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Embodied Selves pp 101–118Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

This Body Which Is Not Mine: The Notion of the Habit Body, Prostitution and (Dis)embodiment

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Abstract

This chapter explores women’s accounts of prostitution in terms of the lived experience of the body. From life story narratives from women who entered prostitution from local authority care, and arts images created by a wide range of women in the sex industry, themes of estrangement and lack of ownership of the body emerge. Here this sense of (dis)embodiment is theoretically framed by feminist applications of Merleau-Ponty’s (1962) notion of the ‘habit body’. Tensions and contradictions are addressed where, following Bordo (1993) and Wesely (2002), women experience personal power in contexts of commodification and objectification.

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Authors
  1. Maddy Coy
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hull, UK

    Stella Gonzalez-Arnal , Gill Jagger  & Kathleen Lennon ,  & 

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© 2012 Maddy Coy

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Coy, M. (2012). This Body Which Is Not Mine: The Notion of the Habit Body, Prostitution and (Dis)embodiment. In: Gonzalez-Arnal, S., Jagger, G., Lennon, K. (eds) Embodied Selves. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283696_7

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