ABSTRACT
Attention to the development of self-control exposes how much of bodily self-control develops prior to intellectual capacity for representing one’s action and is learnt in familial and social settings. Merleau-Ponty’s thesis of a non-representational motor intentionality that underlies our conscious deliberate actions can be understood as both primal in the adult as well as primary as it constitutes our earliest experiences. The interpersonal nature of development can often be missing from discussions such as the bike-riding example, which is a rather solitary event. Women consider how they appear to others even when the others who wait in judgment are not likely or potential sexual partners because looking competent for a woman is to look managed. Normalization works to minimize the relevance of the diversity of actual experiences into encouragements to repeat the pre-determined path. Samantha Murray argues that the autonomous liberal subject haunts the seemingly emancipating politics of such fat activism.
