ABSTRACT
How are gender and bodies related? This question is neither as straightforward, nor the answer as clear, as it seemed at the turn of the last century. Gyler (2010) says that “the central questions about the role of the body and mind in the construction of subjectivity remain unsolved” (p. 35), and comments that Birkstead-Breen (1993, 1996) was wise in her assertion that “there is no one-toone relationship between mind and body. Neither can the body be ignored (that is, anatomy both counts and does not count)” (p. 35). My own understanding is that gender is mostly flexible and subjective, while the sexed biological body is Janus-faced — a relatively stable and predictable entity in terms of development, and capable of being perceived objectively even as it is simultaneously perceived subjectively by the inner eye. To integrate gender and the body is therefore a very complex task, requiring reconciliations between inner and outer, objective and subjective, and ‘reality’ and psychic reality. The silence of women as they come across in case reports and on the published page about their bodies has not made this easier.
