Social Body

The social body refers to the notion of how both before and after we are born, certain discourses and our outside environments place constraints in terms of our identities. This goes hand and hand with Butler’s idea that “there is no I before Identity” (Butler). In simpler terms, it refers to the idea that social categories will always shape our bodies and bodily desires. Our desires are constructed and informed by cultural understandings of the purposes of our bodies and are dependent upon their historical context(s) for meaning (Halperin). [Satveer]