The female body functions as a metaphor for inferiority used to police male gender.

Evidence

Name calling using female body parts is just one way men use “insults” to “motivate” each other to get in line. In this sense the female body becomes a metaphor for an inferior being. Boys and men know very well that to be compared to a woman is a serious criticism meant to humiliate and degrade. Indeed, as we’ll develop further below, boys who do not live up to ideal standards of masculinity—those who exhibit any signs of femininity—are often the victims of tremendous violence in school and out. Boys learn to “do gender” by performing masculine domination in relation to or on the bodies of girls and weaker boys. Indeed, schools are sites where sexually charged violence is a taken-for-granted ritual of gender performance. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 785

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concrete instance of ‘doing gender’ and how a body becomes a metaphor within the value-hierarchy — teachable, vivid.
• XREF: connects to: Gender is constructed meaning assigned to sex, not given by biology — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 673; Women’s so-called inferiority complexes stem from real, objective restrictions — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1037; Forbidding girls spatial exploits instills a felt sense of inferiority — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 697

Broader Connections

• Women’s so-called inferiority complexes stem from real, objective restrictions #corroborates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1037
• Forbidding girls spatial exploits instills a felt sense of inferiority #expands (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 697