Gendered Body Techniques:Kindergarten Toilet Practices
The concept of"body techniques"has significantly advanced Durkheim's theory and in-spired the sociology of the body to capture embodied experiences in contemporary society from a technical perspective.This article discusses several underdeveloped aspects of body technique theory.Based on the-oretical revisiting and an empirical study of children's toilet practices in kindergartens,three key findings emerge:Firstly,body techniques are not merely a"prereflective state";their acquisition involves a re-flective process.Individuals must undergo a reflective stage,overcome the guidance of social goals and knowledge embedded in these body techniques,and ultimately achieve a"post-reflective/de-reflective"state.The difficulties children face in acquiring toilet techniques,along with their frequent operational failures,show that there may be inherent conflicts among the goals of body techniques,and certain criti-cal aspects of body techniques cannot be fully acquired through external demonstration,observation,or training.Instead,they require internal coordination to be achieved through continuous trial,error,and adjustment.Secondly,as a daily embodied form of collective representation,body techniques serve not only as a condensation of collective emotions but also as an intermediary for their continuation and trans-mission.These techniques create specific mental states that are crucial for individuals to internalize and understand the social goals underlying body techniques.In the case of children's toilet training,teachers'supervision and their expressions of negative emotions play a pivotal role.Thirdly,the gendered logic of body techniques in kindergartens shows that while there are biological differences between sexes,the way these differences are expressed in specific social contexts is shaped by gendered body techniques.As col-lective representations of gender norms,these techniques enforce the use of physical differences in ways that conform to established gender norms within a given social context.
万方数据
