Feminisms Beyond the Body: A Feminist Theory of Disembodiment
Feminisms Beyond the Body: A Feminist Theory of Disembodiment

Summary/Abstract: The reason why feminisms have always liked the body is somewhat reactionary: it is rooted in Aristotle’s hylomorphism identifying the feminine principle with ugliness. Embracing this identification has become the locus classicus of feminist philosophy’s project to institute femininity as both embodied and rational. Two sources have inspired feminist theorists to reduce and then defend femininity as symptomatically embodied: Plotinus (Ennead III.6) and Luce Irigaray’s interpretation of the latter (Speculum of the Other Woman). Irigaray’s work in turn has become the locus classicus of feminist philosophy and its defense of femininity as otherness. I critique Irigaray’s reading as central to demystifying the reduction of femininity to embodiment, and identify feminist arguments about and from disembodiment to prove feminist theorizing should not be inherently anti disembodiment. I then show their relevance for developing a feminist theory of disembodiment, so that it can be extrapolated for a general theory of disembodiment, informed by such feminist arguments.

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