Bodies are historically constructed objects, not fixed essences

Evidence

The error inherent in this question is that bodies both in fantasy and in reality themselves are historically constructed objects. Suffering and success shape the body as do hunger and affluence. The fantasy about the uniqueness of the “Jew’s Body,” however, postulates that the difference of the body reflects an essential difference in the mind or soul. What happens when such tropes are used, if only ironically, in contemporary multicultural literature? To ask with Audre Lorde, can such texts dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools? — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 730 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The body is a permanent structure of being, not a contingent addition. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 870; Woman is a historical situation, not an immutable essence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675; Structure is a historical stage of group self-making, not a timeless property. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 532 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Bodies are historically constructed, so bodily difference cannot index essential difference. #expands (0.93) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 730