شمارۀ جدید فصلنامه (بهار 1405) منتشر شد
Volume 17, Issue 1 (4-2026)
Social Problems of Iran 2026, 17(1): 289-328 |
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Yazdaninasab M, Karimi Alavijeh N. (2026). How Power Shapes the Body? Embodiment of Single Girls’ Living in Tehran. Social Problems of Iran. 17(1), 289-328. doi:10.61882/jspi.17.1.289
URL: http://jspi.khu.ac.ir/article-1-3832-en.html
URL: http://jspi.khu.ac.ir/article-1-3832-en.html
1- Assistant Professor of Sociology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran , m_yazdani@sbu.ac.ir
2- PhD Student in Sociology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
2- PhD Student in Sociology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract: (853 Views)
The body can be considered as the field of exercise of all kinds of power, which is affected by cultural and social relations. In this article, we are going to identify the types of power exercises and mechanisms that shape the body. For this purpose, with the help of interpretive phenomenology approach, we have interviewed 25 single girls living in Tehran and studied their lived experience of body and embodiment. The results of the research indicate that the body structure of these girls is built under the influence of various types of power in three dimensions: a) clothing, b) Gesture, posture and behavior, and c) appearance and fitness. Types of power include formal norms, patriarchal culture, and the fashion and beauty industry. One of the mediators of these three types of power is the other's gaze. Also, the fundamental conflict of official norms, patriarchal culture and fashion and beauty appear in the lived experience and cause tension and conflict in the personality of the participants. In addition, the gaze has an unidentifiable facet that the subject does not necessarily have access to, and this facet doubles its annoyance. Therefore, the official norms, patriarchal culture, fashion and beauty act as omniscient gazes that are present every moment so that the subject cannot properly understand and interpret the expectations that are contradictory and conflicting in nature.
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
''Body'' or much better to say ''Embodiment'', is One of the most prominent topics in the contemporary critical sociology although its traces can also be found among some ancient philosophers' view. When spoken of embodiment, the opposite of the Body, it goes beyond the biological matter and becomes a social construct. Therefore, Body has been shaped and created by socio-historical process or forces. Now, we should ask which process or forces? There is verity answers based on different theoretical views. One of the most brilliant explanations is post structural definition of "Power". The most famous quote of Foucault "Power is everywhere" shows power is an ontological concept. This point of view provides possibility of rethinking about identity, subjectivity, agency and power arrangement, and makes it possible to answer the question: How power shapes the body?
Before answering the above question, we should clarify what is the "power?". "Power", obviously, has had a long history from ancient period to now. So, it has verity meanings. Digeser (1992) and Haugaard (2020,2021), fortunately, categorized all meanings in four faces or dimensions. In the first definition, Robert Dahl (1957) firstly theorized, power is one "thing" as a property which someone has and the other doesn't. In this dimension, power is completely negative and repressive as well as, two parts of power are aware of their interests. The second face, Bachrach and Barattes (1962) firstly formulized, is more about structural power. It refers to manipulation of procedure, or structural positions and formal rules give someone the potential of exercise power over others. Digeser named these two faces as "liberal faces of power" because all parts are aware of both, their interests and exercising power. The third aspect is related to whatever Steven Lukes named it as "radical dimension". In this face, one part manipulates the others, their identity. Haugaard believes this dimension is epistemological because it is related to the ways people think. Naturalization and internalization norms and rules are the main mechanisms. The fourth dimension, in Huggard's words, is ontological. It shapes peoples' identity and their all behaviors. These dimensions, in fact, are separated antically and in the real life are interrelated. In this article we evaluated the role of each aspect on shaping single girls' body.
Body, in this theorical framework, is completely the object of power as a socio-historical construct so named embodiment. The famous quote from de Beauvoir is clarifying: "A woman is not born, but made".
2. Methodology
"Hermeneutic phenomenology" is an appropriate method to describe how power shapes the body because we can find mechanisms based on lived experience. Twenty single girls who living in Tehran were selected by Purposive sampling. Six participants are university student, three participants are employed and two participants are student-employed. Family financial situation is assessed as poor or average. The level of their education is better than their parents. Participant's age is 23 to 35. Their socio-economic situation, therefore, is low. We interviewed with them around 30 to 90 minutes in second half of 1400. They narrate their lived experience in different situations including family, school, university, work place, and public spaces. Thematic analysis was used to extract meaning unites. The most important characteristic of participants is their contradiction dual life style: on the one hand, living with their family in the traditional environment with strong norms, and living as a single girl in Tehran which being unknown is its outstanding feature. Contradiction dual life is really important because as all participants mentioned, it causes to rethinking of their identity.
3. Findings
Lived experience of our sample distinguished in four dimensions of power. So, Embodiment under each dimension is recognized and analyzed. Narratives show participants' body are shaped with verity mechanisms. Their embodiment includes clothing, gestures, postures, behavior, appearance, and fitness.
In the first dimension, power exercises through command and prohibition of the "others" which are closed including family members and friends. Participants, in this situation, are aware of the exercising of power and encounter power with different ways: they accept the power, or feel powerlessness, or resist. The first two modes reproduce the first dimension, but resistance can delegitimate the power. In this case, this question maybe is asked that despite rejecting the power, how it shapes the body? For answering, it should be clarified that the power is rejected, transfer resistant subject to the contradictory discourse and through this, shapes the body.
The mechanisms in the second dimension are the same with the first one. We found, under this dimension, two types of narratives: forced formal clothing in official offices and institutions and facing moral police in public spaces. In these situations, power objects had to wear formal clothes. It is obvious if they don’t obey, they will be punished. Encountering second face of power, same as the first one, crates three different subjects: acceptance subject, powerlessness subject or resistance subject.
Although all dimensions of power are important to shape body, the third and forth faces are much more important. Third one's mechanisms are internalized norms and values and naturalization the status ego. In the narratives, we witnessed how some gender stereotypes were internalized in the participating girls. Stereotypes such as attributing certain behaviors such as walking slowly, speaking slowly, not laughing loudly, not lying down, the way of sitting, and certain moods such as sarcasm and femininity, and certain characteristics such as grooming, makeup, and a certain body shape were attributed to women and they were expected to follow these stereotypes. Power was exercised over and shaped the body, In the case of single girls living in Tehran, specifically through formal rules and norms, patriarchal culture, and the fashion and beauty industry. It is natural that these three types of power exercises are in conflict with each other in many cases (such as official norms with fashion and beauty or patriarchal culture with some aspects of official norms as well as fashion and beauty), but what was extracted from the lived experience of these girls is that these macro-structural conflicts emerge in the girls' experience; in such a way that their entire lives are mixed with these conflicts. The constant exposure of these girls to these contradictions has made their embodiment an increasingly fundamental issue for them. The “gaze of the other” alongside the “expectation of the other” were common aspects of these girls’ experiences regarding the “how” of exercising these three types of power. We saw that the "staring gaze of the other" and the "expectation of the other" had made it possible to internalize and naturalize gender stereotypes through "labeling," "rejection," and "judgment". All mechanisms we recognized, become fourth dimensions of power and created their whole identity as well as, define embodiment for them.
4. Conclusion
In this article, we attempted to show how different dimensions of power shape the body. To this end, we extracted the four dimensions of power from the lived experience of the participants and showed the mechanisms by which each dimension shapes the body. The results showed that part of the shaping of the body is conscious and the greater part is unconscious. What this article showed is that although the body at first glance seems to be a biological and individual thing, the reality is that the body is completely constructed in a socio-historical way.
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
''Body'' or much better to say ''Embodiment'', is One of the most prominent topics in the contemporary critical sociology although its traces can also be found among some ancient philosophers' view. When spoken of embodiment, the opposite of the Body, it goes beyond the biological matter and becomes a social construct. Therefore, Body has been shaped and created by socio-historical process or forces. Now, we should ask which process or forces? There is verity answers based on different theoretical views. One of the most brilliant explanations is post structural definition of "Power". The most famous quote of Foucault "Power is everywhere" shows power is an ontological concept. This point of view provides possibility of rethinking about identity, subjectivity, agency and power arrangement, and makes it possible to answer the question: How power shapes the body?
Before answering the above question, we should clarify what is the "power?". "Power", obviously, has had a long history from ancient period to now. So, it has verity meanings. Digeser (1992) and Haugaard (2020,2021), fortunately, categorized all meanings in four faces or dimensions. In the first definition, Robert Dahl (1957) firstly theorized, power is one "thing" as a property which someone has and the other doesn't. In this dimension, power is completely negative and repressive as well as, two parts of power are aware of their interests. The second face, Bachrach and Barattes (1962) firstly formulized, is more about structural power. It refers to manipulation of procedure, or structural positions and formal rules give someone the potential of exercise power over others. Digeser named these two faces as "liberal faces of power" because all parts are aware of both, their interests and exercising power. The third aspect is related to whatever Steven Lukes named it as "radical dimension". In this face, one part manipulates the others, their identity. Haugaard believes this dimension is epistemological because it is related to the ways people think. Naturalization and internalization norms and rules are the main mechanisms. The fourth dimension, in Huggard's words, is ontological. It shapes peoples' identity and their all behaviors. These dimensions, in fact, are separated antically and in the real life are interrelated. In this article we evaluated the role of each aspect on shaping single girls' body.
Body, in this theorical framework, is completely the object of power as a socio-historical construct so named embodiment. The famous quote from de Beauvoir is clarifying: "A woman is not born, but made".
2. Methodology
"Hermeneutic phenomenology" is an appropriate method to describe how power shapes the body because we can find mechanisms based on lived experience. Twenty single girls who living in Tehran were selected by Purposive sampling. Six participants are university student, three participants are employed and two participants are student-employed. Family financial situation is assessed as poor or average. The level of their education is better than their parents. Participant's age is 23 to 35. Their socio-economic situation, therefore, is low. We interviewed with them around 30 to 90 minutes in second half of 1400. They narrate their lived experience in different situations including family, school, university, work place, and public spaces. Thematic analysis was used to extract meaning unites. The most important characteristic of participants is their contradiction dual life style: on the one hand, living with their family in the traditional environment with strong norms, and living as a single girl in Tehran which being unknown is its outstanding feature. Contradiction dual life is really important because as all participants mentioned, it causes to rethinking of their identity.
3. Findings
Lived experience of our sample distinguished in four dimensions of power. So, Embodiment under each dimension is recognized and analyzed. Narratives show participants' body are shaped with verity mechanisms. Their embodiment includes clothing, gestures, postures, behavior, appearance, and fitness.
In the first dimension, power exercises through command and prohibition of the "others" which are closed including family members and friends. Participants, in this situation, are aware of the exercising of power and encounter power with different ways: they accept the power, or feel powerlessness, or resist. The first two modes reproduce the first dimension, but resistance can delegitimate the power. In this case, this question maybe is asked that despite rejecting the power, how it shapes the body? For answering, it should be clarified that the power is rejected, transfer resistant subject to the contradictory discourse and through this, shapes the body.
The mechanisms in the second dimension are the same with the first one. We found, under this dimension, two types of narratives: forced formal clothing in official offices and institutions and facing moral police in public spaces. In these situations, power objects had to wear formal clothes. It is obvious if they don’t obey, they will be punished. Encountering second face of power, same as the first one, crates three different subjects: acceptance subject, powerlessness subject or resistance subject.
Although all dimensions of power are important to shape body, the third and forth faces are much more important. Third one's mechanisms are internalized norms and values and naturalization the status ego. In the narratives, we witnessed how some gender stereotypes were internalized in the participating girls. Stereotypes such as attributing certain behaviors such as walking slowly, speaking slowly, not laughing loudly, not lying down, the way of sitting, and certain moods such as sarcasm and femininity, and certain characteristics such as grooming, makeup, and a certain body shape were attributed to women and they were expected to follow these stereotypes. Power was exercised over and shaped the body, In the case of single girls living in Tehran, specifically through formal rules and norms, patriarchal culture, and the fashion and beauty industry. It is natural that these three types of power exercises are in conflict with each other in many cases (such as official norms with fashion and beauty or patriarchal culture with some aspects of official norms as well as fashion and beauty), but what was extracted from the lived experience of these girls is that these macro-structural conflicts emerge in the girls' experience; in such a way that their entire lives are mixed with these conflicts. The constant exposure of these girls to these contradictions has made their embodiment an increasingly fundamental issue for them. The “gaze of the other” alongside the “expectation of the other” were common aspects of these girls’ experiences regarding the “how” of exercising these three types of power. We saw that the "staring gaze of the other" and the "expectation of the other" had made it possible to internalize and naturalize gender stereotypes through "labeling," "rejection," and "judgment". All mechanisms we recognized, become fourth dimensions of power and created their whole identity as well as, define embodiment for them.
4. Conclusion
In this article, we attempted to show how different dimensions of power shape the body. To this end, we extracted the four dimensions of power from the lived experience of the participants and showed the mechanisms by which each dimension shapes the body. The results showed that part of the shaping of the body is conscious and the greater part is unconscious. What this article showed is that although the body at first glance seems to be a biological and individual thing, the reality is that the body is completely constructed in a socio-historical way.
Type of Article: Original Research |
Subject:
Culture
Received: 2025/10/10 | Accepted: 2025/12/24 | Published: 2026/05/18
Received: 2025/10/10 | Accepted: 2025/12/24 | Published: 2026/05/18
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