Who Possesses “Possessed Women”? Women and Female Bodies as Territories for Male Interference

Abstract

Patriarchy dominates systems of knowledge across religion, popular culture and medicine, constructing gender and sexuality. It subordinates women through categories related to health and illness, goodness and evil. “Possessed women” condense the idea of order subversion through the disorder of the soul and the body. Men assume the position as the keepers of social order, reversing chaos to restore normalization in society which are related with female bodies and sexualization. The female body is a territory of male intervention in realms as diverse as religion, popular culture, arts and medicine. Changes in women’s bodies during the course of their lives maintain the same objectification, molding their characteristics to the male gaze. Women remain constructed “in reference to” men in a patriarchal order. We propose here the concept of “women in motion”, subverting female subordination and refuting the simplification of female experiences through dualist explanations of body and mind.