TY - JOUR
T1 - Women's bodies and the making of sex in seventeenth-century England
AU - Gowing, Laura
PY - 2012/8/23
Y1 - 2012/8/23
N2 - Histories of sexual difference have dated the invention of modern sex, with its binary opposition of male and female, to the eighteenth century: before then, following the models of classical medicine, sexual difference was contingent on humors and somewhat flexible. This piece argues that the social context of sexual difference modifies this narrative. In early modern England, the corporeal and social side of sex anchored female bodies firmly to their domestic, cultural, and economic context. The contingency of anatomical sex was offset by a rigid patriarchal landscape and a world of pervasive touch whereby women’s bodies were overseen by other women.
AB - Histories of sexual difference have dated the invention of modern sex, with its binary opposition of male and female, to the eighteenth century: before then, following the models of classical medicine, sexual difference was contingent on humors and somewhat flexible. This piece argues that the social context of sexual difference modifies this narrative. In early modern England, the corporeal and social side of sex anchored female bodies firmly to their domestic, cultural, and economic context. The contingency of anatomical sex was offset by a rigid patriarchal landscape and a world of pervasive touch whereby women’s bodies were overseen by other women.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84865149802&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/664469
DO - 10.1086/664469
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84865149802
SN - 0097-9740
VL - 37
SP - 813
EP - 822
JO - SIGNS
JF - SIGNS
IS - 4
ER -