the right to spatial mobility, right to make informed choices over their bodies and sexuality.