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skumar's picture

Body

Submitted by skumar on Wed, 10/01/2008 - 7:11am.

Alex:

Psychologists Kessler and McKenna introduce an idea of cultural genitals. Pg 173: "Even if the genital is not present in a physical sense, it exists in a cultural sense if the person feels entitled to it and/or assumed to have it."

It seems that, here, Kessler and McKenna aim to essentially devalue the significance of a physical body, saying that we can "imagine" having a genital even if we are not biological born with it. In other words, an individual can have any genital, so long as she/he can imagine it. This reminds me of Descartes' idea of himself as a "thinking thing" and existing because of the thoughts in his mind. For Kessler- McKenna and Descartes, the importance of bodily appearances seems to temporarily ignored.

Thus, I am interested in knowing how you or how a trans-individual views the body? How important is your body to you? How important is your body in terms of identifying yourself/ not identifying yourself?

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