Context

“Throwing Like a Girl” was first presented in 1977, at a time when feminist theory was engaged with phenomenology and existentialism. Feminist theorists resisted the idea that men and women were the same and pushed for institutional and societal reform because of inherent patriarchal systems. The essay examines how norms shape the feminine movement and bodily comportment.

Author

Iris Marion Young (1949-2006) was an American political and feminist theorist. She was a professor at the University of Chicago, where she contributed significantly to contemporary political theory, feminist social theory, and public policy. Young’s work focused on issues of justice and social difference.

Summary

In “Throwing Like a Girl,” Young explores the differences in embodiment and performativity between genders. She argues that these differences are not rooted in biology but are socially constructed. Young describes how women often exhibit inhibited intentionality, ambiguous transcendence, and discontinuous unity in their movements, which reflect broader societal constraints on women’s bodies and actions. Patriarchal oppression influences women’s bodily functions, affects their being-in-the-world, and causes feminine motility. This work builds upon and criticizes The Upright Posture by Erwin W. Straus, The Phenomenology of Perception by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Inner, Outer Space: Reflections on Womanhood by Erik H. Erikson, and The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir.

Criticism

Young’s essay has been critiqued for its focus on binary gender distinctions, which some argue are non-inclusive towards non-binary and genderqueer individuals. Critics suggest that her analysis might not account fully for the experiences of those who do not fit neatly into the categories of “male” or “female”. Additionally, some have argued that her three modalities of feminine comportment are reductive or overly negative, emphasizing limitations rather than potential strengths.

I recommend this text because it is a seminal essay on embodied phenomenology from a gender perspective.