Masculine DominationMasculine domination is so anchored in our social practices and our unconscious that we hardly perceive it; it is so much in line with our expectations that we find it difficult to call into question. Pierre Bourdieu s analysis of Kabyle society provides instruments to help us understand the most concealed aspects of the relations between the sexes in our own societies, and to break the bonds of deceptive familiarity that tie us to our own tradition. Bourdieu analyzes masculine domination as a prime example of symbolic violence the kind of gentle, invisible, pervasive violence exercised through the everyday practices of social life. To understand this form of domination we must also analyze the social mechanisms and institutions family, school, church, and state that transform history into nature and eternalize the arbitrary. Only in this way can we open up the possibilities for a kind of political action that can put history in motion again by neutralizing the mechanisms that have naturalized and dehistoricized the relations between the sexes. This new book by Pierre Bourdieu which has been a bestseller in France will be essential reading for anyone concerned with questions of gender and sexuality and with the structures that shape our social, political, and personal lives. |
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activities agents androcentric Béarn biological biological reproduction body Bourdieu civil union cognitive constituted cultural differentiated dispositions division of labour domestic economy of symbolic effects embodied especially example exchange favour feminine feminist feminization gender habitus historical homosexuals honour Ibid illusio imposed inscribed institution Kabyle Kabylia legitimate lesbian libido linked Logic of Practice male and female manliness masculine domination movement natural negative objective opposition organized Paris particular perpetuation petite bourgeoisie phallus political position principle of division principles of vision production psychoanalysis Ramsay Recherche en Sciences rela relation of domination relationship representation reproduction rites ritual role schemes of perception Sciences Sociales sense sex organs sexes sexual division sexually differentiated social capital social construction social order social space societies strategies structures submission symbolic capital symbolic domination symbolic violence tend things tion tradition transformation unconscious University Virginia Woolf virility visible woman women Woolf words